Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Fandom
Name:	Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Abbreviation(s):	DGHDA, Dirk Gently
Creator:	Douglas Adams (novels)
Date(s):	1987 - 1988 (novels) 2006 (stage play) 2010 - 2012 (BBC4) 2015 - 2017 (comics) 2016 - 2017 (BBCA)
Medium:	books, television, theater
Country of Origin:	UK, US
External Links:
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Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, sometimes called simply Dirk Gently, is a multimedia mystery/sci-fi franchise centered on holistic detective Dirk Gently. Fan works usually center around the 2016 BBC America television show and/or the original book series.

History

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was written by Douglas Adams in 1987. Adams wrote a sequel the following year called The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. Additionally, before Adams passed, he wrote much of The Salmon of Doubt, which was intended to be the third book in the series. The book as it stood was published posthumously in 2002, a full year after Adams' death, rounded out with a collection of essays, interviews, and newspaper/magazine columns that Adams had written.

James Goss and Arvind Ethan David wrote a play based off of the first book in the series simply titled Dirk, which was first performed in its authorized form in 1995. In 2007, the play won it won "Best Adaptation" in the 28th LA Weekly Theater Awards.

In 2010, Howard Overman created an hour-long pilot for a television show adaption of the first book, titled Dirk Gently, which ran on BBC4. After positive reception, three more hour-long episodes were filmed in 2011 and released in 2012.

The comic book series Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency uses the Dirk character, but in new stories. It is IDW comic book series that ran from 2015-2017.

In 2016, BBC America called for the production of another Dirk Gently adaptation, this time an eight episode television series which used the first book's full title. Written by Max Landis and produced by Arvind Ethan David, the show starred Samuel Barnett as Dirk Gently, Elijah Wood as Todd Brotzman, and Jade Eshete as Farah Black. The show was renewed by BBC America for a second season, but was then cancelled.

In 2019, Arvind Ethan David posted to Twitter a one page comic of Dirk Gently and Todd Brotzman at Pride, in which the two characters kissed. The comic was originally made for Love is Love, but hadn't gotten published.

In 2021 at the Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture, a short called Socially Distanced Dirk was broadcast, featuring actors Samuel Barnett and Hannah Marks reprising their roles as Dirk Gently and Amanda Brotzman.

Fandom

Dirk Gently is a smaller fandom with 2.5k works on AO3 in the 2016 TV show tag as of May 2024. The fandom was at its peak in 2016-2017 when the BBC America show was at its height, but it is still active as of May 2024.

Shipping

In terms of shipping, the most popular ship is the slash pairing of Todd Brotzman/Dirk Gently, which has over 1.3k works on AO3 as of May 2024.

• Todd Brotzman/Dirk Gently
• Amanda Brotzman/Martin
• Farah Black/Tina Tevetino
• Silas Dengdamor/Panto Trost
• Farah Black/Amanda Brotzman

Fannish Events

• DGHDA Big Bang on tumblr runs events semi-annually in which fan artists, fic writers and beta readers come together to create works for Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency in its 2016 TV adaptation.

Fannish Links

• Dirk Gently (TV 2010) tag on AO3
• Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016) on AO3
• Dirk Gently - Douglas Adams on AO3