Old, Gifted and Black News Posted by Ian Symes on 10th October 2020, 12:48 This has completely flown under the radar, so thanks to Si Bromley for spotting it in his TV guide and tweeting about it. Danny John-Jules and Craig Charles are hosting Craig & Danny: Funny, Black and On TV on Tuesday 13th October at 8pm on ITV. Part of a season of programmes marking Black History Month, the pair present a celebration of iconic Black British comedy stars spanning fifty years, featuring a combination of archive and interviews. Here’s the press release. It’s an intriguing and welcome move for Craig and Danny to be working together as a twosome, and especially on a mainstream channel like ITV. It’s all the more pleasing given that Red Dwarf is often overlooked in discussions such as these, despite being a prime example of diverse representation and colour blind casting, even though it originated at a time before such terms were coined. Plus, the mere existence of this programme will infuriate racists on Twitter, so win-win.
G&TV: Arthur Smith Sings Andy Williams Quickies Posted by Ian Symes on 30th September 2020, 15:57 One of the many, many good things about Rob Grant, Paul Jackson and Ed Bye's regular Sunday afternoon quarantine commentaries is that their meandering conversations about comedy and their careers can sometimes dredge up intriguing lesser-known projects from the past. When Arthur Smith was a guest on the Backwards commentary, he mentioned one of his old Edinburgh shows, Arthur Smith Sings Andy Williams, which also featured fellow Backwards guest and perennial fifth Dwarfer Tony Hawks. A truncated TV version was produced by Granada in 1993, which commenter Stilianidiadidatees suggested would make a good candidate for G&TV. Don't say we never give you anything. It's on YouTube, and it's pretty great. Read more →
DwarfCast 118 – Give & Take Commentary DwarfCasts Posted by Jonathan Capps on 24th September 2020, 11:32 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes Are you ready for some hot G&T on G&T action? Well, ready or not Ian Symes, Danny Stephenson and Jonathan Capps are here to perform life altering surgery on your astonished ears and find out whether Give & Take really is the best episode of the series. As if that isn't enough, be sure to stick around after the main feature to be treated to another edition of Waffle Men, especially if you're a fan of unnecessarily long chats about food. Read more →
Simulants’ Revenge – Full Playthrough Features Posted by Jonathan Capps on 19th September 2020, 14:41 EDIT (21/09): Thanks to MiloScat (double thanks, in fact, since he was the one to get us looking into the same in the first place) we've very quickly discovered that the version we play here is in fact a medium fidelity version and there's at least a high and low fidelity version. We've now repackaged the downloads to include these versions. This also clears up speculation in the video and in this article regarding the visuals, as the high fidelity version seems to have all the visual features seen in the screenshots. Back in 2003, TOS and a company called Blue Beck launched the first ever official Red Dwarf game, Simulants' Revenge. Billed as the first of a "host" of new games, it would sadly be the only example of its kind and the only official game to be made for the next decade plus. It was made for the then prominent mobile platform J2ME (if you had a phone in the early to mid 2000s that produced actual colour images it was probably running this platform) but it quickly fell off the face of the earth as GNP's short lived foray into the mobile space was put on ice. After a question submitted to an episode of DwarfCasts piqued our interests we promptly tracked down a copy to fill a 17 year gap in our collective knowledge, so we can now present to you a full run through of the game with colour commentary from Jonathan Capps, Danny Stephenson and Ian Symes... Read more →
DwarfCast 117 – Book Club #3: IWCD (Part Three) DwarfCasts Posted by Jonathan Capps on 16th September 2020, 12:28 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes It's been a little while but we're back to finish off Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers with Part Three: Earth - a part that is as almost as short as its title. What isn't short, however, is the discussion as Ian Symes, Danny Stephenson and Jonathan Capps gather to mull over the myriad references to It's A Wonderful Life, the nature of reality, and the logistical challenges of spit roasting a giraffe. Read more →
DwarfCast 116 – Seb Patrick: Thanks For The Memories DwarfCasts Posted by Jonathan Capps on 4th September 2020, 15:16 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes *sigh* ... There wasn't a single person on board this ship that didn't have a special place in their heart for Seb Patrick. How best to remember this prince among men*? There's so any wonderful stories it's difficult to choose... but we had a good go at it anyway. Read more →
DwarfCast 115 – The First Three Million Years DwarfCasts Posted by Jonathan Capps on 4th September 2020, 15:15 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes Following on from our 11 year old revelation that DwarfCasting a review is so much easier than writing one, we present to your our thoughts on the documentary series The First Three Million Years. In attendance was the definitive Ian Symes, reused footage of Danny Stephenson from the DVD docs and a five second mention of Jonathan Capps tacked onto the end. Read more →
G&TV: A Prince Among Men Quickies Posted by Ian Symes on 31st August 2020, 12:57 Prompted by a question from listener Si Bromley, our most recent edition of Waffle Men, as featured on the DwarfCast commentary for Samsara, included a discussion on the not-fondly-remembered Chris Barrie sitcom A Prince Among Men. Having grown tired of playing comedy prats like Arnold Rimmer and Gordon Brittas, Chris teamed up with The Brittas Empire producer and director Mike Stephens to bring us Gary Prince, a comedy prat who differed from his previous comedy prats by lacking any charm, depth or originality. Gary was a retired footballer turned entrepreneur, and also a self-centered egotist, who spent his time annoying his German wife Lisel, belittling his loyal staff, insulting his closest friends and making terrible business decisions. The show ran for two series on BBC One, the first one and a half of which were shown in prime time during the week, before the last few episodes were quietly relegated to Sunday afternoons. It was not very good. See for yourself, here's the first episode: Read more →
DwarfCast 114 – Samsara Commentary DwarfCasts Posted by Jonathan Capps on 27th August 2020, 13:13 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes Hello! I hope everyone's doing alright. What seems like several years ago (but was actually August 1st), we recorded our commentary for Samsara. So, put simply, here it is. Read more →
Let’s Talk About The First Three Million Years #3 News Posted by Jonathan Capps on 20th August 2020, 12:00 Tonight is the exciting finalé of The First Three Million Years, entitled Playing Pool with Planets. We can expect some chat about guest stars, the brilliance of Timewave and apparently some coverage of Red Dwarf USA so there’ll be plenty more opportunities for the painstaking archiving work carried out by Andrew Ellard 15 years ago to stretch its legs again. As always this is your place to natter on about the latest instalment in the comments and we’ll be joining the discussion in our own way soon enough.
