Douglas Adams's Guide to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy programme in the second series was so plagued by deadline problems that it almost didn't get broadcast, and the mind-boggling conditions they worked under to complete the job in time. These comments are intermixed with some clips from the radio programmes, including some highlights such as the destruction of the earth and Marvin telling everyone how depressed he is. The programme was written by Debbie Barham. The second tape runs 50 minutes and consists of Douglas Adams being interviewed by Iain Johnstone. Many topics are touched upon, often with surprising connections between them. Some of the topics discussed by Douglas
Phrases from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" "fits", the word Carroll used to name the chapters of "The Hunting of the Snark". There is the persistent tale that 42 is Adams' tribute to the indefatigable paperback book, and is the average number of lines on an average page of an average paperback. Another common guess is that 42 refers to the number of laws in cricket, a recurring theme of the books. Mathematicians found a question whose answer is 42: what is the largest (rational) number n such that there are positive integers "p", "q", "r" such that