Red Dwarf
Unquestionably one of the best comedies ever made, Red Dwarf was a massive success both as a mainstream and cult comedyseries. TheManchester-born Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, already well established in the comedy writing circuit, created an inspired mixture of science fiction and comedy, delivering highly on both levels, without ever seeming as stupid and tacky as the idea seemed to BBC execs at the time. It took five years to reach our screens, suffering 3 rejections and a an electrician's strike, but it eventually near-cancellation due to got on the air, and despite a somewhat lukewarm reception to the first series, it was given time to find it's feet, and eventually did so.
The idea was originally conceived during Grant and Naylor's time writing for radio. After dropping out of university, they wrote for the radio programmes The News Huddlines and Son of Cliché in the late seventies and early eighties. One of the many sketches that they penned for Son of Cliché was known as 'Dave Hollins: Space Cadet'. It followed the adventures of a man alone in deep space on a massive ship with the only the ship's computer for company. This was to be the template for what followed.
The other prime figure in the Red Dwarf story is producer Paul Jackson, whose work included the anarchic comedy smash 'The Young Ones', between 1982 and 1984. Paul Jackson first worked with Grant and Naylor back in 1981 on the sketch show 'A Kick Up The Eighties', and later on the series 'Three Of A Kind' starring Lenny Henry, Tracy Ullman and David Copperfield, and with comedian Jasper Carrott on 'Carrott's Lib'.
Grant and Naylor let Paul Jackson know that they wanted to write a science fiction sitcom, but Jackson was strongly against the idea, since he knew how much executive producers at the BBC hated science fiction. To them, sitcom was about real life and human interaction, so the two simply wouldn't stick together. Nevertheless, the duo wrote the pilot episode in 1983, developing it from their 'Dave Hollins' sketches. Jackson read the script and loved it, and despite still being worried about whether it would sell or not, decided to give it a shot.
In 1984, Grant and Naylor began writing for the satirical puppet show 'Spitting Image', which featured impressionist Chris Barrie. Barrie continued to be a Paul Jackson regular, having already appeared on 'Carrott's Lib', 'The Entertainers', and in 1985, performed on the set of Channel 4's 'Saturday Live'. He shared the stage with a young black poet from Liverpool, called Craig Charles.
In the same year, Paul Jackson produced the Ben Elton sitcom 'Happy Families' (in which Chris Barrie had a bit-part) at BBC Manchester. The BBC funded a budget for a second series, but Elton expressed no interest in writing one. Jackson was fully aware of this, but the fact it was under both their names kept the money safe. Therefore, this money was to become the budget for Grant and Naylor's sci-fi sitcom.
Then came the casting. Originally, Craig Charles wasn't considered for the role of the beer-guzzling, curry-consuming Lister. Charles's poetry tackled current issues, covering such topics as racism and politics. This lead to Jackson handing the script to Charles to read, because there was the worry that the role of the Cat was racist. Consequently, he expressed interest in auditioning for the role of Lister. Grant and Naylor weren't really sure if he would suit the part, which they originally wrote as a Christopher Lloyd-type oddball. Either that, or it was to do with the common conception (or misconception, depending on your view) that Mancunians hate Scousers. Nevertheless, with Jackson's persuasion and an impressive audition (so I've heard), he got the part.Then came the role of Rimmer, the anally-retentive hologram of one of the ship's crew. Chris Barrie was keen to expand his comedic repetoire, and auditioned for the role. He came out on top, completing the inspired double act.
Then came the role of the ship's computer, Holly. Stand-up comic Norman Lovett, also a Paul Jackson regular, originally auditioned for the role of Rimmer, but eventually got the Holly part. It was originally intended as a voice-over, but after much arm-twisting, the part was eventually made visual.
The final role to be filled was that of the fashionable feline, the Cat. One of the hopefuls was a young dancer, Danny John Jules. He was famously late for the audition, but his dedicated research from the Desmond Morris book 'Catwatching', and his choice of clothing to suit the part (incidentally an old 1950's-like suit that belonged to his father) helped him give a sublime audition, getting the part almost straight away.
And so began the first series, filmed in late 1987 and broadcast the following year. With most of the budget spent on building the model spaceship, the sets ended up being rather dull, bare and grey. Fortunately, in many ways, that helped. The character interaction was far more colourful and interesting, and emphasized it's 'Porridge in space' element. Admittedly, the product as a whole hadn't completely come together, but there were plenty of fresh ideas, witty scripting and impressive character exchanges.
Later in the year came the second series. With the main ship model shots already created, the new budget could be spent on brightening up the sets, which were still grey but had a lot more detail, making new sets and model ships, as well as gaining access to different locations, which helped to expand the mobility of the characters and storylines. Also, Holly's originally pixelated image became much more resolute. Oh, and more snazzy Cat suits could be made. Here was when the product really started to catch fire. Here was a sitcom that was fresh, incredibly funny, original, and at times, actually quite poignant.
