DwarfCast 177 – Wafflemen Special #5 DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 29th August 2025, 09:37 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes The Least Used Scrotum in London After an enforced absence where it proved impossible to find an afternoon where all three of us were available and awake, we are back in your ears with a brand new DwarfCast! There was a lot to catch up on, including the new Bluray boxset, Doug’s debut children’s novel and the forthcoming audiobook releases of the TV soundtracks. Join us for a big old news round up, supplemented by a fresh stack of waffles, provided to us by you, the faithful listener/reader. Does Red Dwarf have a future on TV? What would feature in a modern day Smegazine? Are there any dream DVD extras that haven’t yet been made? What’s the best Best of the Beatles album? All this and more in our latest Wafflemen Special. DwarfCast 177 – Wafflemen Special #5 (129 MB) Show notes What would it be like if naughty German Adolf Hitler had actually spoken with the voice of the Beatles producer George Martin? Static Dress – face Patrick Wolf – The Libertine The Northern Boys – F The World Kneecap – Drug Dealin Pagans Paul Oakenfold & Kilanova – Ordinary World Danny’s playlist of interesting cover versions
Dave is no longer interested in the audience Red Dwarf used to attract. Edit: Cappsy makes the same joke 30 seconds after I posted.
I don’t especially keep up with new things, preferring to catch up on old things, but my out-of-touch, mostly-backwards-looking top 10 albums since 2000 are something like: – AFI’s The Art of Drowning (2000) – festive goth punks – William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops (2002–03) – our inevitable deaths – Lazerhawk’s Redline (2010) – pinball F1 table BGM – Chromatics’ Kill for Love (2012) – Roadhouse nights – Dead Can Dance’s Anastasis (2012) – cultural appropriation ceremony – Jess and the Ancient Ones’ self-titled (2012) – rock the altar – Miami Nights 1984’s Turbulence (2012) – waiting for ITV Schools to start vibes – Ghost’s Infestissumam (2013) – I love Satan and all his little wizards – 2814’s Birth of a New Day (2015) – free running in the dream city – Windows96’s One Hundred Mornings (2018) – it’s now safe to turn off your computer
Great to hear from you all again, I’ve missed the regular Dwarfcasts. The comments on the Blu-Ray design made me laugh. I’ve actually changed my mind on this and demand full credit, on the cover, in a slightly bigger font than the title of the boxset itself. Skeleton Blowjobs would be a great band name. I enjoyed hearing about Doug’s new book for “young young adults”, or children as they’re also known. I’m planning to read this along with my son (who is slightly older than the recommended age, but close enough), so I could maybe write a review from both a parent and child’s perspective. Cappsy saying “Dave is right out,” and me immediately hearing it in Michael Palin’s voice, despite nobody overtly calling attention to the reference, is exactly why I bloody love the Dwarfcasts. Not sure I agree with Danny on the feasibility of a CGI head replacement for Kryten – it would not only eat into the already-tight budget, but I also think you’d lose the comedic expression that comes through with Bobby’s performance. Also, after the talk of the Series 1 broadcast/Series 1 DVD time-gap being the same as the gap between Series X and now, I think we need an entire podcast dedicated to similar upsetting time comparisons. For example, slightly more time has now passed since the Out Of Time cliffhanger than elapsed between the beginning of WWI and the end of WWII. Finally, I really hope Mark Ronson and Ladbaby listen to this Dwarfcast at some point and someone catches their reaction on camera.
Cappsy takes 10 years to get to my waffle and then ignores the actual intention of my question about whether they’d mind a major mask redesign. Classic Cappsy. ily <3
Dave is no longer interested in the audience Red Dwarf used to attract. Edit: Cappsy makes the same joke 30 seconds after I posted. Cappsy actually made the joke 12 days ago
2814’s Birth of a New Day (2015) – free running in the dream city Shame it was made by a couple of Trump supporters. Having a peek through my collection for 2000s favourites…A Winged Victory for the SullenBiffy ClyroBurialCarbon Based LifeformsCarly Rae JepsenCharli XCXChvrchesThe Cooper Temple ClauseDeaf CenterDesperate JournalistFuneral for a FriendGoldmundHaimIdlewildThe Joy FormidableMax RichterRoddy WoombleSwim SchoolWeyes BloodWolf Alice
Excellent Dwarfcast as always. I’m more than okay with there being no more Red Dwarf on TV but there are some great coffee table books to be made especially the movie script. I was slightly tense listening because I thought ‘they’re not going to answer my stupid off topic Beatles question’ but you spun it into some interesting places and I’m looking forward to watching Get Back again now.
