Guests Who? News Posted by Jonathan Capps on 1st September 2017, 11:47 Buckley. Vegas. George. Partridge? Find out tonight. For those of your hankering for a bit more out of your Friday updates will be pleased, as we’ve just been hit with not one but THREE exciting cast announcements for XII. A common theme of Dave-era Dwarf is the very high quality of the guest casting so seeing our first proper glimpse of that is very exciting, especially when we’re dealing with such household names. Piccies and thoughts after the jump. JUMP. James Buckley I once saw James Buckley awkwardly play a song with a mourning Ocean Colour Scene, minutes after the news of Amy Winehouse’s death broke. Ash were better. We’ve known about Jimmy Buckles’ involvement with the show for a little while now, I think, but this is the first time we’ve seen the true nature of his role and this particular bit of information broke last night through James’ own Twitter. I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark and say he will be appearing in the episode in which everyone will be An Kryten as the droid next to him doesn’t seem to be Kryten, but it could very possibly be Lister? It’s hard to tell. I’ll admit I don’t have a lot of experience of James Buckley’s previous work, apart from being fairly amused by him in the few bits of The Inbetweeners I’ve seen. I’m pleased he’s involved, though, as it’s always nice to have a fan of the show around. Speaking of which… Johnny Vegas Johnny Vegas (real name Jonathan Vegas) is an immensely exciting inclusion. When it comes to guest stars across the whole show he’s got to be up there with the best based on comedic chops alone. When it comes to the acting, though, he can be a tad hit and miss so it’s going to be interesting to see how his performance is pitched. Insane, drunk, ranting Johnny has had me literally breathless with laughter before, but despite being billed as his alter-ego it’s hard to tell how the performance will be pitched. We’ve actually got a little extra information about Johnny’s episode, as it’s revealed to be the ‘criticism is illegal’ episode by this the Radio Times and… well… Of course in the age of widespread and easily-triggered online offence the theme is clearly one that is designed to resonate here on Earth in 2017. Well, Ben Dowell, Earth in 2017 is a stinking shit-hole of intolerance and exclusion so anything that you consider resonating with that can be shoved up your cunt. Whoops, I guess I got triggered! “It’s a critique of free speech and political correctness and all those things where you can’t say this, or you shouldn’t be saying that… and people getting offended at the tiniest little thing,” said actor Robert Llewellyn who plays Kryten. Funny how you get more right wing as you get older. Helen George Well damn, I don’t actually have any of worth to say about Helen, other than I do remember her in Over To Bill and she was good! The picture’s an interesting one as there’s almost a medical looking feel to it, so perhaps this is from Cured? Or maybe a stark white colour scheme matches the offices of M-Corp? I honestly haven’t got a single clue. Her thumb doesn’t look like it’s properly attached to either hand, though, so maybe that’s a plot point? Personally I’m a big fan of the pre-publicity strategy this year. It’s so exciting having things like those crazy and unexpected shots of the crew, then followed by these sneak looks at guest characters we’re yet to know anything about. It makes the series feel rich with surprises and variety, which I’m pretty sure is exactly what they’re going for.
I’m tying to find something to say other than those Kryten suits looks naff and I don’t like the idea of Johnny Vegas playing a pink policeman in Red Dwarf. The only other thing that comes to mind is that half of Kryten centric episodes involve finding another Kryten like mech (or variations on that theme) and it’s starting to get a bit boring, especially as most of them fall outside of the first 36 eps. Last Day was the first to do this, and was really good in that Hudson was just the punchline to the episode, the rest of it was really great character comedy. The others being Beyond a Joke, Krysis and now this series 11 ep with everyone as Kryten and evidently James Buckley as Kryten too DNA, Gunmen of the Apocalypse, Krytie TV with varying levels of success (although within the context of series 8 I like Krytie TV) are Kryten episodes without the need to lean on the crutch of other robots like Kryten.
Johnny Vegas being in Red Dwarf is surprising… although for some reason i swear he has revealed he was a fan of the show before but it was many years ago. The Kryten makeups do not look all that good in that image though, maybe needing to do so many of them just made the make up people rush through it. The only other thing that comes to mind is that half of Kryten centric episodes involve finding another Kryten like mech (or variations on that theme) and it’s starting to get a bit boring I am gonna take a guess and say that might be down to the new way of creating the kryten masks, because they 3D print the masks now which might mean easier to replicate and put together Doug is probably just taking advantage of that, although he does tend to get one idea and milk it for all its worth sometimes.
