Dimension Jump XX is HAPPENING News Posted by John Hoare on 5th October 2018, 06:48 In some distant parallel universe, Red Dwarf only got one series. It was never released on VHS or DVD. A fan club never appeared. It got a few reviews in some Doctor Who fanzines, and then quietly faded away. In this universe, meanwhile, the 20th Dimension Jump convention is about to happen this weekend. Odd how things turn out. Yes, the great and the good in the world of Dwarf are gathering for the third convention running at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nottingham, for a weekend of wonder, excitement, and… wonder. And as usual, unlike the early days of G&T, a great many of us are either official fan club members or are helping out in an unofficial capacity, so the weekend promises to be “fairly busy” for most of us. Fear not, however: I’ll be trying to keep the Ganymede & Titan Twitter updated as much as possible over the next few days, for those of you who can’t make it. As usual, there will also be a DwarfCast looking back on the whole event, although it probably won’t be up until some point late next week. So don’t wait up on Sunday night desperate for our hot content, because we’ll all be too busy wishing we were all still in our 20s full of endless energy, rather than hopping over that invisible line where you really feel death and total oblivion staring you full in the face. Happy DJ, everybody!
Great work Team G & T! I love you all dearly (or I can call you a pack of cunts if you prefer like the old days).
XII was announced three years ago Ah, you missed my invisible ‘I’ at the end of that. Now who looks foolish?
Wow most of the cast all here together on Saturday!!! With Doug. ( Sunday is then Mac, Ian and Tony. ). For the photo shoots. Not yet announced the running for Q&As. Having a great time and it’s not started yet. Mega excited vibes.
We are getting video messages from multiple actors now. Graham “Ackerman” mctavish. Richard “astor” ridings. John lennahan. Arthur Smith: Ed bye. Susan bettish. Kevin Eldon (dressed as a policeman) and more. Amazing.
Johnny Vegas. “Sorry I can’t be there but I’m not a geek” Chancellor Wednesday and his intensities. That tutting bloke from time wave. Gordon Kennedy: still got cock moves! And X-ray vision (Hudson voice ) “where is my spin off series”
Sorry I can’t make it, for complicated visa reasons I’m literally stuck in Canada. Have a great one – I’ll be vicariously enjoying the experience through the G+T twitter feed, like some sort of hideous, experiential leech.
Ed bye. Paul Jackson. Danny John Jules (Sunday) and rob grant re join an extended DJ line up. On my fucking god.
Great intro from the team involved Mcorp jokes and invisible guests Before some holly hopping fun. Very funny. But just gobsmacked by the extra guests announced for Sunday. Thank you TORDFC!
Wait so is Rob Grant going this year? when was the last time he went to a dimension jump? Nice to see Ed Bye there too. this is what a 30th anniversary DJ should be.
I hope its all a ruse and Doug is actually withholding the reveal of XIII for a later time this weekend (sobs)
Didn’t he go to one back in 2007 after Bodysnatcher was released? I wasn’t there nor could I have been there if I wanted, but looking at Wikipedia he was not.
Didn’t he go to one back in 2007 after Bodysnatcher was released? I wasn’t there nor could I have been there if I wanted, but looking at Wikipedia he was not. He was on the guest list,but we waited all of Sunday afternoon and he never arrived. Typical. Even *I* was there that year.
“Now, I know you’ve all been eagerly awaiting a big announcement from me, which is why I’m delighted to finally confirm… Red Dwarf: The Complete Series 1-8 Blu ray Box Set! Coming Smegtember 2019!”
Doug became a writer because his dad bought a cottage for 200 quid in the middle of nowhere to do up. The opening scene of the end. Is Doug being his dads fetcher of screwdrivers etc. Rob and Doug wrote the pilot for the end, in that cottage years later. As no distractions, in the middle of nowhere. Might as well be deep space.
Blu ray delay. Is due to “getting it right”. BBC archives pre digital era and cataloguing. Etc The shows are ok and look better. Early series from TX masters as they don’t have original rushes. Some of the bonus content or extras are proving hard to source.
Working hard to make series XIII. That’s all I can say. At this time. Uk tv are amazing and have all the energy. We are working through issues.
