4 Fuck’s Sake News Posted by Ian Symes on 6th January 2026, 12:34 Bizarrely, Red Dwarf is now available to stream on Channel 4. That’s a sentence that’s mind-boggling enough on its own. It’s part of a new deal between C4 and UKTV, by which certain content from U (formerly UKTV Play) is syndicated to both platforms. U currently has Series 1-VIII and X streaming, but only the first two series are there on Channel 4. This makes it the third most comprehensive collection of episodes available to stream for free in the UK, as iPlayer still has the complete set. There’s not much else to say, really – C4 are using the same episode thumbnails as U, so there’s nothing really to… OH MY CHRIST, LOOK AT THAT ARTWORK. I can see what they were going for. Red Dwarf is/was a very long running programme, with a cast line-up that has changed over the years, so it’s tricky to find an image that encompasses the show as a whole. It’s a mashup of different eras, which can be a bit jarring, but I don’t mind the concept. An odd choice perhaps to include Kochanski but not Kryten. In their defence, Kryten is only in one of the episodes that they currently have available. In their undefence, Chloe Annett isn’t in any of them. What makes this interesting though, is that if you look very closely, there are subtle clues that the images have been digitally manipulated in various ways, compared to the originals. The Series 1 Rimmer one is pretty much unchanged, whereas Series VII Kochanski and Series XII Cat‘s clothing colours have been muted, perhaps to unify the look, making it more in line with the early series colour scheme. That’s kind of fair enough. However, in the process of editing the Series VII Lister, one small detail has been overlooked. THAT IS NOT CRAIG CHARLES’S FACE. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT. I don’t like to second guess other people’s creative processes, but it’s hard to see how that could be “achieved” without the use of AI. Did they deliberately use AI to change something about the original Craig photo, or did they use AI for something else (perhaps the background, or the aforementioned colour grade) and this is a by-product that somehow didn’t get noticed? Either way, someone was tasked with creating an image for Red Dwarf‘s cover art and they were happy to submit… this. Then someone was tasked with signing it off, and they were perfectly happy to publish it. The most frustrating thing is that they have put some effort into creating something bespoke, but messed it up so badly that they’d have been better off taking literally any group shot from the archive and whacking it up unedited. Please, broadcasters, I’m begging you. I know money is tight at the moment and everyone’s feeling the pinch. But please, hire people with sufficient skills, and give them sufficient time to carry out their jobs. Don’t fall back on using AI as a cheap and fast way of doing a job that should be treated with a modicum of care. You may have saved a few quid, but when your output is this absolute monstrosity, is it really worth it?
Right, let’s see if we can pull off the same trick as we did with the Blu-Ray cover redesign. Here you go, Channel 4 bosses:
Is the image not just from here? https://www.idnes.cz/kultura/film-televize/od-cerveneho-trpaslika-k-panovi-casu.A130726_111540_filmvideo_spm
I think I’ve identified the image that the AI generator must have been drawing on for “inspiration”, but it’s an odd one to choose. Presumably this article bumped it up in prominence: https://reddwarf.co.uk/features/history/evolution-of-listers-costumes/
The Kochanski source image makes more sense of the weird hair in the alternate version that’s on the series page of the Channel 4 player.
Yeah it seems the AI has gone slightly rogue when processing the image and given Craig a new face. Very strange.
Comparing the silhouette of Lister’s hair, most of the strands and curls have been upscaled pretty faithfully… except this bit of his forehead next to Rimmer’s neck. I spy a smooth feathered outline where someone’s cut him out of the original photo!
C4 are using the same episode thumbnails as U Yes I noticed that, but also that quite a few of them are different now than when this was done: https://www.ganymede.tv/2023/06/thumbnail-wars/ Can we add this to the site banners immediately please? This needs to happen.
I think we’ve nearly got enough for a top ten Red Dwarf marketing fuck-ups retrospective. Just need to work out how this ranks along Vindalunar, the Norman Lovett clapperboard and releasing the episode titles for a future series on the back of the previous series’ Bluray.
Its fair to say all 4 of these images are AI. its just AI replicated some more accurately than others.
Yeah there’s clearly some AI work been done on all of them, what with the blue and orange spots on Rimmer’s cheek, and the growth on Kochanski’s, but fucking hell Lister looks worse every time I look at him. It truly is a monstrosity.
I always thought that was a Series VI promotional Craig because it’s on the American DVD of Series VI.
I hope this never gets fixed. It looks a bit like a cross between Craig and Max Beesley. Looking at Smeg4Brains’ gif I’ve just realised, that’s his dreadlocks you can see behind his ear in the original image isn’t it, which they’ve completely removed when they’ve cut around his head.