Lovely chat as always. I quite like the new blu-ray cover art (even before Dave’s improvements) – it’s definitely better than the older boxset. It’s more striking and I think doesn’t age the product in the same way even the artwork for the audio release looks dated. I definitely think Red Dwarf (on TV) is dead at this point. I genuinely think the best we could hope for is new books from Rob or Doug. Anything else I don’t think I’d be too interested in. I genuinely don’t understand why Doug hasn’t done podcasts for Red Dwarf. Particularly the Dave era. Remember when he said he had an idea for commentaries because they weren’t on the DVDs? I’m sure he was going to either do his own commentaries and release them as podcasts or get the cast to do them. It would be so trivial these days and they could market it as an “official rewatch podcast” to go alongside every other show that’s doing their own these days. Speaking of “official” – no mention of the “official Red Dwarf convention”. There was a lot of talk about a Doctor Who magazine style thing doing deep deep dives on Red Dwarf. I honestly think the fandom, and primarily you three are the only people that are ever going to get anywhere close to content like that these days. It might be a case of if you want it, do it yourself (a lot is already done on here anyway) as we’re not going to get anything official ever I doubt. I hate you for those time gap mentions. Whilst series X doesn’t feel “new” to me, it’s close enough to XI and XII which do still feel like “the latest modern Red Dwarf” that to hear it released 13 years ago and has the same distance as the DVDs to series 1 is distressing. In terms of music. Given you’re not that much older than me I found it interesting your gut reaction is that you don’t listen to or like a lot of 21st century music. I won’t list it all off but Flap Jack’s list would cross over with mine in a lot of ways. There’s so much great music from the last 25 years and there’s load more being released. And my tastes stretch right back to the 70s. I guess there’s a big difference in that a lot of the good music isn’t on the radio these days. You could more or less guarantee the great, big artists all being TOTP bands up until the early 00s. And whilst I don’t listen to chart radio, I know at least some of the bands I listen to will have featured at some point.
I don’t know, I’ve kept exploring new and old music for decades and it still seems the most interesting stuff was done in the 70s-90s, at least as far as the things I know about like classic rock and prog, punk, metal subgenres, early electronic and ambient, soundtracks. There didn’t seem to be a lot of room left for new artists to make their mark, not their fault. My favourite discoveries these days are more likely to be fossils like Rudimentary Peni. Though I’m aware that this cut-off point coincides with my teens like everyone’s does about everything, so probably isn’t a universal law.
I don’t disagree that a lot of really interesting music was created in those three decades, I just think there’s also a wealth of really interesting and invigorating music created in the last 3 decades too Some of that is bands that formed before the turn of the millennium, but there’s much newer artists doing some really cool things. Of course it’s all subjective, but it’s there. If we look at the last 30 years, and take bands where they’re predominantly known for their work in the 21st century (so may have formed late 90s but their body of work is mostly 2000 onwards) Against Me! Alkaline Trio Amyl and the Sniffers Angels and Airwaves Arctic Monkeys (not a huge fan but they are a big band of the last 20 years) Avril Lavigne Baby Queen Biffy Clyro blink-182 Boxcar Racer Chappell Roan Charli XCX Chvrches Creeper Destroy Boys Ellur Hot Milk Kenny Hoopla The Killers Linkin Park MGK Muse My Chemical Romance P!nk Paramore Pendulum Sincere Engineer The Subways Sum 41 Transplants And that’s ignoring all the fairly generic pop-punk and emo bands doing a lot of the same thing but still that are still great, and all the bands doing the clubs and festivals that will never make a career out of music but are still some of the best bands going. Then there’s the likes of Amy Winehouse, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Adele, and probably a bunch of other people I don’t personally listen to but that are often considered some of the best in the industry.
A huge amount of musical originality has been tied up with technological advances, so yes, we’ve had a lot less strikingly new music this century than in the last. But that doesn’t mean there’s not originality, whether that’s through recontextualising older sounds – a lot of stuff in the broader ‘internet music’ category that includes hypnagogic pop, hauntology, vaporwave, deconstructed club, hyperpop, future garage and various other genres with silly names, all of which have taken older, generally forgotten or unfashionable styles, and reshaped and reframed them in new lights, often appealing to people who didn’t enjoy their origins – or bringing new attitudes and themes to existing music – artists like Sophie, who combined bubblegum pop with industrial and IDM and made her music about queerness and trans identity, and became widely known and acclaimed as a result, something that would never have happened even 15 years ago. While there’s still a lot of vapid, manufactured nonsense around, the 21st century has also seen a huge rise in pop stars – in the mainstream pop sense – who take creative control of their music, lyrics, image and marketing, choose their producers and collaborators and have things to say, bringing artistry to an area which was an arid wasteland for the ’90s and a lot of the ’80s. On the surface level, there are fewer new sounds around, but in terms of creativity and ideas, music has never been more exciting and vibrant. And if you really do want completely new sounds, they’re all coming out of working class black culture, as they historically always have: dubstep, grime, drill, juke, footwork, trap.