“Doug will often write without knowing exactly where the story will end up. #DJXX” Not surprised tbh. His episodes do suffer from structure issues IMO.
Expected considering Doug didn’t do a song-and-dance number about XIII getting confirmed when he first came on-stage. Oh well.
So not announced any official series commission. All the cast and Doug are very positive and want to do it. When the topic comes up in each q and a Ian boldsworth making a good gag out of them being “cagey” They can’t confirm more. Norman said he will be involved in a next series. Everyone else says they want to. And ask Doug. Etc
It was hosted by Ian interviewing Doug. He worded it clear about future writing. Then the audience asked directed. “Working on it” is the best he can says .
UKTV or whomever need to get their shit together and get this thing goin’, get production a-go by 2019.
I wasn’t really expecting an XIII announcement to be honest, we had to wait four years between X and XI. So since XII broadcast I haven’t really been waiting on the edge of my seat for another series to be announced right away. I’m sure it’ll happen eventually but I wouldn’t think any time soon
It does seem a bit odd not to capitalise on the phenomenal success of those two series – even if this place has been less positive once the initial shine has worn off, the commercial and critical success was amazing. I’d love to know what ‘issues’ need working through. Ah well, time will tell. Enjoying all the updates on the G&T Twitter, lots of fascinating and/or amusing snippets there. Wish I could have afforded to go to this!
I’m fairly sure the issues will be how many million the budget for the series will be and how many episodes Rob will be coming back to co-write. Also, you should win things by watching.
Last Dwarf to be filmed was in early 2016, by 2019 its going to be three years since production of the show has finished.
Great turnaround the Dave era’s got, I’m really glad we’re back to having Dwarf on our screens consistently
Last Dwarf to be filmed was in early 2016, by 2019 its going to be three years since production of the show has finished. That’s not really that big of a gap though, especially considering XII didn’t air until 2017 (which was only last year) The gap between VI and VII was four years, between VIII and BTE it was ten years, between BTE and X it was three years, and between X and XI it was four years. If XIII isn’t made until 2020 or something then that’s only three years between airing, which is about the average for the show at this point
I was just in a lift with Chris Barrie and as I got out we wished each other good night. Aww, that’s nice
It’s weird to think that Red Dwarf hasn’t been produced and broadcast on a yearly basis since 1993, despite its revival. I assume that the ‘issues’ that need to be overcome to confirm Series XIII are practical ones regarding cast availability and such, rather than creative ones. Is that not the case?
That’s not really that big of a gap though It is in comparison to almost every other show on UK television.
Rob Grant is wearing an Ace Rimmer T-shirt from the looks of it. its nice to see he is still a good sport with the show even after all these years.
A live commentary on The end. Paul, rob and ed. And 75 making of photos never seen from the first show from robs brother.
What did you give Si though? That’s between us, and will remain so until we discover the source of the infection.
To answer the above question Ridley. The “mad” in Jonsmad, beyond my love of Comedy things like Dwarf being Mad comedy etc, comes from my early email address choice of name and being involved with internet sites for the band Madness since the 90s. Si being a fellow band fan, and also my friend Mark who i now go to dimension jump’s with, being a fan of the band, we have a 3 time tradition now of managing to chat about what the band are up to during Dimension Jump as a tiny break from all the Dwarf Fandom. So we dragged Si into this briefly this year, nice to finally meet him, with a gift of a related DVD from a charity project that i do that involves the bands sax player. A gave si a “Madheads unite” wristband as well. Smegheads and Mad heads together!
A couple of things from my Sunday Coffee lounge with Ed Bye, Paul Jackson, Rob Grant, Mac and Ian Boldsworth. Meeting Paul Jackson was amazing, he wasn’t announced in advance and I spent two days with my brain spinning from the news when they revealed him as a guest Friday night, which lasted until the coffee lounge chat Sunday. I’ve been lucky with many great times, but nothing has gob smacked me with genuine jaw drop to this level, like this did for decades. Mainly for the way it was revealed, and no time to comprehend it. Along with the fact his TV work lead to all this Red Dwarf, and also brought my favourite band to my ears for the first time through Madness appearing on the young ones. Sadly i had no young ones stuff with me to get signed. But i had remember to bring my favourite band T-shirt so wore that for the occasion and proudly pointed at it when Paul sat down, and started gushing with thanks about his role in them on the young ones, Ian boldsworth chipping in “Paul, He thinks you are Suggs” he pointed out hilariously joining the table. Paul was lovely and very happy to talk about them and even talking about booking them onto Benidorm recently too. (Ed Bye was also happy to talk about The Young ones saying he edited most of series two) Back to Dwarf I asked a paul a bit more about the commission of 7 episodes of red dwarf early on when they delivered only 6, and used the other slot to do re-shoots for the end etc. When pressed for details he said it was probably Peter Risdale Scott at BBC Manchester lying on the phone saying something like “their was a mistake on the original commissioning form” saying he was very good at defending them on stuff like that.
