The adaptation follows the original radio series in 1978 and 1980, the first novel and double LP, in 1979, and the stage shows, in 1979 and 1980, making it the fifth iteration of the guide.

The series stars Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, David Dixon as Ford Prefect, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Sandra Dickinson as Trillian and Stephen Moore as the voice of Marvin.

While there was some resistance to a project considered "unfilmable," Alan J. W. Bell was given the duties to produce and direct the television adaptation.

Rod Lord of Pearce Animation Studios directed a 50-second pilot, hand-animated, giving a 'computer graphic' feel to the Babel Fish speech of the first episode.

Notably, Simon Jones' hair was cut short for another role and he wears a noticeable hairpiece in later episodes.

The UK videotape release was on two cassettes, each consisting of three episodes edited to run together and also adding some previously unseen material.

Another production problem was that, being a visual adaptation, a solution had to be found to display Zaphod's three arms and two heads, a joke originally written for radio.

In a previous stage adaptation, a version of a pantomime horse was used, where two actors filled one costume, providing three arms and two heads between them.

For this television series, a radio-controlled animatronic head was designed and built, incorporating twelve servo motors and two receivers.

He reprised the Vogon guard part in the 1992 Making of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy television documentary, voiced the Babel fish, appeared in the 1994 photo illustrated edition of the book (as Prosser), and returned a third time as a Vogon guard for the BBC Radio 4 Quandary Phase.

Locations for filming included a clay pit and the former Par-Fowey railway tunnel in Cornwall, the Edmonds Farm and Red Lion pub in Haywards Heath, Sussex, the Budgemoor Golf & Country Club near Henley-on-Thames, and at Dovestones in the Peak District National Park.

Episode three was originally scripted to have a "pre-credits sequence" where Trillian announces their arrival at "the most improbable planet that ever existed", Magrathea, to Zaphod.

Adams got into disputes with the BBC (accounts differ: problems with budget, scripts, and having Alan Bell or Geoffrey Perkins involved were all offered as causes), and the second series was never made.

For the documentary, Davies used many photographs and home movies he shot during the 1980 production of the series and recorded new interviews in October 1992 with the cast and crew.

New footage of Simon Jones, David Dixon and Michael Cule, in character, were shot at the farm in Sussex used as Arthur Dent's house, and incorporated into the documentary with some references to So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, such as Arthur finding his home intact, and placing his (animated) Babel fish into a goldfish bowl.

[8] Neil Gaiman reveals in the first edition of his biography of Douglas Adams, Don't Panic, that the BBC was preparing a Laserdisc release of the Hitchhiker's television series in the mid-1980s, but had to cancel the project due to a legal tangle with the movie rights, although master tapes for the Laserdiscs were prepared.

The sound was specially remixed in stereo and Elektra/Asylum records agreed to license the original Eagles theme music.

Restoration of the six episodes and the Making of documentary commenced in 2001, with a Region 2 and 4 DVD release in the United Kingdom by BBC Video (Catalogue Number BBCDVD 1092) in January 2002.

The set featured upscaled HD versions of the original episodes alongside optional stereo or 5.1 surround sound mixes remastered by Mark Ayres, formerly of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.