A lot can happen in 2 years 1 month 2 days which is how old this post is! Enjoy the post but be sure to check out the new stuff too!!This post is a guest post by Suzie. Personally I’ve never been into Red Dwarf at all and it’s something I feel I’ve missed the boat on now so it’s a pleasure to have Suzie here talking about the show and I’d love to hear all your memories and thoughts on it too in the comments!
Red Dwarf is a madcap British comedy. I first saw it when the kids were little, old enough to be left in the bath for a few minutes. I’d put the kids in the bath with some toys and walk away for a short while, the TV was still on after the news and I’d catch a glimpse of something really silly that didn’t make the slightest bit of sense and I didn’t feel inclined to watch it any longer. One memorable day they were screening the episode called Backwards and my life changed. A lot of this episode is run in reverse so you see most things happening backwards and I was totally hooked by the filming of it. I was torn between being grossed out by the eating scene which was being shown in reverse so you saw them uneating and undrinking and absolutely amazed by the fight scene which was, again, screened in reverse. I made the mistake of watching some more while listening out for the kids and was totally stunned with how this episode worked. They did a lot of work to ensure continuity was correct and this was made rather challenging as Lister got some bruises during the fight so we saw him complaining about the pain and watching the bruises get bigger and blacker long before the fight actually happened.
Basically the programme is set 3 million years in the future on board a mining spaceship called Red Dwarf. There is one human left alive, Dave Lister, and a handful of other ‘people’. Arnold Rimmer caused the explosion that killed the rest of the crew is now a hologram, The Cat is a descendent of the cat that caused Lister to be put in stasis and Kryten is an android…sorry, mechanoid. There’s lots of humour in it that will appeal to teenage boys. It was first screened in 1988 and was written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor with a few episodes by Paul Alexander. Dave Lister is not your normal white hero, he’s a slob, and he’s not white at all but basically he’s a nice guy if you can ignore his dreadful habits.
There are so many things that are different about this series. The first is the language, Grant Naylor were very careful not to write any cliches or ordinary figures of speech or even normal patterns of speech into it, what they wrote doesn’t fit with normal thinking or normal modes of talking. It made it rather challenging for the cast to remember their lines. Chris Barrie who played Rimmer had very few troubles as he has an amazing memory who memorised everyone’s parts. Robert Llewellyn had the hardest times as he has a dreadful memory for lines and would somehow pull it all off at the last moment and if he couldn’t then they had boards with his lines on it just out of camera range. Robert Llewellyn also had a dreadful time with makeup, spending hours getting his suit on and getting his head made up before being able to go onstage – yes, some of it was shot live.
I’m going to have to take a few moments to mention Chris Barrie’s impersonation. You’ve seen him before on The Brittas Empire and have maybe heard him on Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Welcome to the Pleasuredome where he did an impression of Prince Charles. He is a wonderful impersonator. One episode which highlights his skills is called Queeg. There’s an explosion and his files are corrupted so he ends up doing impersonations of various characters, ones we’ve seen and ones we haven’t, they are spot on. At one point he hovers between Lister and Holly doing one after another and each one is so perfect with the body language, the facial structure and the way each one talked, just brilliant.
Having mentioned Holly I should explain a bit. Holly was the ship’s computer who was played by either Norman Lovett or Hattie Hayridge. Both actors did a sterling job of this part and were only called upon to show their heads so were unable to use their bodies or hands in this role. In the episode, Queeg, mentioned just above we had the pleasure of seeing Norman Lovett’s deadpan delivery and then the double pleasure of seeing Chris Barrie doing Norman Lovett. Just wonderful.
One particular scene called for Chris Barrie, Robert Llewellyn and Craig Charles to really work at their lines as the audience was laughing so loud the actors couldn’t hear themselves. The scene was in Polymorph and we saw this creature which could change into anything, at one stage it had changed into Lister’s underpants and he put them on only to find them getting smaller and smaller while he wore them. He called Kryten to help pull them off and that’s when Rimmer walked in, at this point the audience is in hysterics and Chris Barrie has to keep the same look on his face for 20 minutes while Robert Llewellyn and Craig Charles continue, Craig Charles mentioned in an interview some years later that he couldn’t hear Robert Llewellyn and so was just watching his face hoping he was getting the right lines.
One of the delights of the programme is Danny John-Jules in the role of The Cat. Besides being rather goodlooking with a fabulous figure, Danny John-Jules spent some time dancing in West End productions before landing his role in Red Dwarf. He embodied the role and made it his own so much so that when they tried to reinvent Red Dwarf in the USA in 1992 they had to put Hinton Battle into the role. In my mind he was the only other person who could do the role justice. You might know Hinton Battle from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode of Once More With Feeling, he played the demon, Sweet, and did a wonderful job there. Unfortunately, for him he was not a patch on Danny John-Jules as The Cat. Danny was sensuous and fast in the way that cats are.
Basically, if you like British comedies you’ll most likely like Red Dwarf. If you like clothes and material you’ll love watching The Cat dress. If you like watching really good comedic acting then this is the show for you.
Suzie generally sells pre-loved books and part-work magazines on Suz’s Space when she isn’t scribbling bits and pieces about books on the Suz’s Space blog or hanging out on Twitter. Suzie is addicted to books and TV, more specifically science fiction and fantasy. She has two teenage kids (when will they leave home and create space for more books and DVDs?) despite claiming to be 18.
Hello,
Great guest post.