Paul said the bcc was very unique at admin of that nature, and he some times would get phone calls, from the bbc, about over spends from shows, once even two years after he had left wanting to talk about £3k on a budget overspend. It was fun asking Ian if he knew his character from Mcorp was in the red dwarf XII game. He said the fan club had told him. That it was probably even more amazing just, than being in the show. He knows Johnny Vegas, and he said that once they had both unlocked each other as characters within the game, they would send each other screen shots of game, with them killing each other’s characters in the most bizzarre poses. acting out a twisted faced pose and then turning to Paul and saying proudly at least my character wasnt Pink! cus johnny was a policeman in the show. Paul said he had seen it. Mac was also great, and when asked about working with Rik Mayal on the new statesman, told a story about how he had met rik breifly from passing on the comedy circuit a few times, and then at the canteen when he has at the new statesman day he was sitting eating his lunch at a table and suddently felt something pulling at his legs, and dissappeared under the table to find rik jumping on him and hugging him going “You are great, i love your act”
Then Rob Grant sat down with us, and he was nearly slightly at tear point, and in very good mood, and really enjoying the display of love for the show he was witnessing, he started to say how dimension jump was slightly overwhelming for him. Kerry from the facebook posse group, broke out in to crying to meet him, and rob said he hadnt been to dimension jump before. I think he said this because its been sooooo long, he doesnt realise that he attended the very early ones, under the same title and same fan club, but of course run by actually different people in the team. He said he had attended an early convention for the show. He had walked in, and a couple of guys had seen him, and one had said flippantly “this must be a big wank for you” and he dismissed the experience as weird. This time clearly he was seeing lots of genuine love for his work and it was changing his opinions for the better clearly. He spoke about doing a second Quanderhorn radio series, and working on writing and appearing in The Nether Regions – a twlight zone parody title, sketch show.
There was a funny moment where Paul Jackson, on another table, clearly said something brilliant and his whole table laughed in loud genuine applause to his anecdote on the show. Ed Bye was at our table, and he suddenly went into directing mode and told us all to laugh louder on cue after three. We happily took his directing and hammed it right up! Paul leaned back on his chair and shouted “fuck off” at Ed, flicking him the v’s. And immediately the other two tables joined in a competition as Mac and Rob ordered their guests to fight back in their honour.
Ending Dimension Jump, with Rob, Paul, and Ed, doing a commentary on The End on stage, was something I would have happily paid for separately of this event, and such a perfect cherry on a cake already stuffed with cream. Ed cheering his shots and special effects, Paul mocking Rob whenever exposition heavy scenes appeared on screen by saying “this is called pipe laying” plenty of friendly digs back at Norman, who had moaned at them all during his set the night before that he wasn’t given enough credit for moaning about being “seen on screen”, much disgust at Craig’s testicles etc, and even old man speech of “ohh those were the days when you could read the credits” Paul Jackson’s sheer enthusiasm for the appearance of the character of “the cat” late into the programmes last moments, in praise of writing concept and its performance, was wonderful to witness and made me watch a show ive seen far too many times through fresh eyes again. Along with Rob Grant saying “i like writing pilots the most, its writing the rest of the bloody series i dont like” and “i rarely watch episodes back like this. havnt for a long time” made this feel like a uniquely rare version of a true celebration of the show we love. Happy 30 years Red Dwarf, and happy 20th event Dimension Jump.
That was lovely to read Jonsmad. Thank you. Good to hear that they’re all still so fond of the show and enjoy each other’s company and great that Rob got to experience how his work is still bringing joy to so many people.
