Grab your towels: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy returns for 40th anniversary

The original cast will be reunited Credit: BBC

Previously unpublished work on the cult comedy classic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy will be heard for the first time next year.

The comedy is marking the the 40th anniversary of its radio debut and will will reunite the original radio cast.

The six-part series - called The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Hexagonal Phase - will be adapted from Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing..., which was commissioned by the Douglas Adams estate in 2009 to mark the 30th anniversary of the first novel.

It will also include unpublished Hitchhiker material by Douglas Adams, sourced from notebooks and writings preserved in the library at St John's College in Cambridge.

Simon Jones will reprise his role as protagonist Arthur Dent, as he continues to travel through space and time following the destruction of Earth.He will be joined by Geoff McGivern as Ford Prefect, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Sandra Dickinson as Trillian, as well as special guest stars including Jane Horrocks as Fenchurch.

Adams' friend, co-author and former flatmate John Lloyd will follow in thefootsteps of the late Peter Jones and William Franklyn, to step into the voiceof The Book.

He added: "Over the years, we've lost some great friends, and we still miss them, but we've also gained other valued colleagues, and for this trip across the Galaxy we have a tip-top team all ready to do justice to Douglas' unique and quixotic vision."

The first sneak peek of the new instalment will be offered at London Comic Con at the end of the month, where Radio 4 will host a panel for the show.

Douglas Adams

Hitchhikers Guide has become something of a phenomenon - now there's even an international Towel Day to celebrate the work of author Douglas Adams.

“A towel, [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.”

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Hexagonal Phase, will be broadcast in 2018.