Hitchhiking to the movies

I first heard of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in an apa, from a member who was an American temporarily living in Germany. She wrote of this fabulous SF show she'd been hearing on BBC radio, but gave no specifics. Then it got a Hugo nomination, very rare for a drama without visuals, but I still knew little of it until the Worldcon, which happened to be in Britain that year and to which I happened to go. One of the program items was a playing of the tapes, for the benefit of those who'd happened to miss it. (It still hadn't appeared in any other form: book or recording.) The person in charge had a set of off-the-air tapes. He played us the first episode. Then he asked us if we wanted to hear the second one. Loud affirmatives. I think we got through 3 or 4 episodes before running out of time.

( film spoilers follow )