Red Dwarf – 1988
What happens when you mix sci-fi with comedy? A TV comedy series that has become cult TV, joining many other well known TV franchises of similar status.
Red Dwarf first blasted onto our screens back in 1988, where on the BBC it ran for eight series between 1988 and 1999.
It would return ten years later (2009) on digital channel DAVE for a three part mni series entitled, Red Dwarf: Back To Earth.
In 2011 following the success of the three part series and after various rumours, DAVE announced a new six part series (the show’s tenth) had been comisioned and would debut on the channel in 2012.
Today (2020) Red Dwarf is still running having so far clocked up seventy three episodes over twelve series. A feature length special is due to air later this year on DAVE.
In addition to the TV series there has been a BBC7 (now BBC Radio 4 Extra) radio version, two pilot episodes for an American version of the show and four best selling books.
A film planned for 2005 didn’t make it to production after the BBC and the British Film Council rejected it as not being ready.
Summary
Dave Lister is the last human being in the universe. A lowly technician on the mining ship Red Dwarf, he wakes up one day to find that the rest of the crew have been killed by a radiation leak. He has been in stasis for three million years.
Doomed to drift in space for the rest of eternity with only two companions: the hologram of his former crewmate, Rimmer, and a creature called Cat who has evolved from a pet he smuggled on board.
From series 3 onwards, they were joined by a mechanoid servant called Kryten, and from series VII, by the attractive human female, Kochanski.
Red Dwarf: Back To Earth: Set nine years later, the four “Boys from the Dwarf” are once more the only beings on the ship. Rimmer is again a hologram, Holly is offline, and Lister is mourning Kochanski, lost to him out of an airlock some time previously. A chance to get back to Earth through a dimension warp presents itself, but though it is not quite what it first appears to be, it results in giving Lister new hope when he learns that Kochanski is still alive after all.
This was broadcast on DAVE in three parts and without a laughter track to give it a more cinematic feel.
Clips
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Cast
Chris Barrie (1988-present)
Craig Charles (1988-present)
Danny John-Jules (1988-present)
Robert Llewellyn (1989-present)
Norman Lovett (1988, 1997-1999)
Hattie Hayridge (1989-1992)
Chloë Annett (1997-present)
Clare Grogan (1988, 1993)
Mac McDonald (1988, 1999)
Details
Channel: BBC2 (1988 – 1999)
Dave (2009 – present)
Written By: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor
Original Transmission Dates:
BBC: 15th February 1988 – 5th April 1999
DAVE: 10 – 12 April 2009 and 4th October 2012 – present