When the second series came along, there was discussion about bringing in a new character. There was already Lister, the slobbish but likable human, who had a chronological age of 3 million and 25 years, due to the fact that he was put in statis as punishment for bringing his pet cat on board, breaking quarantine laws. Then there was Rimmer, the immensely anal hologram, Holly, the lugubrious and deadpan computer of the ship, and the Cat, who evolved from Lister's pet cat during his time in stasis. Considering that none of these characters could physically integrate (two characters without physical form, and a character that didn't integrate in a normal human way), there was the idea of bringing in a robot, which went against Grant and Naylor's rule of avoiding the basic sci-fi clichés. They first tested the idea in the first episode of the 2nd series, entitled 'Kryten', which was the name of this robot character. Kryten, played by stage actor David Ross, was discovered by the crew on derelict craft the Nova 5. Their main drive was to meet the women on board this derelict. Their now-classic first meeting with the android leads them to discover tha the women have been dead for centuries, and Kryten has continuously been serving skeletons without being any the wiser. Consequently, the crew take him on board, and Lister attempts to help him break his programming, which makes serving others his sole purpose. The character only appeared for one episode, but Ross and the idea were so impressive, that the writers agreed to bring him back as a regular character.
By series 3, Red Dwarf was going from strength to strength, with brilliant stories, and laughs aplenty. It also saw a new, fresher look. No more grey sets, far more colour, and the introduction of Kryten allowed much more mobility than before. The role of Kryten was originally meant for Ross again, but he was unavailable, due to his run in the play Flea in Her Ear, so comedian and writer Robert Llewellyn was cast in the role. Paul Jackson had seen him on stage in a play he penned himself, Mammon, Robot Born of Woman, and suggested him to Grant and Naylor, who by now were co-producers of the show. Llewellyn came in, and despite the worry that he wouldn't match David Ross, he made the role his own.
Another big change was the role of Holly. Norman Lovett, now living in Edinburgh, didn't fancy the massive journey from there to Manchester for rehearsals, so stand-up comedienne Hattie Hayridge was brought in to replace him. She had already appeared in the series 2 episode'Parallel Universe' as the female computer, Hilly, with whom Holly fell madly in love. As a result, Holly had a sex change in her image, hence the gender change.
Red Dwarf's success was that it respected both it's genres. The sitcom setup was taken seriously. These characters were locked up with each other and couldn't stand one another. Also, the science-fiction element was well realised, with Grant and Naylor both lampooning and respecting the genre. This resulted in some clever, original and genuinely riveting storylines, such as a backwards reality, a prison complex with a 'justice field' instead of bars, and the 'despair squad', which fooled the crew into thinking that their voyage was nothing more than a computer game. These stories introduced many moral dilemmas, which were also cleverly tackled. Along with that was the show's ability of changing it's spots every so often, keeping it fresh and interesting. The sign of Red Dwarf's popularity was that the Americans made their own version, but it wasn't met with much approval, and it never quite got off the ground.
After the sublime series 6 in 1993, in which the crew searched for their lost mother ship, Red Dwarf returned to our screens after a four-year absence for series 7. It didn't quite match the brilliance of previous series, due to the fact that Rob Grant had departed from the writing team, leaving Doug Naylor writing solo, and Chris Barrie's departure from the series halfway, feeling that he had taken Rimmer as far as he could. The character was written out in the poignant episode, 'Stoke Me A Clipper'. Admittedly, Red Dwarf had lost some of it's edge in series 7, but I personally believe it is underrated, since there were still some great lines, and memorable moments. The Arnold Rimmer munchkin song springs to mind. As usual, series 7 saw some big changes, including the use of CGI, and the re-introduction of Kristine Kochanski, Lister's love interest. Originally played by Altered Images singer Clare Grogan in the first two series, the new Kochanski was played by RADA-trained actress Chloe Annett (which may I incidentally point out I fancy like hell). Though the character was nowhere near as funny as Rimmer, to his credit, Naylor didn't wholly write her as a replacement for Rimmer, especially considering it was a tough act to follow. Kochanski was a different character, and different relationships were established. Kochanski 's middle-class upbringing jarred distinctly with her surroundings, notable in the episode 'Duct Soup'. Kryten grew jealous of Kochanski, worried that Lister's affections would be more targeted towards her than him. Series 8 saw the crew find Red Dwarf, along with the entire crew, who were brought back to life by tiny subatomic robots, including Rimmer. Though it had it's moments, series 8 veered more towards farce, so it stands as the weakest series. Nevertheless, it garnered very high ratings, making it BBC2's most successful programme to date, and confirming it's place in sitcom history.
Red Dwarf was a truly unique and fantastic show. In it's 11 year run, it made us laugh and think at the same time. Despite it's alleged lack of mainstream appeal, Red Dwarf deserves to rank alongside the sitcom greats. Long may it continue to entertain us for years to come. Long live smegheads!
As many fans are probably asking, when's the bloody movie coming out?
Resources
- Comedy Connections: Red Dwarf, TV programme broadcast on 10:55pm on Monday, August 30th, on BBC1
- Red Dwarf Series 1-4 DVDs, released through 2002-2004
The picture above was taken from the Red Dwarf Series 3 DVD, and the copyright belongs to Grant & Naylor Productions
