Costume Design by Dee Robson
Douglas Adams’ comedic science-fiction radio play was adapted for television by the BBC in 1981 as a six-part miniseries. Dee Robson's duties went to designing the various alien characters.
I assume that Simon Jones' costume as Arthur Dent was all bought clothes, and more than likely that was the case with David Dixon's costume as Ford Prefect, but I can't be sure.
When designing Mark Wing-Davey's costume as Zaphod Beeblebrox, 'the worst-dressed person in the universe', Robson came up with a futuristic burgundy jacket covered in circuitry. The jacket was tailored to have extra sleeves for the fake prop arms.
The jacket was worn with a custom-made garish jumper with two collars - one for Wing-Davey's head, one for the puppet head - and orange trousers.
Robson came up with a scarlet 'space babe' swimsuit-like costume for Sandra Dickinson's role as Trillian. This costume is sometimes worn with a red skirt, or red leggings, both custom-made as part of the outfit.
When going outdoors, a custom-made red vinyl jacket is worn over the outfit, with the same deep v-neck collar. A set of gold and black painted boots finish the look.
The Deep Thought sequence has extras in a number of robes, all of which I feel were custom-made for the production. My personal favorite is the silver futuristic togas worn with necklaces of rectangular pieces.
A similar robe in a cream colour, worn over a buttoned gown, was made for Richard Vernon as Slartibartifast. The design is similar to robes that Robson had designed for the
Doctor Who serials 'The Invasion of Time' and 'Terminus'.
Robson designed a futuristic tuxedo for Colin Jeavons to wear as Max Quordlepleen, the host of Milliways, 'the restaurent at the end of the universe'. The tuxedo is made of a gold and purple pinstriped material, with large purple collars, lapels and cuffs. Worn with the tuxedo are purple trousers and a golden frilly shirt.
Robson also designed a silver-streaked futuristic suit for Rayner Bourton as the galactic newscaster.
A white gown, and silver and gold cape was made for Colin Bennett as the Great Prophet Zarquon in his brief appearance - again, due to the design matching similar costumes in the miniseries, I feel this was custom-made for the production.
A futuristic white pinstriped suit, with comically oversized lapels, was made for the perfomer playing Hotblack Desiato's bodyguard, making him a parodic take on a 1930s gangster.
When it came to Hotblack Desiato's sparkly armor costume, Robson couldn't make the 'hard parts' in a typical costumiers or the BBC's Wardrobe Department. Robson turned to freelancer Richard Gregory and his firm Imagineering to manufacture the chestplate and gauntlets.
This would be Gregory's first contribution to a BBC science-fiction production, and he would go on to do several monster suits, prosthetics and costume 'hard parts' for Doctor Who over the years.
Perhaps Gregory also contributed the masked helmet worn by the Vl'Hurg commander in one comedic sequence, the mask reminiscent of
'Sutton Hoo helmet'.
Dee Robson used the Sutton Hoo helmet as an inspiration when designing the Vanir armor in the Doctor Who serial 'Terminus'. Similar helmets are worn by extras playing the Norse gods in the Milliways scenes.
The rest of the Vl'Hurg commander's costume consists of translucent material over the chest and shoulders, and a red studded kilt.
A pair of humorously 'space age' costumes were made for the performers playing the ancient Galactic explorers, both costumes having a sun motif emblazoned on the front.
Invidiual futuristic jackets were made for some performers playing the Golgafrinchans stranded on prehistoric Earth (and eventually becoming humanity). These included a zip-up pinstriped jacket for the marketing planner, and a wide-shouldered blue jacket with an embroidered phone patch for the phone cleaner.
(I imagine the various other Golgafrinchan performers were either in minimally altered or off-the-peg bought clothing, as the spaceship's crew are just in stock naval uniforms. And after all, they are meant to be a parody of 20th century humanity...)
Lastly were the uniforms worn by the Vogon performers, which consisted of padded custom-made green overall. The Vogon captain costume had the overalls fitted with a futuristic collar, though in the first episode he wears a different jumpsuit of a darker material and a flat collar - perhaps an earlier version that was replaced?
The Vogon guard's costume consists of similar overalls worn with custom dungarees in a very large size.
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