Dirk Maggs - Revision history

Dave williams2 at 10:45, 16 March 2026

2026-03-16T10:45:40Z

Dave williams2 at 17:32, 23 June 2025

2025-06-23T17:32:13Z

Dave williams2: /* Dirk Maggs on why Audio is so Good */

2025-06-21T20:43:48Z

‎Dirk Maggs on why Audio is so Good

Dave williams2: /* Dirk Maggs on why Audio is so Good */

2025-06-21T20:43:18Z

‎Dirk Maggs on why Audio is so Good

Dave williams2: /* Other Productions */

2025-06-21T20:42:43Z

‎Other Productions

Dave williams2 at 20:41, 21 June 2025

2025-06-21T20:41:28Z

Dave williams2 at 20:40, 21 June 2025

2025-06-21T20:40:02Z

Dave williams2 at 20:38, 21 June 2025

2025-06-21T20:38:14Z

Dave williams2 at 16:17, 21 June 2025

2025-06-21T16:17:56Z

Dave williams2 at 15:28, 15 June 2025

2025-06-15T15:28:38Z

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 [[category: Executive Producer]]
 [[category: Adapter]]
-[[category:Male Actor]]
+[[category: Male Actor]]

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 [[category: Production Crew]]
 [[category:Compiler]]
-[[category:Executive Producer]]
+[[category: Executive Producer]]
-[[category:Adapter]]
+[[category: Adapter]]
 [[category:Male Actor]]

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 In 2013 Maggs wrote, directed, and dramatized the radio play [[Neverwhere]], based on the television series Neverwhere by [[Neil Gaiman]].
 ''“You can do so much more in Audio, you can go anywhere. Use your imagination; go from the top of Everest to the depths of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific. Travel to new worlds. Go inside someone’s head… go inside and live in their head…  you can go microscopic…  you can go cosmic.
 ''''Good Radio Drama, Good Audio Drama, is ‘go and make a world’, go and paint a picture in sound, which makes the imagination create huge fascinating pictures… even huge fascinating pictures of tiny things.
 If it’s a man locked in a cell for twenty years, and you are just with him in that cell, you can still explore everything about the human condition, and you can do it with colour, and texture, and light.''''

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 == Dirk Maggs on why Audio is so Good ==
-Dirk Maggs was authoring a novel for children based on his 1998 BBC Radio 4 [[Audio Movie]], [[The Gemini Apes]]. He is scheduled to appear at Eastercon LX, the 60th British National Science Fiction Convention, in 2009, which he did.
+Dirk Maggs was authoring a novel for children based on his 1998 BBC Radio 4 [[Audio Movies]], [[The Gemini Apes]]. He is scheduled to appear at Eastercon LX, the 60th British National Science Fiction Convention, in 2009, which he did.
 In 2013 Maggs wrote, directed, and dramatized the radio play [[Neverwhere]], based on the television series Neverwhere by [[Neil Gaiman]].

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 Dirk Maggs's influence has spread to computer games. He is credited as Voice Director on the highly acclaimed adventure game, Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon featuring Rolf Saxon and Sarah Crook.
-In late 2005 Maggs set up a production company to create high quality audio drama in serialised form for delivery to personal digital players and cell phones. Following introductions by Robbie Stamp, Douglas Adams's business partner (and Executive Producer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film), [[Paul Weir]] (highly experienced in musical composition, sound design and software development) and Richard Adams (an expert consultant on interactive media) joined forces with Maggs.
+In late 2005 Maggs set up a production company to create high quality audio drama in serialised form for delivery to personal digital players and cell phones. Following introductions by Robbie Stamp, Douglas Adams's business partner (and Executive Producer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film), Paul Weir (highly experienced in musical composition, sound design and software development) and Richard Adams (an expert consultant on interactive media) joined forces with Maggs.
 Their intent was to launch a website dedicated to excellence in audio entertainment, Perfectly Normal Productions (the name is a gentle tribute to Douglas Adams). The plan was to produce and distribute innovative audio productions direct to "the many people who demand something more exciting from their earbuds".

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 From 2003 to 2005, Maggs produced new episodes of Douglas Adams' science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, adapted from the novels based on the original radio series that Adams wrote. The books that Maggs adapted were written after the radio series ended its original run.
-Maggs directed many leading actors in often award-winning productions, including Tom Hollander, [[Benedict Cumberbatch]], James McAvoy, Rowan Atkinson, Leslie Nielsen, Christian Slater, Stephen Fry, Jonathan Pryce, Hugh Laurie, [[Juliet Stevenson]], [[Jim Broadbent]], [[Patricia Hodge]], [[Alison Steadman]], [[Harry Secombe]] and [[Spike Milligan]].
+Maggs directed many leading actors in often award-winning productions, including Tom Hollander, [[Benedict Cumberbatch]], James McAvoy, Rowan Atkinson, Leslie Nielsen, Christian Slater, Stephen Fry, Jonathan Pryce, Hugh Laurie, [[Juliet Stevenson]], Jim Broadbent, [[Patricia Hodge]], [[Alison Steadman]], Harry Secombe and [[Spike Milligan]].
-He co-founded A Perfectly Normal Production Ltd with [[Paul Weir]] and [[Richard Adams]] to create compelling high-quality popular audio drama in serialized form for delivery to personal digital players and cell phones.
+He co-founded A Perfectly Normal Production Ltd with Paul Weir and Richard Adams to create compelling high-quality popular audio drama in serialized form for delivery to personal digital players and cell phones.
 == Biography ==

