Pop Culture Roundup July 13, 2007

Here's the latest on the UK's Tintin hubbub:

The adventures of Tintin in the Congo will be moved from the children's shelves in Borders bookstores across the country and placed in the adult graphic novels section after the book was criticised for having allegedly racist content.

The Commission for Racial Equality said yesterday it was unacceptable for any shop to stock or sell the 1930s cartoon adventure of the Belgian boy journalist because of its crude racial stereotypes.


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BBC Radio, which--before the books, TV show and movie--first introduced the world to "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy," is putting another Douglas Adams creation on the air.

Douglas Adams's much loved detective, the enigmatic Dirk Gently, will be make his UK broadcast debut on BBC Radio 4 this October.

Featuring a star-studded cast with Harry Enfield in the lead role, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency will be produced by the same award-winning team that made the conclusion to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

Harry is joined by Lord of the Rings actor Billy Boyd, Fawlty Towers' Andrew Sachs, The Golden Compass' Jim Carter and Peepshow's Olivia Colman.

Dirk Gently has an unshakeable belief in the interconnectedness of all things but his Holistic Detective Agency's only success seems to be tracking down missing cats for old ladies. Then Dirk stumbles upon an old friend behaving bizarrely, and he is drawn into a 4 billion-year-old mystery that must be solved if the human race is to avoid immediate extinction.

This first series of six 30-minute episodes is adapted from the book of the same name and directed by Dirk Maggs, himself chosen by Douglas Adams to conclude the Hitchhikers saga.


Considered by many Adams fans to be as funny as, if darker than, Hitchhikers, the Dirk Gently novels reflect Douglas's unique and funny take on matters as wide-ranging as consciousness, conservation, man's place in the cosmos and crime. The first series features everything from quantum physics to missing cats, via Coleridge, Bach and an Electric Monk.

The series begins in October and will also have its own dedicated webpages on bbc.co.uk/radio4/dirkgently featuring trailers, photographs, production diaries, video and competitions. Programmes will also be available on Radio 4's listen again service.

Hopefully, the show will be available via the Beeb's streaming radio site.

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