Actually, hang on a minute – is Red Dwarf doing an episode which is seemingly identical to The Happiness Patrol?
although for some reason i swear he has revealed he was a fan of the show before I feel like I remember this. Like he mentioned it on QI at some point. I like Johnny Vegas, him being in Dwarf is interesting. Never liked Inbetweeners and I can only rate Buckley on that, so I’m not excited at all by that piece of casting. I never even considered that Steve Coogan would be in Dwarf – he’s far too much of a big name for RD to afford. But then maybe he’s a big fan, and it is his production company or whatever.
although for some reason i swear he has revealed he was a fan of the show before I feel like I remember this. Like he mentioned it on QI at some point. It says in the linked TOS article that he is … well the he always wanted to be on the show.
Johnny Vegas is a bit of a geek, which given his standup shtick of awkward, strange man is fairly unsurprising. He did an excellent interview on the official 2000 AD podcast a few year ago, explaining how reading the comic in the 1980s fuelled his own desire to pursue art, his interest in science-fiction/fantasy and how picking up the recent Dredd graphic novels partwork has got him sketching and painting again.
the new way of creating the kryten masks, because they 3D print the masks now which might mean easier to replicate and put together They don’t 3D print any of the prosthetics, you couldn’t. They 3D printed Robert Llewellyn’s lifecast for comfort/accuracy, the rest is done the old way. The only changes are sculpting seperate cowl and face appliances instead of a solid one-piece mask, and using silicone instead of foam latex (though they might still have used foam latex and/or one-pieces for the background mechanoids). Each mask still needs individually sculpting by hand on a lifecast of the actor, moulding and then casting. The expanded workload was picked up by students of Neill Gorton’s prosthetics school who did their work experience on the episode a la the VFX students who did Back To Earth.
James Buckley as a Kryten looks strangely like Christopher Reeve and it’s freaking me out. If I’m being honest I can’t say any of this is making me overly excited, outside of liking some of the guest stars other work. This might get hairy.
I am rather deeply concerned about the pink policemen episode at this stage. That quote in the Radio Times article (which seems rather out of character for Robert in particular) sickens me slightly. Desperately trying not to pre-judge the episode, but PC-bashing is the most tedious source of humour imaginable. Apart from anything else, I’m worried (again) that real life events in the gap between production and broadcast will render it slightly outdated. In a world where hate crime is on the rise in Britain, and we’ve got a US President who openly mocks disabled people, boasts about sexually assaulting women and refuses to condemn white supremacists, maybe political correctness isn’t the enemy.
I am rather deeply concerned about the pink policemen episode at this stage. That quote in the Radio Times article (which seems rather out of character for Robert in particular) sickens me slightly. Desperately trying not to pre-judge the episode, but PC-bashing is the most tedious source of humour imaginable. Apart from anything else, I’m worried (again) that real life events in the gap between production and broadcast will render it slightly outdated. In a world where hate crime is on the rise in Britain, and we’ve got a US President who openly mocks disabled people, boasts about sexually assaulting women and refuses to condemn white supremacists, maybe political correctness isn’t the enemy. What I should’ve said instead of “shove it up your cunt”, there.
I am rather deeply concerned about the pink policemen episode at this stage. That quote in the Radio Times article (which seems rather out of character for Robert in particular) sickens me slightly. Desperately trying not to pre-judge the episode, but PC-bashing is the most tedious source of humour imaginable. Apart from anything else, I’m worried (again) that real life events in the gap between production and broadcast will render it slightly outdated. In a world where hate crime is on the rise in Britain, and we’ve got a US President who openly mocks disabled people, boasts about sexually assaulting women and refuses to condemn white supremacists, maybe political correctness isn’t the enemy. Hear hear. Hopefully the content of the episode isn’t fully realised in these little details, and Bobby’s quote is paraphrased from a deeper discussion about the episode or made up or something. Though there would be a certain irony if it become the most criticised episode of the series.
Of course political correctness can be taken too far, but also there are a lot of people who need to get with the times and realise that you just can’t say certain things anymore, with good reason. There’s a balance to be had there, which hopefully the episode will find. I have no idea who that woman is by the way – who is she? Is she famous? The “strictly” thing suggests she’s the host of Strictly Come Dancing or something, or was she just on it at some point? I could very easily Google this, I know.
We were warned about this well in advance: “Red Dwarf does not take itself too seriously, and does not try to be politically correct.” – Professor Stephen Hawking
To be fair I’m not really sure what Hawking was saying there, because Red Dwarf ha never really touched on any themes that would be considered PC has it? With the exception of the racism sub plot in Fathers &a Sons, it’s never really touched on or made jokes about sensitive issues. It’s made jokes about science fiction and it’s characters flaws.
