Delbert Catkins

I’ve been doing a rewatch of lots of old (British) comedy tv shows of late, plenty from the 1980’s.  Including shows where Rob & Doug and other Red Dwarf writers wrote stuff, or related stars appear in..  

One thing I’ve noticed, don’t know if this ever came up before, is the similarities between early cat in Red Dwarf and Lenny Henry’s sitcom character Delbert Wilkins, a sharp dressed, cool obsessed, pirate radio DJ, known for loud screeches and pontificating about how great he is.  There is a scene in the early 1987 series of the Lenny Henry show sitcom where Delbert has a dream fantasy that Winston is following him down the street in a van and monitoring his suit so he can know if any creases are creeping in. This joke and a couple of other moments invite comparison between look and attitude of the characters. While obviously there is still a huge amount of differences in the characters, status and setting too. 

I note that although the Red Dwarf “The End” script and 1987 rehearsal run of the commissioned show predate this Lenny sitcom airing.  Known collaborator, Kim fuller is script  associate on the Henry sitcom, and the Delbert character appeared in the 1983 run of Three of a kind, who Rob, Doug and Kim all worked on some parts of that show. The merest of connective inspiration in this would seem to me that a retro attitude of dress and posturing visible in 80’s Brixton underlies both. 

I further wonder if the 1987/88  Delbert character show being a hit on bbc one had any effect in the changes made to make the cat a different and more connected character in the 1989 Series III of Red Dwarf.