I love Red Dwarf and used to watch it when first aired. Tuesday's BBC2 (UK) at 9pm I think. I used to buy the accompanying magazine, read the books and listened to the audio books.
Chris Barrie also recorded the audio books. I highly recommend reading or listening to the books. I remember getting lost in them for days and are a great accompaniment to the tv show.
You picked good episodes to write about. I firmly believe the earlier series were the best and the last couple not even close to their level. Including the recent three part special they made. There was even an American tv pilot made, but it never took off.
Your post really helps people understand what it is about and the quality of acting, writing etc involved. Plus all done on a low end budget. Love the props, sets and starbug is great.
I've not got the red dwarf theme music stuck in my head. smeg!
I feel like such an outsider with this show, it must be how people who have never seen Doctor Who or Star Trek must feel. I can see the devotion it conjures up but am still not a part of it.
Also I didn't know about the American TV pilot, did they use the same cast for it or did they try and do it all from scratch?
I think Robert who played Kryten might of been the only Brit involved with the U.S. pilot and the rest American actors. I could be wrong though.
Not to late Lee. I was reading the first book last week and still a great read after all these years.
Do you think that you could read the books without watching the show? Or do you need to know it?
You could read the books without having seen the show… they retell the key events and episodes in slightly different ways than the show explored.
The books are comparable to someone having missed the radio show version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and picking up the novels.
I may check out the first book sometime so at least I'll have a grasp of what everyone keeps saying
Nice post Suzie!
Lee, I can't believe you were never into Red Dwarf but you're right -- you've probably missed the boat now. It was a show of its time, which is why the recent episodes don't work so well, I think. As you can tell, I agree with Andrew that the earlier series were the best. A particular favourite for mine was “Parallel Universe” from series 2 (featuring the song “tongue tied” at the beginning), where female Holly first made an appearance, and “White Hole” from series 4, featuring talkie toaster (“would anybody like any toast?”).
I love British comedy (obviously I'm a bit biased) and I've never found anything which can quite match it here in Aus. I grew up on this stuff and it holds a special charm for me (nawwww). It's what I paid my license fee all those years for!
I could go on for hours about how much I love this show, quoting lines and sharing fave episodes -- but I'll spare you that! Might go and watch some now though…
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
Red Dwarf is unique in that I can't really recall any other science fiction comedies off the top of my head. And there is such a following for it that I'm surprised that more haven't been attempted.
British television certainly more than holds its own for science fiction and comedy. So many hours of joy from The Goodies.
Shame that the new series wasn't able to carry on the magic, I'm a little worried if they were ever to try and get Farscape going again that it just wouldn't click like it used to.
I've been a fan of Red Dwarf for many, many years too. I remember seeing that first episode and simply being blown away by how funny and fresh it was. Sure, the sets were shaky and the costumes cheap looking, but one hardly noticed them because of how bloody funny it was.
I did think it wasn't as strong in later years (I found solace in the books instead, they are very good) but I'm still going to watch the reunion special that came out recently, Back to Earth (I have borrowed it from the library).
I've always had the impression that the production quality was quite good given what the show is, of course I can possibly count the number of episodes I've seen on one hand so I'm probably not the best judge
Especially the first series… if you watch the bloopers reels and behind the scenes docos, it's hilarious how cheaply they did things in the beginning. It really was a duct tape, cardboard and polystyrene set. But that's part of it's charm.
I appreciated the fact that for a comedy, it did tackle good science fiction premises as well (and if you think about it, Futurama is also a Sci-fi comedy).
I didn't think of Futurama, there are a couple more but they have been fairly recent and obscure (in some cases like outer space astronauts -- or whatever that was called).
Wow! I'm so excited you all like it. I do admit to being a Red Dwarf addict, I have all the DVDs except for the latest specials plus I have the smegout videos and the ringtone on my mobile is the theme tune from Red Dwarf.
Yes, they did produce an American pilot and it was really great in that it highlighted how wondered the original was. The only original cast member was Robert Llewellyn and you can read more about it in his book, The Man in the Rubber Mask, and you can also read some bits about his Australian girlfriend of the time. He managed to get Judy a part in the episode called Camille and they had a love scene together.
I actually don't like the books, that's not to say they're not good, I just don't like them. Now, I could have written so much more and had Lee break the article down into bite size pieces for serial publication but I decided if you were bored it would be just too much.
You pretty much just described my discovery of Red Dwarf -- fits of hysterics after stumbling onto 'Backwards', then consuming everything I could -- the tv show, books (individually, the Omnibus, and the Program Guide) and videos (we didn't have a DVD player).
As Sarah said though, it really was a program of its time. I've caught a few repeats here and there recently and as much as I try to enjoy them, they just don't do it for me anymore. Not just the more recent series, but even the older ones that I loved so much.
There's nothing quite like replying to yourself…
Now that I think of it, being underwhelmed by older British comedy that I once loved seems to be a theme for me. I bought both the Goodies and Young Ones DVDs when they were released a few years ago. Both of them, while definitely still funny, did leave me a bit cold. If anything, it was the memories of first watching them, rather than the jokes themselves, that provided the most enjoyment.
That's interesting, Heath. In most cases I've had the opposite reaction. I've bought the Goodies DVDs (region 2 to be sure to get all the bits they censored for Australia) and don't dare put them on as I laugh hysterically and get nothing done. I normally work while I'm watching stuff on Tv, but there are certain things I can't work during and The Goodies are one of those. James Bond is good and I get lots of stuff done during those movies.