<P> One of Adams's stated goals was to be experimental in the use of sound . Being a fan of Pink Floyd and the Beatles, and especially the experimental concept albums both bands produced in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Adams wanted the programme to have the feel of a "rock album...to convey the idea that you actually were on a spaceship or an alien planet--that sense of a huge aural landscape". </P> <P> The first series was therefore the first BBC radio comedy to use stereophonic techniques . Adams later said that before Hitchhiker's, stereo was deemed impossible for radio comedy and after it was made compulsory . Producer Geoffrey Perkins recalled that the technology available in 1978 for mixing sound effects at the BBC's Paris Theatre radio studio was limited . The production had one eight track tape recorder at their disposal and so many of the effects in the programme were mixed "live" with tape loops of background sound effects strung around the recording studio . Actors whose speech needed to be modified in post-production by Radiophonic technicians, such as Stephen Moore's performance as Marvin the Android, were recorded in isolation from the main "humanoid" characters . Allegedly, Moore recorded most of his performance in a cupboard and met the other actors only after the first session was complete . </P> <P> Sound and effects were created by Paddy Kingsland, Dick Mills and Harry Parker of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop . Several of the sound effects recorded by Dick Mills for the first series were released on the album BBC Sound Effects No. 26 - Sci - Fi Sound Effects . Other BBC staff members who worked on the first two radio series included Alick Hale - Munro (chief sound engineer) and Anne Ling (production secretary) and the "Technical Team" is given as: Paul Hawdon, Lisa Braun (studio manager), Colin Duff (studio manager), Eric Young, Martha Knight, Max Alcock and John Whitehall . </P> <P> The first radio series (first six episodes) was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March and April, 1978 . A seventh episode was broadcast on 24 December 1978 . This seventh episode was commonly known as the Christmas Episode . This had nothing to do with Christmas except in an early draft (which would have had Marvin the Paranoid Android as the "star" that was followed by the Three Wise Men); it was called the Christmas Episode because it was first broadcast on Christmas Eve . </P>

Bbc radio broadcast of hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy