Beware of the Leopard: the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy podcast Mark Steadman, Jon Bounds, Jon Hickman, Danny Smith

Despite ignoring the records...

I know you're supposed to review a podcast by talking about the podcast, but I'm going to review it by talking about myself. Feel free to skip to any of the other reviews.

There are three main reasons for my 5-star review of Beware of the Leopard. First, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was incredibly formative in my life. Listening as a 12 year-old in 1979, I became interested in the possibilities of radio (and, in fact, became a radio drama/comedy/scifi producer later in life) - and what I loved most about this series was how playful it was both with language and with the medium itself. So, I'm invested in the source material.

Second, I moved to Birmingham in my late 30s and fell in with a bunch of people whose incredible (and sometimes savage) wit, intelligence and kindness was matched only by the degree to which our interests in media, technology, popular culture and social justice overlapped. These are four of those people. This is a collective of brains I came to know at least to some extent, grew to admire hugely, and in many ways (though perhaps not all) aspired to be more like. I no longer live in the UK and one of the very few things I regret about my time there is that I didn't spend more of it getting to know each of these guys (and a few others in our joint circles) better than I did. So, I'm invested in the people making it.

And third, because I like to think I'm someone who supports things like this: stuff by your friends; brave creative endeavours by underdogs; things that seem like a good idea at the pub on a Friday night, but then on a Monday morning they only bloody well go and start putting in all the work and executing on it week after week where most people would have just let it go as too much like hard work. And because I like to think of myself as someone who supports those sorts of things, here I am.

Also - it's bloody good. Genuinely five stars good, where HHG so often wasn't. The podcast is consistently funnier than the material it's based on. It's also, in its own way, far more coherent.

And even though *not only* have they completely missed the critical fact that the 1979 BBC 'remake' version on vinyl - and not, as is usually maintained, the radio series - is far and away the best incarnation of the series - they haven't even *heard* it - I can overlook such a fatal flaw and regard this programme with nothing but fondness.

Fantastic work guys. Now go rate the MTF podcast.