James managed to catch up with him for a chat about life, the universe, and everything geeky.

Were kind of adding dates as we go, but on the whole its a three month tour.

And is it a straight reprisal of the first tour, or are there changes?

Its the whole basis of the Hitchhikers story.

So even people whove seen or downloaded the show can come back and theyll get a different experience.

So its important to keep it fresh on stage to keep people excited.

Oh, god yes.

That kind of cerebral but anarchic style.

Yeah, and just the idea feels quite Douglas Adams-y, too.

The idea of petty bureaucracy getting in the way of characters.

Yeah, it wasnt a thousand miles from the Kamikaze Pilots sketch.

It had the same element of futility.

Particularly for the Tertiary Phase.

there was a slight need of a Oujia board at times.

Im always the first to come down on myself.

So that was why I tried to use what was in there already, to find a way out.

I actually got that job because of [the documentary]Superman on Trial.

Pretty disastrously, as I recall.

So in a way, Superman got me into Light Ent.

And thats when I got the idea to start making radio sound like films.

I remember watchingTerminator 2, and I was listening to the sound design thinking Why cant we do this?

and they said, oh, its compression, its this, its that.

So even from the off I was trying to make radio that sounded really sexy and big and raw.

And were you already a fan of superheroes before then?

It was just something else.

Superman and Batman were great, but they were straight arrows.

and it was just such a funny line, I thought what is this!?

and of course, it was the world of Stan Lee.

So yeah, loved them all, but Ive got a very soft spot for Superman and Batman.

So I met John Landis and he was really supportive of the idea.

We didnt need the film to make the pictures.

Id love to do do Batman again, but set it in the forties.

Yeah, Batman in the forties.

Thatd be great fun.

Or even Superman in the thirties.

version was how it was seen, and that was never how we saw it.

Our Batman was Bob Sessions, a song and dance man, who had a wonderful voice.

A bit more like Kevin Conroy in the animated series, and the wonderful Arkham Asylum/Arkham City games.

I like Batman to sound human, not superhuman.

Yeah, I did that with Charles Cecil and Revolution, and it was great fun.

I forget how I came to it, I think Charles just looked me up.

Games are surprisingly hard, you know?

you gotta get five thousand different takes of people saying ow.

Theyll have to damp it down.

I told him wed get there and find them gaffer taping duvets to the walls.

And we walked in and that was exactly what they were doing!

So you go and do other projects like that, but then you always return to radio.

So what is it that brings you back to the medium?

Its the only one thatll pay me!

You cant do anything here!

I was right, but it sounded exactly the way I wanted to sound.

Then they wanted the Radio 1 stuff, which was sixty-five three-minute episodes done the same way.

Since were talking about process, then, how do you see yourself?

Primarily as a writer, or director, or do you see no separation?

Before I can direct, I like to write, because then Ive got a handle on it.

AndNeverwheremustve been pretty special, because had such a great cast as well.

Cumberbatch, McAvoy, Anthony Head, Bernard Cribbins…

Oh man, it was unbelievable.

Just the first name on each column said yes, it was absurd!

Was that always the one you were trying to adapt, or was there something else you wanted?

And then DC gradually froze over.

But Neil has so many great books that its sort of academic, you could pick anything.

Well hopefully do some more stuff.

You didnt have things like Kickstarter and iTunes, its changed a lot since then.

Even with that, the budget ran out long before the job did, for me.

Which is a wonderful thing, but in a way, it might put people off trying.

And they should try.

Even if you havent got actors, just record it yourself, using different voices.

And the customary last question: what are you working on at the moment?

And thats called Torus.

We hope to shoot a ten-minute taster for that in the new year.

Im excited to try working in a new medium, trying something Ive never seen before.

And you know, maybe itll be crap, but hopefully it wont be!

Dirk Maggs, thank you very much!