LOUIS THEROUX is set to return to BBC2 in the spring with three new films putting Los Angeles under the microscope. He will continue his diverse exploration of life in the US in Louis Theroux’s LA Stories.

He looks at LA’s problem with neglected and feral dogs; the experiences of patients with life-threatening conditions at the city’s most famous hospital; and examines how California deals with sex offenders after they are released from prison.

“I’ve been living in Los Angeles with my family for the past year or so. It seemed a chance to explore different sides of a single place, by spending longer immersed in stories and going deeper with the subjects,” he says.

“I have a love-hate relationship with the city. It embodies the best and worst of America. It combines wealth and glamour with social breakdown and deep neglect.

We’ve concentrated on stories that take us into the extremes of life and the extreme parts of one of the world’s great cities.”

IN a celebration of all things Hitchhiker’s, BBC Radio 4 Extra is bringing listeners the new 30th anniversary edition of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Game online and broadcasting series one and two, The Primary and Secondary Phase, on the radio.

Both will launch on Saturday, March 8 – 36 years to the day since Hitchhiker’s first radio broadcast and 30 years since the invention of the awardwinning game.

The global multi-media success story that is Hitchhiker’s started life as a BBC Radio 4 series in March 1978. The original scripts by the late Douglas Adams went on to spawn a series of novels, a feature film, at least three stage shows, a TV series, a collection of comic books – and various towels. The game was originally devised in 1984 by the book’s author Douglas Adams and Steve Meretzky from Infocom. Notoriously difficult and full of oddities, it was one of the best-selling games of its era.