Sets and ‘Bugs and Acting Roles

News

Posted by on 11th November 2015, 18:50

Welcome to the latest installment of “Embedding A Load Of Tweets And Over-Analysing The Contents”, which looks set to become a long-running series indeed. As production on Red Dwarf XI steams ahead prior to Friday’s audience recording, studio-based rehearsals and pre-records are now taking place. Several members of the cast and crew are documenting every little step of the process on Twitter, meaning we have access to tantalising behind-the-scenes secrets, such as the time Craig Charles spilled some coffee during a readthrough.

Admittedly, this doesn’t seem like much. But if you open up the full-sized picture, there are a lot of interesting names to read…

So let’s go through the names that are legible and see if we can figure out who’s who:

  • Danny John-Jules, Craig Charles, Chris Barrie, Robert Llewellyn – actors who used to be quite famous in the 90s
  • Richard Naylor – producer
  • Doug Naylor – writer, director, executive producer
  • Henry Normal – executive producer, from off of Baby Cow
  • Andrew Ellard – prolific tweeter
  • …ry …dell – just in the corner next to Richard Naylor, but obscured behind a fruit bowl. This is presumably Kerry Waddell, producer from Baby Cow.
  • Ed Moore – director of photography… I promise it gets more interesting in a minute.
  • Justine Bower – Group Publicity Manager, UKTV. One of the head honchos mentioned in Danny’s tweet.
  • Richard Watsham – Director of Commissioning, UKTV. Another big-wig.
  • Simon Lupton – Commissioning Editor, UKTV. There’s some kind of link here that I can’t quite put my finger on.
  • Daniel Barker – Hmm. There’s a voice-over artist called Daniel Barker. This is a readthrough taking place in the same week the episode is shot, so presumably the full guest cast are in place at this point.
  • Mark Quartley – There’s an actor called Mark Quartley. And it’s quite a distinctive name.
  • Dan Kay – Oh look, there’s a Dan Kay on LinkedIn, and he’s listed as Production Manager for Red Dwarf XI & XII.
  • Callum Taylor – …and here’s where my detective/stalker skills fall down, unless it’s the right-handed batsman who made his Twenty20 debut for Essex against Hampshire in May 2015.

Those are the only names I can make out, unless Peter Griffin is also working on the series in some capacity. Anyone else had any more luck?

Anyway, that took up way more space that I’d anticipated, so let’s quickly move on to other bits and bobs of news. Firstly, a biggie – Starbug is back. Not just in model form, but as an actual set.

Furthermore, we’ve got a fair idea of what it might look like, thanks to this Instagram post by DoP Ed Moore:

Art dept got almost a whole 747 cockpit to use as #reddwarf set dressing – SO COOL

A photo posted by Ed Moore (@edmooredop) on

So, just like Series VI, then? Dingy, falling apart and stocked to the gills with obsolete bits of naval/aviation hardware? Good. And that’s not the only old element that’s returning:

Science Room, eh? This could mean one of two things. It could be that the Drive Room set from Series X is gone (or has been altered to the point that it’s no longer recognisable), leading to the designation of a new set that will serve the same function, just like what happened between Series 1 and 2. Or, this could be another place on the ship that will appear alongside the Drive Room, whether that’s throughout the whole series or just for this episode. Our money’s on the former, given how there’s already a whole new Starbug set taking up valuable floor space, but let’s see.

In other other news, Craig Charles has taken to tweeting photos of bits of the sets themselves:

Spoilers: part of Red Dwarf XI takes place on board a JMC ship. That graphic looks very Series III, doesn’t it? Much like the logo, which unfortunately is not being used in the studio currently:

And finally, here’s a picture of Robert Llewellyn’s face when he realised what he’s agreed to put his 59-year-old body through:

So happy times ahead, with the first live audience date a mere 48 hours away…

14 comments on “Sets and ‘Bugs and Acting Roles”

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  • This all makes me very excited. No matter how much I adore Doctor Who, when new Red Dwarf is on the horizon, I get all giddy. :D

  • Look at that set dressing stuff. Just LOOK at that set dressing stuff!!! This is making me very excited indeed.

  • I have to say I’m tremendously excited about all of this. It’s a slow burning excitement because in spite of all the evidence, I still can’t quite believe this is actually happening!

  • I agree with Si. I watch Doctor Who sometimes, the new Star Wars trailer looks quite good etc. But Red Dwarf is my show and the fact there are new episodes coming up is such a lovely feeling.

  • One thing I notice from the photo of the tables is that is seem like there’s going to be less guest stars so far in series XI, because one of the issues I had with X was that there was just so many guest stars that the feeling of being stranded “alone” in deep space was largely lost.

  • I thought the despensing machines were abit over done tbh, doug brought them back to depend on them way to much for comedy to the point it was like they were other crew members

  • I found that as well, and another Callum Taylor who describes themselves as “actor/model/presenter”, but I think that the actors are all down one end of the table, and Callum’s name place is at the other. I could be wrong, but it’d seem weird to have six/seven actors sat next to each other, and then another one shouting their lines from across the room.

  • I found that as well, and another Callum Taylor who describes themselves as “actor/model/presenter”, but I think that the actors are all down one end of the table, and Callum’s name place is at the other. I could be wrong, but it’d seem weird to have six/seven actors sat next to each other, and then another one shouting their lines from across the room.

    Yeah, that makes more sense. All the more annoying that you can’t read the name on the card between Robert and the voice-over guy.

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