Okay. I'll get the obvious out of the way first. "Wouldn't that fella playing Dirk make a really good Doctor Who?!" - There. Now we can move on to...
...Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, BBC Four's latest "zany adaptation". Not one for the fans, was it? But I bloody loved it.
If you're unaware of what the hell this is then I suggest you have a butchers' at this Wiki page. I'm not explaining. You should know what this is! The casting is near perfect (albeit not how you'd picture the characters on reading the book!) and the plot manages to balance high-camp comedy with intelligent, interconnected puzzle pieces. Yawn! You want to know if it's any good, don't you? Hmmm, thought so!
Short answer; yes. It's very good. More than worthy of a full series if you ask me. But maybe not just yet. The reintroduction of Sherlock Holmes (and the humour it brings) to modern TV audiences makes this feel like a bit of a cash-in. Which it really isn't. If Sherlock had never been made, this would quickly become the clever, funny detective series of the age.
That's not to say that I wouldn't welcome a run of Dirk Gently, on BBC Four, right now. Never has the mind-boggling combo of a missing, time-travelling cat, a maybe-cheating girlfriend, murderous pensioners, exploding warehouses and the most/least competent detective to hit our screens in ages! There's a space for this. I've watched it twice and enjoyed it twice. More please, BBC. Lets see where this can go!
All in all, if you're not familiar with Dirk, this adaptation is Sherlock with a hangover. An hour of chuckles, not belly-laughs, mean that the somewhat small story with a somewhat otherworldly conclusion rushes past and leaves you wanting more. I think I'll go and watch it again... It's not perfect, it's not really Dirk, but it's lovely nonetheless.