Do we even know if it’s addressed on purely a political level? Criticism as illegal applies just as much to fandoms and other opinion-based discussion as to political correctness. There’s a lot more to be done with the idea than misappropriation of the word “trigger” (fuck the internet for turning PTSD into a punchline same as they did for autism).
Well they make fun of Bulgarians and The Welsh etc. As a kid I never realised this, but Red Dwarf does give half of its leading roles to minorities. The only criticism in that vein you could possibly throw at it is a lack of roles for women, but then there being no women is sort of The Point. Red Dwarf doesn’t try to be politically correct but then it never really tries to be offensive either, does it? It just pokes fun at anything and everything.
If it was Chris Barrie with the comment it might be time to worry but I can’t see Robert Llewellyn championing anything that attacks political correctness. It sounds like he is just using poor wording. A “Crit Cop” as a person who polices criticism (as Chortle describes the character) is more an idea from a Rob Grant novel and not really an attack on political correctness.
I was about to say it’s very Incompetence-esque. Incompetence – a novel about how we should leave the EU. Certainly aged… interestingly.
Johnny tweeted a little while ago today. “Another big tick on the bucket list, ta #RedDwarfXII @DaveChannel @ReddwarfHQ @DougRDNaylor & @BabyCowLtd #urnicked” I assume the last tag is actually a line from the episode. Sounds abit corny but oh well.
I’ve been ruminating on this all day and I have to say, I’m worried. Also, I’ll put money down now that Johnny Vegas’ character will have at least 3 penis based nicknames due to him wearing a pink helmet, or something to do with a clitoris that comes out a bit misogynistic.
The Vegas shot reminds me uncomfortably of VIII. It’s clearly from recording #2 (which I think we think is “Timewave”), as the set report mentions his speech about always wanting to be in the show; the set report from The Other Place makes it clear that Helen was in recording #5 (“M-Corp”).
So just to summarise everything officially released, or which we can work out logically from the set reports: 1. “Cured”, formerly “Here No Evil”. Recorded third. Drowning Cat. Involves a cure for evil. 2. “Siliconia”. Recorded first. Everyone’s Kryten, and there’s loads of other Krytens, including James Buckley. 3. “Timewave”, formerly “Time Wave”. Recorded second. Johnny Vegas. Ship where criticism is illegal. 4. “Mechocracy”. Recorded fourth. Election between Rimmer and Kryten. *****n **v*** (probably?) 5. “M-Corp”. Recorded fifth. Old Lister. Helen George. 6. “Skipper”, formerly “Star Knot”. Retro Rimmer. Rimmer goes to look for a parallel world where he’s not such a loser. The things we currently can’t tie to a specific episode are Lister updating the ship’s software, which I think is “Mechocracy” (assuming that is the one with ****a* ***e**) and the Cat needing glasses, which seems like a small subplot or something that gets a bigger plot started, but I think might be “Timewave”.
Maybe Johnny Vegas will be playing a PC who goes mad. Then the episode will be about “PC gone mad”. -_-
Doug seems to play on social commentary alot now days. More Douglas Adams-ish Which is fine but an episode where technology is illegal and then an episode where criticism is illegal… i get that irony is funny but there seems like abit of a box right there.
Yes, Johnny Vegas in a pink policeman’s uniform doesn’t exactly scream Black Mirror, does it. Black Mirror if Black Mirror was a sitcom produced by ITV in 1981.
Ah man people need to stop prejudging so quickly. Watch the show first then judge it. People don’t give things a chance. You should be excited not critical it’s new Red Dwarf. That in itself is exciting to me and it looks like they are pulling all the stops to make it a memorable series
I don’t think any of us aren’t excited about the new series, and we’re all *obviously* going to watch it. About 60% of G+T is people wildly speculating on future episodes (20% John talking about UKTV edits, 10% ‘butter’ related puns, 10% trading insults) – so it’s hardly out of the norm. If you’re going to wade into arguments over ‘Political correctness’, ‘easily triggered’ snowflakes attacking ‘free speech’ – issues which are currently tearing deep social divisions all over the world – you can be pretty damn sure it’s going to arouse strong opinions across the political spectrum. I’m reasonably confident that the episode will *hopefully* stay on the right side of openly offensive – but I can see why people are worried. I don’t see what’s wrong with talking about it? I don’t think anyone’s said anything along the lines of: ‘I’m definitely not going to watch this’ or ‘This will definitely be shit’ etc. Discuss away as far as I’m concerned. On a separate note, I’m excited about all the guest stars and the series as a whole. The episode I saw recorded was pretty awesome, from what I can remember – and it does indeed sound like they’ve properly pulled out all the stops for this one.