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know who the guests were at DJ ’94, as Wikipedia doesn’t list them? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimension_Jump_(convention)
As I had talked gushingly about the young ones to Paul Jackson and jogged his early memories of TV he said later “we had Chris Barrie in ‘Happy Families’ as well”. He grinned proudly and said “He was playing me” and postured arms widely in a “ta da” pose. You mean “Filthy Rich & Catflap” Ian Boldsworth quickly interjected “The Mad director in the gallery” Ian clearly knowing his comedy and being a fan with us. “You don’t mean Happy Families, Chris was playing a gay character in that. I thought for a moment you were coming out Paul!” Then there was much appreciation for this post young ones show. With Paul saying “In secret Ben Elton wrote the whole show, Rik was off touring the young ones and on holiday” Ian again adding “well Rik is credited as additional material” then after a moan about the “Oliver” sequence, and Ian performed from memory a whole sarcastic Rik speech from the show about “Eddie catflap the man with a brain has spoken” proving even deeper love of the show. Paul said he liked the show even more than the young ones. Which it being about TV industry I can understand why it would appeal. Then heartfelt we all expressed missing Rik. Something Mac echoed later, adding his love of Flash hart upstaging the whole of blackadder.
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know who the guests were at DJ ’94, as Wikipedia doesn’t list them? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimension_Jump_(convention) My first DJ. 94 Danny John jules. Peter Wragg. His camera supervisor I think “Rocket” ? All of whom stayed in the bar with everyone for some time after the QnA talks. Jane Killick from the Smegazine journalism was also there. Possibly with a cartoonist. And pre internet they had this guy who had an electronic version of the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy. A bit like H2G2 is today. He was traveling conventions and getting us to input entry’s into this computer setup and topics were Growing etc and you could view it. Etc. In 1994 this was an interesting idea. Now a redundant thing of course and the online wikis of the world rather standard tools. There weren’t many photographs or autographs I don’t think. But group viewing episodes. Many people still hadn’t seen series I or definately were wowed to see red dwarf USA etc and even things like maid Marion episodes were a delight.
That wiki doesn’t list a lot of guests at other events too. Rebecca blackstone, Isla Ure, Richard o Calahan, And John lenahan we’re all at 2013
After the news that rob was attending, I found myself standing dressed as Rimmers dad, ready for the costume competition photos to be taken before the main event. In walked Rob, (he was wearing an ace Rimmer t shirt, it felt almost like he felt he needed it to fit in with us all today.) He smiled to see the congregation of silly dressed fans. He seemed interested and amazed coming over to check us all out. And the sense of pride and also total confusion to see some of his characters appearing in real life in front of him was apparent and also caused from Doug only characters being in the mix. As he turned his head to witness each character, we exchanged a polite “hello”, but in my mind I imagined he must have been going “Mine” “Not mine” as he walked between giant talkie toaster and giant inflatable dinosaur. I felt woefully Simon Treeves and not enough John Abineri in this brief moment.
Sounds like DJ was a fitting celebration for Red Dwarf’s 30th even if we didn’t get any announcements/blurays etc. Glad everyone had such a good time, sounds like the the tordfc lot will have a hard time topping this one.
I would say we got a state of play answer to both series XIII & Blu-ray and even Red Dwarf Live Arena. That all are still in Developement. Two are yet to reach official commission or production and one is facing further production with an official Announcement of a now January release date. The most “new exclusive” word from Doug being that what was set as 16 discs initially for series 1 to 8 on blu ray, and currently shows as 18 on Amazon, will be 19 discs. Which at the very least hints at a more extensive collecting of current DVD edition bonus content inclusion, even if we can’t quite conclude any further extras yet.
Reading this thread back conjured up so many wonderful memories, thanks to all those who took the time to update it in amongst the insanity of the weekend. And for the record, many many thanks to John for doing such an incredible job of running our Twitter when he was so fucking ill for the entire weekend. The man is a hero. Our DwarfCast was a bloody good one, by the way, but I’m afraid it won’t be ready til tomorrow at the earliest, possibly even Friday – we only got home late last night, there’s a bit of editing work to do (although not as much as you’d expect from a raucous and sizeable group of people who were either extremely tired, still rather drunk, or in many cases both), and I still need to do a few DJ wrap-up bits and bobs for the Fan Club. But there’s one thing in particular that’s worth the wait.
