VIII Children In Need Sketch Classified! News Posted by John Hoare on 2nd October 2005, 14:57 Excellent! For those of you who haven’t heard of this, this was a four minute sketch written by Paul Alexander, broadcast on 20th November 1998 as part of Children In Need. This was our first glimpse at Red Dwarf VIII, and was set entirely in the new Blue Midget set (with CGI shot at the start) – but although Rimmer appeared, he was complete with ‘H’ to avoid giving the game away. It being a charity sketch, there was some uncertainty as to whether it would be possible to include this on the VIII DVD (the 1993 Doctor Who skit Dimensions In Time remains unreleased for precisely this reason) – but obviously they’ve got round any rights problems. Sadly, I remember the sketch as being absolutely diabolical. But, then, that’s not really the point, is it?
I didn’t think it was all that bad. The way Lister established that Terry Wogan’s name was Tel probably amused me the most though.
It’s OK. It’s certainly worth archiving on DVD. I remember thinking at the time that Chris had left the series forever, but there was Rimmer in the sketch, which was a pleasant surprise.
I had the whole night on video for ages – I have no idea why I recorded over it. Each time I watched it, I remember thinking it was poor – but, who knows, my tastes have changed slightly since then. I might like it now.
I thought as much. But at the same time, I also thought the Beeb could have the rights, as it only featured characters from ‘their’ programmes.
The thing is, everyone in that agreed to it being used as a non-commercial ad for the BBC. If it’s then used on a commercial release, that will prove problematic, as it’s not a use that was agreed to. And they wouldn’t be able to afford to renegotiate the rights. (I *suspect*, anyway. Rights issues are notoriously complex. I’m sure Andrew will come along and correct me if I’m talking shit.)
The thing is, everyone in that agreed to it being used as a non-commercial ad for the BBC. If it’s then used on a commercial release, that will prove problematic, as it’s not a use that was agreed to. And they wouldn’t be able to afford to renegotiate the rights. Ah.
I don’t think this is actually too bad, with a stronger hit ratio than any episode in series VIII and far better than it has any right to be (charity sketches are, generally, bloody awful). I still hate the ‘revised’ Blue Midget set though and this was the first glimpse of it.
OH… and does anyone think they’ll put the Vanessa Feltz talkshow interview with Rob & Norman (Broadcast the morning of the premier of Series VIII) In which a woman from the audience admits that she didnt know what red dwarf was, and that she thought it was a gameshow… And will they put the BBC Breakfast interview with craig, chloe, dany and norm? (Night after premiere)??? Or did they forget about those? I have them on video… They arent anything special.
I’m not too keen on the revised Blue Midget set myself. Actually, I’m not keen on a few sets in VIII (the main room in the Manny Celeste, for instance), which is a shame, as I’ve always loved Mel Bibby’s stuff. I doubt Breakfast or Vanessa will get on, either – again, rights issues. It would simply cost too much to clear for commercial release. I mean, if they can’t afford to clear Rob and Doug on Biteback, which sounds genuinely interesting, I doubt they’ll bother for those two shows… Sorry Thomas, got a huge backlog of mail on john@ofla.info. I’ll try and answer it all tonight.
(Of course, this does bring up an idea I had a while ago – compiling a DVD or two with all this stuff that could never get a commercial release. I must try and sort that one out.)
The shooting script was printed in BTL soon after the broadcast, featurring a fair few deleted lines. I wonder if the DVD will contain the broadcast version or the extended version?
