After completing a BA in English Literature and working on various writing and performance projects², Douglas started working on a science fiction/comedy radio series. Originally, he had the idea of writing a series called 'Ends of the Earth' in which the world was destroyed in various ways. However, as he began to write the first episode he introduced an alien named Ford Prefect and in a flash of inspiration decided that he should be a researcher for the fictitious Guide, and the series was renamed The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The producer of the first episode was Simon Brett but he left and was succeeded by Geoffrey Perkins:

Douglas Adams knew from the start that he wanted to do something very different with the sound of the show. He wanted to apply the kind of production techniques used on, say, a Pink Floyd album to a radio show.

Douglas recalled spending weeks in an underground studio with Geoffrey and the sound engineers, sometimes taking as long on a single sound effect as other people took on a whole series. Douglas later said:

... I felt that myself and the other people working on it... all created something that really felt groundbreaking at the time. Or rather, it felt like we were completely mad at the time.

Geoffrey Perkins also commented:

Douglas went into it with a whole load of ideas but very little notion of what the story would be. He was writing it in an almost Dickensian mode of episodic weekly instalments without quite knowing how it would end.