Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is Returning to BBC

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is returning to BBC.

Back in December 2010, a single episode aired that served as a pilot for a potential series. It proved to be hugely popular, and now Stephen Mangan is reprising his role as Douglas Adams' holistic detective. Described as "perennially broke and morally dubious, Dirk's methods are based on the fundamental interconnectedness of all things."

Adams, who may be best known for his "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series of books, originally published his comic crime fantasy novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency in 1987. The plotline goes something like this: What do a dead cat, a computer whiz-kid, an Electric Monk who believes the world is pink, quantum mechanics, a Chronologist over 200 years old, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet), and pizza have in common? Apparently not much … until Dirk Gently, self-styled private investigator, sets out to prove the fundamental interconnectedness of all things by solving a mysterious murder, assisting a mysterious professor, unraveling a mysterious mystery, and eating a lot of pizza — not to mention saving the entire human race from extinction along the way … at no extra charge!

The character also appeared in the 1989 sequel, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.

Three new episodes for the BBC series are planned … or already filmed, it isn't clear to us which is the case. In Episode 1, Dirk discovers the connection between two unrelated cases: a client who believes the Pentagon is trying to kill him and another who's horoscopes appear to be coming true. In Episode 2, Dirk is called back to his old university to protect a valuable robot but within 24 hours it has been stolen and a dead body discovered, with Dirk and Richard Macduff (Darren Boyd) the prime suspect. In Episode 3, they are alarmed to discover that Dirk's old clients are being randomly murdered with Dirk as the only link. Rather than talk to the police, Dirk elects to leave the country but is waylaid by a series of seemingly unconnected events.

"Slipping back into Dirk's pointy shoes to renew my double act with Darren Boyd for three brand new episodes is, for me, about as good as it gets," says Stephen Mangan. "I wish I was Dirk."

The pilot has not been released on any media that we can find, nor has it aired here in the US on BBC America.

(Related article: BBC News.)