Ah man people need to stop prejudging so quickly. Love how positive people are being. Just to be clear, my comment was only meant as a silly joke. I’m not prejudging these episodes at all. These photos are surely chosen to provoke conversation and speculation, and I think that’s all that’s happening here, not people being convinced it’s going to be shit on the basis of a few promo pics. Given how little we still know about this series, the alternative of saying little more than “hmm, intriguing, wonder what that’s about” probably wouldn’t sustain conversation for very long.
It feels like i seen enough in the past 4 attempts to kinda know that Doug can make some… unusual decisions, so i am often alot more weary over certain ideas. At this points its all in the writing, i don’t care all that much about guest stars because if the material isn’t good then its just gonna fall flat in repeated viewings after the novelty is gone.
>Ah man people need to stop prejudging so quickly. Watch the show first then judge it. You seem to be policing people’s criticisms there. You might say you’re a Crit Cop. Ahhhhhhh.
I would have rather seen Johnny Vegas as a Mechanoid tbh. The ‘Crit Cop’ costume is…fairly mental. Can’t help but be reminded of Cat’s ‘maternity’ getup in Can of Worms, which, I think we can all agree, was also…..slightly misjudged? (mental) I don’t have anything against pink. But…the actual eff? This aside, Vegas himself is gonna be great, because that’s this thing.
I am rather deeply concerned about the pink policemen… PC-bashing is the most tedious source of humour imaginable. Starring Johnny Vegas as PC Bashing
You should be excited not critical it’s new Red Dwarf. So you’ve got the pink uniform on already yeah? #irony #meta #itsstartedalreadyandweveonlyhadonephoto!
> Except I place NL as being in skipper. You mean NL who was fisted by Julian Clary, backstage at the comedy awards?
a) James Buckley is really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really funny in The Inbetweeners. b) Robert Llewellyn and Ben Dowell both need a slap.
Surprised Robert Llewellyn has a problem with political correctness, given his general eco-friendly, liberal attitudes. Also, in regards to political correctness in Red Dwarf, I can’t think of too many examples. Lister has flashes of homophobia in Duct Soup, but that’s written more as his insecurity. For an uneducate lout he’s generally quite sensitive and understanding. It’s Rimmer who tends to make homophobic and sexist comments – his attitude towards Yvonne McGruder (“she shouldn’t have been concussed, then”) and his making derogatory accusations of Ace Rimmer being gay. But Rimmer is a complete arsehead.
James Buckley is very good indeed as the young Del Boy in Rock & Chips as well. Anyone noticed how mucky his costume is in that photo? The torso area, including the monitor which looks all scratched and maybe even cracked.
The quote from Robert is a bit worrying but I wouldn’t have thought “criticism” equates to non-PC comments. Hopefully he’s talking bollocks as regards the episode.
a) James Buckley is really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really funny in The Inbetweeners.. He’s my favourite from The Inbetweeners. Which is saying something because the kind of character he plays is someone I would really fucking hate in real life. And he was great as the young Del Boy in Rock & Chips. With Johnny Vegas, I was spoiled about his casting by some prick on one of the Facebook groups on the night of the recording. He literally posted “I don’t want to spoil anything but Johnny Vegas was in Red Dwarf.” No space or anything. The worst kind of human being.
I still think Coogan’s going to turn up in XII. Llewellyn’s already said that he was present on set at some point towards the end of the block and I refuse to believe it was a random executive set visit like he’d suddenly turned into Prince Charles. I’m 50/50 on a couple of possible returnees for Mechocracy and Skipper. Don’t want to get my hopes up or jinx it.
I don’t expect to see Snacky back in Mechocracy. But I hope we do, with Rimmer forcing him to play the lackey role in his campaign that Kryten normally would.