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 == Science Fiction Productions ==
-Early in his career Maggs became known for directing adaptations of comic book storylines. He started in 1988 with the 50th Anniversary Man of Steel Docudrama Superman on Trial, carried on with a 50th birthday tribute to the Dark Knight: Batman: The Lazarus Syndrome. This was followed by The Adventures Of Superman, Batman: Knightfall, The Amazing Spider-Man and his final BBC Radio superhero series, Judge Dredd in 1995. Along the way his production of Superman: Doomsday and Beyond ("Superman Lives" in the US) won the 1994 Audie Award for Best Dramatisation from the American Booksellers Association and Spoken Word Audio of The Year from Publishers Weekly.
+Early in his career Maggs became known for directing adaptations of comic book storylines. He started in 1988 with the 50th Anniversary Man of Steel Docudrama Superman on Trial, carried on with a 50th birthday tribute to the Dark Knight: Batman: The Lazarus Syndrome. This was followed by The Adventures of Superman, Batman: Knightfall, The Amazing Spider-Man and his final BBC Radio superhero series, Judge Dredd in 1995. Along the way his production of Superman: Doomsday and Beyond ("Superman Lives" in the US) won the 1994 Audie Award for Best Dramatisation from the American Booksellers Association and Spoken Word Audio of The Year from Publishers Weekly.
 In 2005 Time Warner audiobooks re-released Dirk Maggs's Batman: Knightfall and Superman Lives in the US, prompting a UK re-release by BBC Audiobooks.
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 [[category:Male Producer]]
 [[category:Male Director]]
-[[category:Chief Producer]]
+[[category: Chief Producer]]
-[[category:Production Crew]]
+[[category: Production Crew]]
 [[category:Compiler]]
 [[category:Executive Producer]]
 [[category:Adapter]]
 [[category:Male Actor]]

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 == Biography ==
-One of the plans for the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series was that it would sound like a rock album. It was the intention that it would feature much music and various sound-processing techniques during the course of telling the story. All this was decided before Douglas Adams actually got around to putting pen to paper and writing the thing.
+One of the plans for the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series was that it would sound like a rock album. It was the intention that it would feature much music and various sound-processing techniques during the course of telling the story. All this was decided before Douglas Adams got around to putting pen to paper and writing the thing.
 Dirk Maggs has a similar vision. Though he has produced many radio shows, he specialises in the creation of Audio Movies. He aims to create radio with the sense of impact and atmosphere available on the big screen.
@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 == Science Fiction Productions ==
-Early in his career Maggs became known for directing adaptations of comic book storylines. He started in 1988 with the 50th Anniversary Man Of Steel docudrama Superman on Trial, carried on with a 50th birthday tribute to the Dark Knight: Batman: The Lazarus Syndrome. This was followed by The Adventures Of Superman, Batman: Knightfall, The Amazing Spider-Man and his final BBC Radio superhero series, Judge Dredd in 1995. Along the way his production of Superman: Doomsday and Beyond ("Superman Lives" in the US) won the 1994 Audie Award for Best Dramatisation from the American Booksellers Association and Spoken Word Audio of The Year from Publishers Weekly.
+Early in his career Maggs became known for directing adaptations of comic book storylines. He started in 1988 with the 50th Anniversary Man of Steel Docudrama Superman on Trial, carried on with a 50th birthday tribute to the Dark Knight: Batman: The Lazarus Syndrome. This was followed by The Adventures Of Superman, Batman: Knightfall, The Amazing Spider-Man and his final BBC Radio superhero series, Judge Dredd in 1995. Along the way his production of Superman: Doomsday and Beyond ("Superman Lives" in the US) won the 1994 Audie Award for Best Dramatisation from the American Booksellers Association and Spoken Word Audio of The Year from Publishers Weekly.
 In 2005 Time Warner audiobooks re-released Dirk Maggs's Batman: Knightfall and Superman Lives in the US, prompting a UK re-release by BBC Audiobooks.
-In 1996, Maggs was contacted by 20th Century Fox and asked to create a British-based "parallel-quel" to their summer science fiction blockbuster Independence Day. The resulting programme, [[Independence Day UK]], took place in the same world, and at the same time as the film, but showed a British perspective on the alien invasion. This also won the 1996 Talkie Award for Best Production. The next year, with the blessing of director John Landis, Maggs produced and directed his own adaptation of [[An American Werewolf In London]] for BBC Radio One. For this he won the 1997 Talkie Award for Best TV/Film Adaptation.
+In 1996, Maggs was contacted by 20th Century Fox and asked to create a British-based "parallel-quel" to their summer science fiction blockbuster Independence Day. The resulting programme, [[Independence Day UK]], took place in the same world, and at the same time as the film, but showed a British perspective on the alien invasion. This also won the 1996 Talkie Award for Best Production. The next year, with the blessing of director John Landis, Maggs produced and directed his own adaptation of [[An American Werewolf in London]] for BBC Radio One. For this he won the 1997 Talkie Award for Best TV/Film Adaptation.
 In 1999 he produced a five-part adaptation of Stephen Baxter's alternative history novel [[Voyage]]. The premise is simple. When Apollo 11 reached the moon, JFK (having survived that day in Dallas) set a new target for the space programme: Mars. Voyage is the story of a space-race that never was but so easily might have been. Maggs's adaptation was presented on BBC Radio 4 and received 1999 Talkie Award for Best Use of Music as well as the 2000 Sony Radio Academy Bronze Award for Best Drama.
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 == Dirk Maggs Interviews ==
-This link should take you to copies of any written [[Dirk Maggs interviews]] that I come across, I keep a copy on my site, as it's amazing just how fast websites disappear......
+This link should take you to copies of any written [[Dirk Maggs interviews]] that I come across,
 '''([[David Williams]])'''