It also feels really cheap and lazy to throw a stock photo of Jupiter in the background of a show that takes place in deep space.
I’m far more concerned at the moment about the quite hideous thing that’s happened to Lister(‘s right arm).
Channel 4 Lister is like if they adapted Last Human in live action but decided to get someone else to play Evil Lister instead of just having Craig Charles play him.
Looks like they were just trying to fix the lighting but accidentally gave him someone else’s eyes. Pinch the mouth in a little, fill in his hair & do a sloppy job cutting it all out, I don’t think you necessarily need AI to botch it like this but I mean, who knows at this point
I think we’ve nearly got enough for a top ten Red Dwarf marketing fuck-ups retrospective. Just need to work out how this ranks along Vindalunar, the Norman Lovett clapperboard and releasing the episode titles for a future series on the back of the previous series’ Bluray. Please tell somebody out there recorded the Vinalunar stream because I am dying to see it again.
Looks like they were just trying to fix the lighting but accidentally gave him someone else’s eyes. Pinch the mouth in a little, fill in his hair & do a sloppy job cutting it all out, I don’t think you necessarily need AI to botch it like this but I mean, who knows at this point There are many tells throughout the image, though, I would be very surprised if it wasn’t AI.
The thing with the arms is the most damning. Why would anyone do that deliberately? There’s no reason I can think of to consciously make that change.
Oh there’s no doubt whatsoever that this is an AI job. I think the biggest question is how it got signed off. Half a second under the eye of anybody who’s seen Craig Charles would be enough to reject this abomination.
What’s weird is that they obviously knew enough to alter the costumes and give it a Series 1 / 2 look. And they clearly had the reference photos to hand, so even if somebody wasn’t all that familiar with Craig Charles would’ve thought “Oh, that didn’t work very well” when it spat THIS out. Chloe instead of Clare is another real puzzler.
I tried it with Gemini… And this was genuinely the response to that prompt… Obviously the award should go to something actually creative, but is it too early for G&T post of 2026?
The more I see it the more it becomes like a hellish vision of an Imagined Alistair McGowan Impression of Noel Clarke
Well, this is what Grok spat out for me so I guess it could’ve been worse… I’m just surprised they have clothes on…
I still can’t get over the fact that they removed Lister’s dreads. I know face blindness is a thing, but hair blindness?
Waiting for it to be revealed this is actually a leaked shot of the de-aged Lister from Doug’s proposed new special.
“If you use AI, you might as well die”. Craig Charles, Radio 6, just now. That has been a phrase he’s used on his show for a while tbf. At least now we know what a hybrid of Sadiq Khan & Roland Gift from the Fine Young Cannibals would look like.
“If you use AI, you might as well die”. Craig Charles, Radio 6, just now. That has been a phrase he’s used on his show for a while tbf. At least now we know what a hybrid of Sadiq Khan & Roland Gift from the Fine Young Cannibals would look like. I know. I was putting it out of context for comedic effect. Like the comedians do. dO YoU sEe?!
The C4 page currently says “Watch new series from Wed 4 Feb”. Either they’re adding Series III onwards, or this is a very underwhelming way of announcing some very big news.
Seems somewhat unlikely that they commissioned, wrote, recorded and edited a new series without anyone finding out about it, but it’s not literally impossible so sure, I’ll enjoy up to a couple weeks of hope.
Seems somewhat unlikely that they commissioned, wrote, recorded and edited a new series without anyone finding out about it, but it’s not literally impossible so sure, I’ll enjoy up to a couple weeks of hope. With AI, anything is possible.
The C4 page currently says “Watch new series from Wed 4 Feb”. Either they’re adding Series III onwards, or this is a very underwhelming way of announcing some very big news. With AI, anything is possible. Series XIII, Episode 1: Marlon Brando
Possible that, rather than just simply replacing the Lister image on their website with one that actually looks like him, they decided to double down and AI generate 6 new episodes with their version of Lister just so they can say ‘see, we knew what we were doing all along’. If we get our Marlon Brando episode out of it, I think that’s fair enough.
Hypocritical. Craig Charles uses AI every time he writes his name. Took me three weeks but I finally got this.
Took me three weeks but I finally got this. https://www.ganymede.tv/forums/topic/jokes-you-dont-didnt-get/
Technically the correct configuration of bipedal regular characters for the selection of episodes they currently have available. But more eps are being added tomorrow, so they’d have to change it twice in as many days for it to remain accurate.
Once again, the Series X promo shots are seemingly the only ones that ever get used. In that case, probably for the best that they omitted Kryten.
Technically the correct configuration of bipedal regular characters for the selection of episodes they currently have available. But more eps are being added tomorrow, so they’d have to change it twice in as many days for it to remain accurate. It has not remained accurate.
