Arthur Dent

Played by: Simon Jones (Radio, TV); Martin Freeman (Film)
Home planet: Earth
Age: About 30.
Occupation: Local Radio.
Suspision that Ford Prefect is an alien: None at all.
Disposition: Never quite at ease with himself.
Skills: Making sandwiches, flying.

Arthur Dent, a six foot tall ape descendent, is a very ordinary Earthman who has always lived a very oridinary Earth life. That all changes the day a bulldozer shows up at his house to demolish it in order to make way for a new bypass. This also happens to be the same day his home planet Earth is destroyed by the Vogons (a rather unpleasant alien race) in order to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. His best friend, Ford Prefect, who has chosen this time to reveal that he is an alien and not from Guilford after all, helps him hitch a ride on the passing Vogon spacecraft. From there, Arthur encounters many strange and unsettling places, and even more strange and unsettling creatures. Despite the rather exciting change of scenery, all Arthur wants to do is to return to his non-existant home planet and have a nice cup of tea (and perhaps enjoy some other simple pleasures). This is, of course, impossible and he is having tremendous difficulty with his lifestyle, especially since it has become that of a space hitch hiker, and since he and his space hitch hiking friends never seem to be welcome anywhere they go. He does eventually get to see the Earth again--several times--but never quite as he would have it. On his journey, he manages discover the meaning of life, the truth about mice, how to fly, and that, despite all the wild guises, a great deal of intelligent life forms (including the pan-dimensional ones) seem to resemble the lifeforms on Earth in some way or another. Being the last surving human from Earth (with the exception of Trillian, who was wisked away with Zaphod Beeblebrox before the destruction of the planet) Arthur comes to spend a great deal of time soul searching for a way to live, after all the hitchhiking and saving universes has settled down somewhat.

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