TV review: They should have called this show ‘Now That’s What I Call Man-Splaining’

The story is peppered with people who are smart rather than funny. Stephen Fry and Griff Rhys Jones pop up to move the story along. There is a lot of explaining why he was funny, followed by clips showing he wasn’t.

As Stephen Fry detailed how modems connected in the 1980s via a handshake (seriously), they showed a graphic of a handshake on the screen. This was halfway through the one-hour show and they still hadn’t put any meat on the bones of how Adams predicted the future.

Instead we’re stuck watching a parade of late middle-aged men telling us that Adams’ answer to the meaning of life (the number 42) was a hinge-point in modern culture.

And then, around 35 minutes in, it gets interesting, talking about his creation Marvin, a manically depressed robot, who is miserable because he has the brain the size of a planet. Marvin is funny and real and makes you wonder if ignorance is bliss.

That segment ends with Stephen Fry telling how ChatGPT works. They should have called the show ‘Now That’s What I Call Man-Splaining’.

There is little evidence here that Adams had a life outside of writing sci-fi comedy. He dropped dead at the gym in 2001.

The show ends with Adams delivering a riveting lecture on our abuse of the planet. It’s the first real glimpse of his intellectual prowess. I wish there had been more of that and less Stephen Fry.