>I would say we got a state of play answer to both series XIII & Blu-ray and even Red Dwarf Live Arena. That all are still in Developement. Two are yet to reach official commission or production and one is facing further production with an official I take it that means in theory both 13 and Live are a “thing”, because at one point it seemed to be sounded that it would be one or the other?
Paul Jackson always seems like the most interesting, intelligent, focused, modest, principled, and all round stand-up good guy. He doesn’t suffer fools, but he gets results. The ideal kind of boss (just don’t be late). I’d like to meet him.
13 is definately a thing, Chris seems up for it, polite of it, more sceptical and perhaps therefore either impatient more so than the others, or the one most asked about it by fans. The rest of the cast including Norman all say they are involved in some way and want to do it. (Not including Mac / Chloe / Hattie in that) Doug says uktv want it. He is professional about not announcing it as a commission as not everything is in place. We aren’t at a production schedule. Live was only mentioned as thing that’s happening by Robert, I think from memory. I think it would be good, because I believe it would celebrate the show, I think Doug can pull it off and the boys deserve the kind of cash Monty Python took home for their long term service to an underfunded British sitcom. Even if dvd sales give them good %. But 13 is clearly in “talks” and “Live” more a desired plan on a wish list.
I don’t really think Red Dwarf is the type of show that should get a Monty Python type stage show, since its not a sketch based show. Now from what it sounds like Doug is gonna turn it into a sketch based story with the cast redoing scenes from early series, but that seems like such an over ambitious attempt to turn to make the show into something it shouldn’t be with the idea that with Red Dwarf you can do anything aslong as you have a sci-fi esk plot device. Then again i am one of those people that thought Doug went too far with Back to earth too and the whole knocking down the forth wall and then repair it because of (enter plot device here). Sometimes just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
>But 13 is clearly in “talks” and “Live” more a desired plan on a wish list. Thank you, that’s excellent news as far as I’m concerned.
I don’t really think Red Dwarf is the type of show that should get a Monty Python type stage show, since its not a sketch based show. Now from what it sounds like Doug is gonna turn it into a sketch based story with the cast redoing scenes from early series, but that seems like such an over ambitious attempt to turn to make the show into something it shouldn’t be with the idea that with Red Dwarf you can do anything aslong as you have a sci-fi esk plot device. Then again i am one of those people that thought Doug went too far with Back to earth too and the whole knocking down the forth wall and then repair it because of (enter plot device here). Sometimes just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Not a sketch show? Have you seen Dear Dave ;-p I’m sure many would agree with what you say. I think the general attitude around here isnt that positive for it happening. Ive seen some good bottom stage shows that manage a good sitcom plot in a two hour stage show (Mainly the first one). And Still Game live is the best example i have seen. That show wowed me with how it handled multiple types of character comedy and audience participation and use of an arena space, even going “Meta” when it was far less suited to do so, than red dwarf would be, and it delighted near a million people in arenas, for a great night out over a couple of sell out weeks. Ive seen red dwarf characters work in sitcom, and in comedy drama, and in staying in character while presenting to camera as linking devices, and even be amusing in a variety style cooking show. And while the sitcom is the more re-veered mode for the best that dwarf has been, I think Doug could write a show as good as Still Game live was, incorporating a new plot along side some time for old favorite themes to reappear. Especially as series XI and XII had lots of that fact. And people at dimension jump this weekend, loved Danny singing tongue tied, with other fans praising the fact he did. You are always going to get crowd pleasing celebrating or repeated moments like that, as well as other fans rolling their eyes in boredom at that kind of thing. But to end an arena show on a musical high, the theme tune musical element of the show would need to be there at the final moments, howard goodall on standbye.
>Ive seen some good bottom stage shows that manage a good sitcom plot in a two hour stage show (Mainly the first one). Aside from the fourth one (what the fuck happened there?) I thought all the Bottom stage shows managed to do a pretty decent plot. The fifth one falls apart a little in the last 5 minutes, but generally I thought the stage shows managed to sustain themselves throughout
I would prefer Red Dwarf to keep doing TV series instead of a stage show. It worked with Bottom which in it’s nature was slapstick and not taken too seriously. But if Red Dwarf did one you would never get a perfect version of it filmed without multiple instances of smeg ups, corpsing etc, so how this would be then be released and tie in with the show’s canon would surely be problematic?