I doubt Coogan would make an actual appearance in an episode. Not that he hasn’t cropped up in various small, random roles over the years (not least on his OWN tribute show, which I thought was damn awesome)…. I’m pretty sure it would have been blown by now if he’d been in an episode. Saying that, if the well-known likes of Kevin Eldon and Johnny Vegas can crop up, then why not? Maybe in a voice role or video screen would be more likely? Of course, Patrick Stewart is the ultimate choice for guest cast, i.e. the one we’re all waiting for…including his lawyer!! :o
Ah, that brief period of feeling overwhelmingly optimistic about XII was nice while it lasted. Consider me worried. Nothing in Red Dwarf’s past suggests its humour is sophisticated enough to tackle political correctness, er, correctly. I’ve previously moaned about Danny’s soundbites to the press, but that quote from Robert is on dodgy ground. This is presumably the episode which Andrew Ellard described as “divisive” so I’m predicting the longest comment thread in G+T history when it airs. In other news, if Coogan was in Red Dwarf, I would lose my shit. I would then locate my shit and promptly lose it all over again.
They could legitimately get Patrick Stewart now I think. Post Star Trek/X-Men he clearly prefers working on pet projects with friends, comedies, novelties and unlikely scripts that take his fancy now he’s working for his own enjoyment. It would need to be a really significant character though.
Coogan’s a fan, and would join a long line of Chris Barrie’s former Spitting Image castmates to appear (Roger Blake, Kate Robbins, Jon Glover). Don’t forget that there are scenes shot for Siliconia that don’t appear to have been seen by any audience…!
Ah, that brief period of feeling overwhelmingly optimistic about XII was nice while it lasted. Consider me worried. Nothing in Red Dwarf’s past suggests its humour is sophisticated enough to tackle political correctness, er, correctly. I’ve previously moaned about Danny’s soundbites to the press, but that quote from Robert is on dodgy ground. This is presumably the episode which Andrew Ellard described as “divisive” so I’m predicting the longest comment thread in G+T history when it airs. In other news, if Coogan was in Red Dwarf, I would lose my shit. I would then locate my shit and promptly lose it all over again. “Cured” was the one Andrew described as divisive, IIRC. The ‘criticism is illegal’ episode seems certain to have been recording #2, and looking at the set reports here and on Gazpacho Soup there doesn’t seem to be much cause for concern. In fact there’s a very interesting paragraph in the latter that surely refers to the worries we currently have.
Ah, I was just about to ask if anybody who was at the recording could say anything to allay our fears. I’m resisting the temptation to look at the set reports again, but it’s good to hear they’re reassuring.
I agree that if Coogan visited the set you would think they would try and get something filmed with him while he was there. It was said more guest stars are to be announced so i think its fairly possible they could be saving that one. Doug likes to try and make the show look big on a small budget and i couldn’t see him passing that one up personally.
Ah, I was just about to ask if anybody who was at the recording could say anything to allay our fears. I’m resisting the temptation to look at the set reports again, but it’s good to hear they’re reassuring. Although it *was* the recording that started that endless tedious argument over whether or not it was shit, none of that seems to have been about being offensive.
The increased chance of Cooganage in Red Dwarf was the best thing about Baby Cow coming on board. Then better access to all the other talent that Baby Cow has been connected with. *bangs Coogan for John Rimmer drum*
I just checked out the set report for the Vegas EP, but it very quickly descends into some guy trying to judge the direction and cinematography of the final episode before it’s even smelt the edit suite, and everybody shouting at him with varying degrees of vitriol. It does seem to be a potentially offensive episode to some people if it goes down the anti-PC route. But I don’t see myself being offended by anything like that, personally (and I’m liberal) so bring it on.
I’d take the Bobby quote with a pinch of salt tbh. It’s blatantly out of context, and unlikely he was being particularly serious with the interviewer. :)
Also, you know who can’t take even the slightest criticism without completely flipping out, denying it, trying to change the subject, spewing random-ass shit to try and confuse you, being excessively offended, etc.? *looks casually to the right* … *specifically, the online right*
Sorry for anyone who was complaining that they wanted Normans return to be a surprise huh ;p Computers age surprisingly badly though.
Nice to see Norman Lovett’s made use of the boot polish left over from Chris Barrie’s head in Back To Earth, anyway.
Computers age surprisingly badly though. If anything, I think that picture makes him look like he has a little more colour in his cheeks. And eyebrows.
The airdate is welcome news too. Less than five weeks to go baby! “…lands exclusively on Dave…” leads me to hope it’ll actually premiere on Dave, not UKTV Play.
I’ll keep this vague but I noticed that there’s a previously unannounced actor with #reddwarfxii in their twitter bio. I mention this as I didn’t look for it at all but have seen them pop up via at least 3 people associated with Dwarf recently (so I’m not sure why they don’t just announce them really if they’re not trying to hide their involvement).
I noticed that on twitter too – if it’s the same actor we’re talking about, it seems his role in RDXII has already been added to his Wikipedia entry (I googled him as he looked somewhat familiar… then I found out why).
