this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2025
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I listen to the radio version of hitchhiker's while I go to sleep often, if I managed to hit play in the middle of the whale's pondering I always back up a bit. It's one of my favourites of the entire series and not as good when played mid pondering.
Also the line about the bowl of petunias having relevance later is quite amusing to be sure. Though I assume not thought of when written.
IIRC the radio scripts were the very first version. Which means that the joke in the radio show was probably deliberate.
I know for a fact that in the books there's a throwaway gag that the petunias thought, "Oh no, not again," and the narrator mentions something about the fact that if anyone knew what that meant, the universe might make a whole lot more sense.
That's pretty much the radio version as well the books were pretty close on those lines.