Only as problematic as the differences between the novels, the smeg up link exsistance, telethon, can’t smeg won’t smeg, And the tv show with erm itself! Beyond that we are fine! It would be a fun night out for laughs and could be considered its own thing.
Well Doug has said it will be “unique stand alone story” thats just for the stage show. I could see why a novel or movie would work for the show… but a stage show? similar to Monty Python?
Comparison’s to python at the 02 are more in the speculation of money to be made, or how that show managed to fill a big space with set design and a little more music than was present in previous python work. Still game, a sell out at the glasgow hydro arena is far more the model, if the live show was to take place, and Dr who live that ran at Wembley arena that involved daleks and weeping angels circulating in the crowd etc. You could have a tribe of gelfs or whatever. Still game, managed a plot much like the bottom live shows do, managed to break the forth wall and talk to the audience, like bottom stage shows did with asides, and the odd cock up for laughs. there would be room for the cast to joke about age, lateness of lines etc like theatre comedy can accomadate, or reading the lines off a prompt if they cant manage a whole long theatre show of dialogue. I’m not beyond thinking a large section of fans might hate it, but they hate timewave too, and this show / brand cant last forever we must be nearing the end, and i would love to see a stage celebration bring in cash for those who have dedicated themselves to this work for pretty much their adult lives, before it becomes impossible to ever do so, while fans get a great night out, when only a few are lucky enough to get that from TV recordings.
As long as the guys learn their lines (I mean they won’t be working a punishing TV schedule so should be okay) and perform an actual story as the characters, I’m all good with it. Don’t want to watch them tripping over their lines and dicking around for 90 minutes, with some additional scripted smeg ups thrownbin.
>Don’t want to watch them tripping over their lines and dicking around for 90 minutes, I just get the feeling that this is the point of it. It just seems to be an attempt to try to recapture the atmosphere of a studio record, and part of that is the fuck-ups and audience interaction. If that’s what you’re selling the show on (and I think the Bottom stage-shows were *absolutely* that) , then something’s gone a bit wrong. And if they’re taking it “seriously”, I don’t know what the stage show would offer them that can’t be accomplished within the normal format. After all, the audience is normally the first thing to go when they want to do something different.
Well there is that. Even if they wrote an absolutely stonking show, I’d still rather watch it as a great episode of Red Dwarf.
Here’s the reason the DwarfCast’s late, but it’s better than anything I’ve ever done for G&T, so it’s fair enough:
Johnny Vegas funnier in this than Timewave. American lister so great he thinks like we mostly do about the show and I Do want a Hudzen spin off now! No Ryan gage due to song rights on YouTube?
Craig Bierko is very supportive of the show, he follows the cast, fanclub and HQ on twitter and is a good sport about the american attempt of the show.
It does go to show that the average age of the guest cast has not always kept up with that of the main cast. Then again, Red Dwarf has always liked showcasing emerging talent.
>No Ryan gage due to song rights on YouTube? Ryan said that he’d like to upload that video himself at some point, so we left it out :)
Rob grant must have been totally overwhelmed by the response he got. i remember reading several comments about people going up to him saying how much he had been an influence to them. with some added tears going around and star struck excitement.
> Ryan said that he’d like to upload that video himself at some point, so we left it out :) Oh, I hope he does. Just watched the video again. It’s a shame you couldn’t get Eternal to wish Red Da-warf a happy 30th anniversary. Still, the Howard Goodall thing is quite good I suppose.
Obviously I was joking and the whole video is great but, come to think of it, Eternal would have been hilarious.
Obviously I was joking and the whole video is great but, come to think of it, Eternal would have been hilarious. I genuinely tried to get Sir Patrick Stewart :)
Was there any update on if they get to a XIII series if Baby Cow are to be involved? It seemed it was pretty successful in producing 2 series of dwarf, which is more than the rest of the Dave era shows put together and with a lot less problems than X.
