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Dirk Gently (born Svlad Cjelli, also known as Dirk Cjelli) is a fictional character created by English writer
Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, humorist, and screenwriter, best known as the creator of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the ...
and featured in the books ''
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' is a humorous detective novel by English writer Douglas Adams, published in 1987. It is described by the author on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romanti ...
'', '' The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' and '' The Salmon of Doubt''. He is portrayed as a pudgy man who normally wears a heavy old light brown suit, red checked shirt with a green striped tie, long leather coat, red hat and thick metal-rimmed spectacles. "Dirk Gently" is not the character's real name. It is noted early on in the first book that it is a pseudonym for "Svlad Cjelli". Dirk himself states that the name has a " Scottish dagger feel" to it.


Holistic detective

Dirk bills himself as a "
holistic Holism is the interdisciplinary idea that systems possess properties as wholes apart from the properties of their component parts. Julian Tudor Hart (2010''The Political Economy of Health Care''pp.106, 258 The aphorism "The whole is greater than t ...
detective" who makes use of "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" to solve the whole crime, and find the whole person. This involves running up large expense accounts and then claiming that every item (such as needing to go to a tropical beach in the Bahamas for three weeks) was, as a consequence of this "fundamental interconnectedness", actually a vital part of the investigation. Challenged on this point in the first novel, he claims that he cannot be considered to have ripped anybody off, because none of his clients have ever paid him. His office is supposed to be located at 33a Peckender St. N1
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. As an investigator whose cases often take a paranormal twist, he challenges the notion that – as presented by
Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...
– "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth", as sometimes the impossible explanation makes more sense. To prove this, Dirk cites as an example an incident where a young girl is somehow reciting the stock market prices exactly as they change but twenty-four hours earlier. As Dirk describes it, it is ''impossible'' that the girl is getting those figures out of thin air, but the alternative implausible explanation is that the girl is masterminding a complex scheme with no obvious benefit to herself involving her somehow acquiring and memorising the prices without anyone seeing her. The idea that she just ''knows'' the prices suggests that something is happening that nobody knows about, but the concept of a complex conspiracy that doesn't benefit the girl in any way suggests a scenario contrary to what ''is'' known about typical human behavior. Dirk is psychic, though he refuses to believe in such things, insisting that he merely has a "depressingly accurate knack for making wild assumptions". The "depressing" part is that he is seemingly unable to use this knack to win money gambling on horse racing. As a student at
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
(St. Cedd's College) he attempted to acquire money by selling exam papers for the upcoming tests. His fellow undergraduates were convinced that he was psychic and had produced the papers under
hypnosis Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychological ...
, while he claimed he had simply studied previous papers and determined potential patterns in questions. When his papers turned out to be exactly the same as the real ones, to the very comma, he was expelled from the university and later sent to prison. Dirk goes on to solve a highly elaborate time travel murder mystery, and accidentally answers the age-old question of exactly who interrupted
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( ; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets with his friend William Wordsworth ...
while he was writing the poem ''
Kubla Khan "Kubla Khan: or A Vision in a Dream" () is a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, completed in 1797 and published in 1816. It is sometimes given the subtitles "A Vision in a Dream" and "A Fragment." According to Coleridge's preface to "Kub ...
''. Along the way Dirk stumbles onto a highly improbable horse in a bathroom, discovers who really composed all of Bach's music, and fails to find Schrödinger's elusive cat.


Novels

*''
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' is a humorous detective novel by English writer Douglas Adams, published in 1987. It is described by the author on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romanti ...
'' (1987) *'' The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' (1988) *'' The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time'' (2002) published posthumously, unfinished


Aborted third book

Douglas Adams was working on a third Dirk Gently novel, ''The Salmon of Doubt'', at the time of his death. However Adams said "A lot of the stuff which was originally in ''The Salmon of Doubt'' really wasn't working," and that he had planned on "salvaging some of the ideas that I couldn't make work in a ''Dirk Gently'' framework and putting them in a ''Hitchhiker'' framework... and for old time's sake I may call it ''The Salmon of Doubt''." The first ten chapters of this novel, assembled from various drafts following Adams' death, together with a memo suggesting further plot points, appear in '' The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time''.


Adaptations and portrayals

* '' The South Bank Show'' (1992) Dirk Gently was played by Michael Bywater in the TV documentary. * '' Dirk'' (2006) Scot Burklin portrayed Dirk in the 2006 American premiere of the play at The Road Theatre Company in Los Angeles. * ''
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' is a humorous detective novel by English writer Douglas Adams, published in 1987. It is described by the author on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romanti ...
'' (2007)
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
played by
Harry Enfield Henry Richard Enfield (born 30 May 1961) is an English comedian. He is known in particular for his television work, including '' Harry Enfield's Television Programme'', '' Harry Enfield & Chums'' and '' Harry & Paul'', across which he created ...
. * '' The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' (2008)
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
played by
Harry Enfield Henry Richard Enfield (born 30 May 1961) is an English comedian. He is known in particular for his television work, including '' Harry Enfield's Television Programme'', '' Harry Enfield & Chums'' and '' Harry & Paul'', across which he created ...
. * '' Dirk Gently'' (2010, 2012) starred
Stephen Mangan Stephen James Mangan (born 16 May 1968) is a British actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He has played Guy Secretan in '' Green Wing'', Dan Moody in '' I'm Alan Partridge'', Seán Lincoln in ''Episodes'', Bigwig in ''Watership Down'', Postma ...
in the title role in a TV pilot broadcast on BBC4 in late 2010 and subsequently for a series of three episodes, broadcast in early 2012. * '' Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (comic book series)'' IDW comic book series that uses the Dirk character, but in new stories. ** '' The Interconnectedness of All Kings'' five issues, ran between May and November 2015, with a collected book published in 2016. ** '' A Spoon too Short'' five issues, ran between February and June 2016, with a collected book published later that year. It featured input from some of the writing team that went on to work on the tv series. ** '' The Salmon of Doubt (comic book)'' nine issues, ran between October 2016 and July 2017, and re-published in two collected editions. Also served as a prequel to season one of the BBC America series. * ''
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' is a humorous detective novel by English writer Douglas Adams, published in 1987. It is described by the author on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romanti ...
'' (2016–17) In January 2016,
BBC America BBC America is an American basic cable network that is owned by AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary series). Unlike the BBC's ...
ordered the production of eight episodes for a new TV series written by Max Landis and starring Samuel Barnett as the titular character, along with
Elijah Wood Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. Wood made his film debut with a minor part in ''Back to the Future Part II'' (1989) at the age of eight and achieved recognition in the early 1990s as a child acto ...
as Todd and Hannah Marks as Amanda Brotzman, Todd’s sister.


References


External links


BBC Dirk Gently guideBBC4 Dirk Gently
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gently, Dirk Fictional private investigators Fictional paranormal investigators Speculative fiction detectives Science fiction book series Fantasy novel series Characters in fantasy literature Douglas Adams characters Characters in British novels of the 20th century Male characters in literature Male characters in television Literary characters introduced in 1987