Production on the second series was delayed several times. While Adams was meant to be working on scripts for a stage adaptation of "Hitchhiker's" in April 1979, he was also employed as Script Editor for "Doctor Who" and turned down an offer from John Lloyd to submit material for "Not the Nine O'Clock News". The recording on the first day scheduled for the second radio series, 19 May 1979, was left incomplete because Adams had not yet finished the script. Further scheduled recordings on 11 July and 1 August of that year were also cancelled, this time due in part to Adams trying to work on the LP re-recordings of the first series, as well as its novelisation.