Dirk Gently
Encyclopedia
Dirk Gently is a fictional character created by Douglas Adams
and featured in the books Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
. He is portrayed as a pudgy man who normally wears a heavy old light brown suit, red checked shirt with a green striped tie, long leather coat, red hat and thick metal-rimmed spectacles. "Dirk Gently" is not the character's real name. It is noted early on in the first book that it is a pseudonym for "Svlad Cjelli". Dirk himself states that the name has a "Scottish dagger
feel" to it.
detective" who makes use of "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" to solve the whole crime, and find the whole person. This involves running up large expense accounts and then claiming that every item (such as needing to go to a tropical beach in the Bahamas for three weeks) was, due to this "interconnectedness," actually a vital part of the investigation. Challenged on this point in the first novel, he claims that he cannot be considered to have ripped anybody off, because none of his clients have paid him yet. His office is supposed to be located at 33a Peckender St. N1 London
, with telephone number 01-354 9112 (407-2882 in the advertising campaign for the book).
Gently is psychic, though he refuses to believe in such things, insisting that he merely has a "depressingly accurate knack for making wild assumptions". The depressing part is that he is seemingly unable to use this knack to win money on horses. As a student at Cambridge University (St. Cedd's College
) he attempted to acquire money by selling exam papers for the upcoming tests. His fellow undergraduates were convinced that he had produced the papers under hypnosis
, while he claimed he had simply studied previous papers and determined potential patterns in questions. However, when his papers turned out to be exactly the same as the real ones, to the very comma, he was arrested and sent to prison .
in a 1992 TV documentary on The South Bank Show
. Scot Burklin portrayed Dirk in the 2006 American premiere of the play Dirk at The Road Theatre Company in Los Angeles.
Harry Enfield
played the character in the 2007 and 2008 BBC Radio 4
adaptations of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
.
Stephen Mangan
, of Green Wing fame, portrayed Gently in a pilot episode for a proposed TV series called Dirk Gently
which was broadcast on BBC4 on 16 December 2010 and was subsequently commissioned for a series.
.
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
and featured in the books Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a humorous fantasy detective novel by Douglas Adams, first published in 1987. It is described by "the author" on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic".The book was followed by a sequel,...
and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul is a 1988 humorous fantasy detective novel by Douglas Adams. It is the second book by Adams featuring private detective Dirk Gently, the first being Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency....
. He is portrayed as a pudgy man who normally wears a heavy old light brown suit, red checked shirt with a green striped tie, long leather coat, red hat and thick metal-rimmed spectacles. "Dirk Gently" is not the character's real name. It is noted early on in the first book that it is a pseudonym for "Svlad Cjelli". Dirk himself states that the name has a "Scottish dagger
Dirk
A dirk is a short thrusting dagger, sometimes a cut-down sword blade mounted on a dagger hilt rather than a knife blade. It was historically used as a personal weapon for officers engaged in naval hand-to-hand combat during the Age of Sail.-Etymology:...
feel" to it.
Holistic detective
Dirk bills himself as a "holisticHolism
Holism is the idea that all the properties of a given system cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone...
detective" who makes use of "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" to solve the whole crime, and find the whole person. This involves running up large expense accounts and then claiming that every item (such as needing to go to a tropical beach in the Bahamas for three weeks) was, due to this "interconnectedness," actually a vital part of the investigation. Challenged on this point in the first novel, he claims that he cannot be considered to have ripped anybody off, because none of his clients have paid him yet. His office is supposed to be located at 33a Peckender St. N1 London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, with telephone number 01-354 9112 (407-2882 in the advertising campaign for the book).
Gently is psychic, though he refuses to believe in such things, insisting that he merely has a "depressingly accurate knack for making wild assumptions". The depressing part is that he is seemingly unable to use this knack to win money on horses. As a student at Cambridge University (St. Cedd's College
St. Cedd's College, Cambridge
St. Cedd's College is a fictional college, created by Douglas Adams, of Cambridge University.It appears in the Doctor Who serial Shada, and in the novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency....
) he attempted to acquire money by selling exam papers for the upcoming tests. His fellow undergraduates were convinced that he had produced the papers under hypnosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
, while he claimed he had simply studied previous papers and determined potential patterns in questions. However, when his papers turned out to be exactly the same as the real ones, to the very comma, he was arrested and sent to prison .
Portrayals
Dirk Gently was played by Michael BywaterMichael Bywater
Michael Bywater is a British writer and broadcaster.-Biography:He was educated at Nottingham High School, an independent school...
in a 1992 TV documentary on The South Bank Show
The South Bank Show
The South Bank Show was a television arts magazine show, originally made by London Weekend Television , presented by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast on ITV and seen in over 60 countries worldwide — including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States...
. Scot Burklin portrayed Dirk in the 2006 American premiere of the play Dirk at The Road Theatre Company in Los Angeles.
Harry Enfield
Harry Enfield
Henry Richard "Harry" Enfield is a BAFTA-winning English comedian, actor, writer and director.-Early life:...
played the character in the 2007 and 2008 BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
adaptations of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (radio serial)
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul is an Above the Title Productions radio adaptation, dramatised by Dirk Maggs and John Langdon of Douglas Adams's The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul...
.
Stephen Mangan
Stephen Mangan
Stephen Mangan is an English actor, best known for his roles as Guy Secretan in the television series Green Wing, Dan Moody in I'm Alan Partridge and as Holistic Detective Dirk Gently in the 2010 BBC adaptation of Douglas Adams' book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, as well as Sean Lincoln...
, of Green Wing fame, portrayed Gently in a pilot episode for a proposed TV series called Dirk Gently
Dirk Gently (TV series)
Dirk Gently is a 2010 television drama inspired by Douglas Adams's novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Broadcast by BBC Four on 16 December 2010 and repeated throughout the Christmas period, it was a pilot episode for a forthcoming television series based on the detective.In the...
which was broadcast on BBC4 on 16 December 2010 and was subsequently commissioned for a series.
Aborted third book
Douglas Adams was working on a third Dirk Gently novel, The Salmon of Doubt, at the time of his death. However Adams said "A lot of the stuff which was originally in The Salmon of Doubt really wasn't working", and that he had planned on "salvaging some of the ideas that I couldn't make work in a Dirk Gently framework and putting them in a Hitchhiker framework... and for old time's sake I may call it The Salmon of Doubt." The first ten chapters of this novel, assembled from various drafts following Adams' death, together with a memo suggesting further plot points, appear in The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last TimeThe Salmon of Doubt
The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time is a posthumous collection of previously published and unpublished material by Douglas Adams...
.