Question Paul Jackson

Did Danny John-Jules really see a set builder pulling out a nail with his teeth when you directed an episode of Red Dwarf IV?

I ended up seeing the 80/90s episode of this recorded yesterday.

While there were no specific references to Red Dwarf (unfortunately), it was an interesting, nostalgic discussion about some of the UK’s ‘best-loved alternative comedy’ series, and one which touched on items G&T have written at length about in reference to Dwarf, e.g. the move from a radio series to TV, and the difficulties of moving from the BBC the commercial broadcasters (in reference to ad breaks etc).

Budget restrictions we’re also called out as something to be welcomed as it often gives the production team something tangible to creativly bounce off – unlimited doesn’t equal better. It was almost as though they’d structured the discussion around G&T’s quality content. (Okay, maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration).

Sadly, there wasn’t actually a Q&A in the end, but nonetheless lovely to hear directly from Paul Jackson (hosting), Beryl Vertue (briefest of Sherlock mentions though assume they’ll cut that from the broadcast – they have no current plans in stone for more episodes), Jimmy Mullville and John Lloyd.

It’ll air on Radio 4 Extra on April 1st from 9am – noon (repeated again on that evening). The discussion took a couple of hours to record but it’ll air full episodes of comedy shows in between (hence the 3 hour duration).