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 Dirk Maggs has a similar vision. Though he has produced many radio shows, he specialises in the creation of Audio Movies. He aims to create radio with the sense of impact and atmosphere available on the big screen.
-These visions are clearly compatible. They must be, as Maggs was Adams's preferred choice for the job of adapting, producing and directing the last three series concluding The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The programmes (produced with Above the Title Productions for [[BBC Radio 4]]) feature much of the original cast from the first two radio series. The first of these new series, adapted from the novel Life, the Universe and Everything, was The Tertiary Phase, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004, and the latter was a double series adaptation of the final two novels, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish and Mostly Harmless, The Quandary Phase and The Quintessential Phase, broadcast back-to-back in 2005.
+These visions are clearly compatible. They must be, as Maggs was Adams's preferred choice for the job of adapting, producing, and directing the last three series concluding The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The programmes (produced with Above the Title Productions for [[BBC Radio 4]]) feature much of the original cast from the first two radio series. The first of these new series, adapted from the novel Life, the Universe and Everything, was The Tertiary Phase, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004, and the latter was a double series adaptation of the final two novels, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish and Mostly Harmless, The Quandary Phase and The Quintessential Phase, broadcast back-to-back in 2005.
 == Comedy Productions ==
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 A similar effort needed to be undertaken for Goon Again in 2001. Produced for the 50th anniversary of The Goon Show, and with the blessing of Spike Milligan, it was a project Maggs had been planning since he recorded At Last The Go On Show, a documentary for the 40th anniversary of the Goons. Early on, Maggs realised that Goon Again would not work without Sir Harry Secombe's very distinctive voice. But Sir Harry declined to take part due to his failing health. Fortunately, his son [[Andrew Secombe]] was willing give it a go, and so the cast was arranged around him, with the sons of several other cast members getting involved too, creating, in the words of Maggs, "a genetically-engineered tribute band" to the Goons. The show won the 2002 Best Comedy Award from the Spoken Word Producers Association (now the Audio Publishers Association).
-Maggs directed the [[Johnny Vegas]] radio series [[Night Class]] in 2002. It was a darker comedy than Maggs's usual output. This show won the Bronze award in the Comedy category of the 2003 Sony Radio Academy Awards.
+Maggs directed the [[Johnny Vegas]] radio series [[Night Class]] in 2002. It was a darker comedy than Maggs's usual output. This show won the bronze award in the Comedy category of the 2003 Sony Radio Academy Awards.
 == Science Fiction Productions ==
@@ Line 48: / Line 48: @@
 == Dirk Maggs on why Audio is so Good ==
-Dirk Maggs was writing a novel for children based on his 1998 BBC Radio 4 [[Audio Movie]], [[The Gemini Apes]]. He is scheduled to appear at Eastercon LX, the 60th British National Science Fiction Convention, in 2009, which he did.
+Dirk Maggs was authoring a novel for children based on his 1998 BBC Radio 4 [[Audio Movie]], [[The Gemini Apes]]. He is scheduled to appear at Eastercon LX, the 60th British National Science Fiction Convention, in 2009, which he did.
-In 2013 Maggs wrote, directed and dramatized the radio play [[Neverwhere]], based on the television series Neverwhere by [[Neil Gaiman]].
+In 2013 Maggs wrote, directed, and dramatized the radio play [[Neverwhere]], based on the television series Neverwhere by [[Neil Gaiman]].
 ''“You can do so much more in Audio, you can go anywhere. Use your imagination; go from the top of Everest to the depths of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific. Travel to new worlds. Go inside someone’s head… go inside and live in their head…  you can go microscopic…  you can go cosmic.