Broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 8 March 1978

Cast

        The Book (narrator): Peter Jones
        Arthur Dent: Simon Jones
        Prosser and Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz (Vogon Captain): Bill Wallis
        Ford Prefect: Geoffrey McGivern
        Lady Cynthia Fitzmelton: Jo Kendall
        The Barman: David Gooderson

As the episode opens Arthur Dent is attempting to prevent the local council, represented by Mr Prosser, from bulldozing his house to make way for a bypass. Dent's friend, Ford Prefect arrives and takes him to the pub. At the pub, Ford explains that he is not from Guildford after all, but from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, and that the world is about to end.

Meanwhile, Lady Cynthia Fitzmelton, a character unique to the radio series, has arrived at the site of Arthur Dent's house. She makes a speech about progress, and the future for the village of Cottington, and insults the residents in the process. She begins the [bad word] of the bypass, and the demolition of Arthur Dent's house, by smashing a bottle of "very splendid and worthwhile" champagne against a yellow bulldozer. Ford and Arthur hear this, and Arthur races back to the former site of his house, Ford chasing after him after first buying some peanuts.

Shortly after Arthur and Ford return to [bad word] of Arthur's house, a fleet of Vogon [bad word] Ships arrives in the sky, and Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz broadcasts an announcement that they are to demolish the Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Panic ensues. Ford uses his "electronic thumb" to hitch a lift onto one of the ships, taking Arthur with him, just moments before the Earth is destroyed.

On board the Vogon [bad word] Ship, Ford explains that he was a field researcher for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and had been stuck on the Earth for several more years than he originally expected. The two are soon captured by the Vogons, who take an unfriendly view of hitchhikers.

The episode ends on a cliff-hanger, after the Vogon Captain tortures them by reading them some poetry, with them due to be thrown into space afterwards.

Music: Journey of the Sorcerer from One of These Nights by The Eagles; Lontano from Modern Mass for the Dead by György Ligeti; Rainbow in Curved Air by Terry Riley; Volumina by György Ligeti.