The fans have been secretly waiting, towels and dressing gowns at the ready, itching to be dusted off and brought back for The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy revival. And now it’s here. Katherine MacAlister talks to Simon Jones about Douglas Adams, space, and of course the inimitable Arthur Dent It was quite like an episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide when I spoke to Simon Jones; muffled voices, high winds, a tram and a new hotel room, all transpiring against us, but we managed to get some basic facts across in the end, before he departed for faraway lands.

Just long enough for him to voice his irritation about the ‘new generation’ of fans question. “I do get quite cross when people tell me they haven’t seen Hitchhiker’s Guide but their grandfathers loved it, “ Simon told me pointedly. “I mean how old do they think I am exactly?”

For those of you who still have no idea what I’m talking about, Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy was a radio show, a book, a TV series and then a film, that went global in the 70s. The spoof sci-fi was massive and in it Simon plays Arthur Dent, an unlikely hero at best, who’s always chasing aliens away in his dressing gown while drinking tea.

Apparently the character was based on Simon himself, and written for him by his friend Douglas Adams, is this true?

“Yes, a bit of both,” Simon muses. So how did he take it, I ask carefully, knowing that Arthur is a rather nerdy character. “Well it’s always interesting to find out how your friends think of you, but flattering all the same,” he manages.

And now? “Well Arthur is much more true now, but wasn’t then so much because I did get out of my dressing gown, and only occasionally asked for tea, but I wasn’t fighting aliens all the time,” he smiles.

As for getting a fantasy space comedy aired in the first place, was Simon surprised? “I don’t think the BBC knew what to make of it so they told Douglas if he thought it was funny to get on with it,” Simon laughs.

Those were the days, but when Douglas Adams died, THGTTG fans assumed their favourite fantasy figures had died with him, but after a successful reunion in 2009, Simon thought it worth reviving.

“Well 2,000 people turned up on the night from all over the UK and Europe which was a bit of an eye-opener, many in their dressing gowns, so the fans have always been there,” he explains.

The result is a new live show currently touring round the country and coming to Oxford’s New Theatre in July.

Appearing on stage in front of microphones with scripts, the story unfolds around the characters, with the usual hilarious consequences. “I think we can all relate to the mind-numbing bureaucracy that everyone finds so irritating and voices telling you what to do,” Simon says, “so it still resonates.

“And we are selling so many tickets that it’s is a nice surprise and I’m enjoying seeing the country again,” he adds. “But what is unique is doing it live on stage because the radio show was pre-recorded, so now we can see how the jokes go down and when people laugh.”

And off stage is it business as usual? “It’s part of us, part of our anatomy and when we get back together we carry on where we left off, it’s like putting the phone down to go and make a cup of tea and then coming back to carry on the chat.

“But at least I can get a good cup of tea over here. In the US I got quite desperate because you just can’t get a good cupper,” he fumes before ambling into a hotel lobby for the next stage of his tour.

Good to know then that Arthur Dent is alive and well whether Simon Jones wants to admit it or not.

* The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Radio Show Live hits Oxford on Sunday, July 1. Call the box office on 0844 8713020.