The Smegazine fanzine project has indeed stalled, mostly because of a change in my circumstances (left my day job at the end of January) but there also weren’t as many people willing to draw or write comics as I’d hoped so it was looking like being 90% written material. There might be a point where it can be made to work and I have everyone who expressed interest/ideas noted so we shall see! I would keep an eye on the listing for the new audiobooks on Audible because I imagine a ‘preview’ button with 5 minutes of each should appear at some point.
On the surface level, there are fewer new sounds around, but in terms of creativity and ideas, music has never been more exciting and vibrant. I am extremely surface level with just liking sounds and mood, not even caring about lyrics most of the time, let alone technicality and context, so thanks for the round-up!
…but there also weren’t as many people willing to draw or write comics as I’d hoped so it was looking like being 90% written material.
Oh and I can’t be hating on that ‘Mad World’ cover because I associate it with Donnie Darko which is still brilliant, I rewatched it a few years back.
Oh and I can’t be hating on that ‘Mad World’ cover because I associate it with Donnie Darko which is still brilliant, I rewatched it a few years back. Yeah me too, it’s always linked with that movie in my mind.
Maybe LadBaby could use his ill gotten gains to fund some new Red Dwarf episodes? Possibly if it was agreed to edit some past ones to his satisfaction?
Oh and I can’t be hating on that ‘Mad World’ cover because I associate it with Donnie Darko which is still brilliant, I rewatched it a few years back. I want to rewatch this movie but I’m slightly afraid that it’s going to seem vapid and pretentious compared to how it came across when I was 16.
I guess this is the place to write future waffles? i was watching a Rerun of ‘The One Jasper Carrott’ on BBC Four recently, it was part of 2 or 3 special ‘The One’ shows, another was with Ronnie Corbett (the well known sketch with him and Harry Enfield ’Blackberry’ is in it) anyway it was produced in 2011 and on the end credits for extra material? Rob Grant Doug Naylor! this was not a clips show it was all new material! So were the two writing together in 2011 or is it old Carrott’s Lib material or something?
It’s probable they both just separately provided material, I think. I did notice when watching his 1999 ‘Back to The Front’ show that it was co-written by Paul Alexander, who was on the writing team for VII and VIII, so there’s a connection there.
I adore Jasper Carrott, but I don’t think he’s had any new material for at least thirty years. I’d put money on Rob and Doug’s credit being for reused material.
I adore Jasper Carrott, but I don’t think he’s had any new material for at least thirty years. In his defence, he showed up at the Birmingham Glee Club as an unbilled act a few years back when I was there one night, trying out some new stuff off written notes. It was a bit unrefined though, I guess still in the very early stages. He still got a great response from the local crowd though.
I adore Jasper Carrott, but I don’t think he’s had any new material for at least thirty years. I’d put money on Rob and Doug’s credit being for reused material. Same, always been a big fan of his, but yeah even by the late 90’s he was reusing some already well known stuff. Interestingly i recently stumbled across a video of him on YouTube performing at the Isle of Wight Festival this year, and his act was still alot of old stuff, stuff from the one jasper carrott and a few new bits
Finally got this listened to. Lovely to hear the mellifluous tones of the wafflemen again after such a long break. If TV Red Dwarf really is finished for good, how do people feel about new stuff in a different medium but set in the telly universe? Audio episodes set in various eras of the show could work but they’d have to get the tone bang on. I’m not sure whether I’d prefer a reboot or, if it was a novel, either a reboot or a story set in the existing novels continuity (i.e. a sequel to Backwards). I know that Smallville carried on as a comic book, and there are novels and comic books set in the Batman Burtonverse, Star Wars canon novels and so on, but I can’t imagine that kind of thing working very well for Red Dwarf now. Comics would be even more difficult to get right than audio. I’m reading the Smegazine for the first time along with Danny and Cappsy but they never quite managed it in Volume 1 imo. What I really wouldn’t like the idea of would be anything set after TPL – it’d just be really sad that it wasn’t on TV.
If TV Red Dwarf really is finished for good, how do people feel about new stuff in a different medium but set in the telly universe? Red Dwarf has a specific voice and style, which it hasn’t even managed to keep up itself all the time, so I think it’d be tough to have other people writing it and feeling authentic (more so than Doctor Who or something, where writers can capture specific Doctors and companions well, but that format feels more flexible anyway). Maybe they’d get lucky and find a writer who’d end up writing really good Red Dwarf, but the audience would be so small that it’d be a tough sell – and if they’re that good anyway, they should probably focus on their own indie sci-fi comedy.
If it’s not TV, I’d like more novels, by Rob and/or Doug. If neither of those are happening, audios with the original cast might work. A comic might be interesting (and I’d prefer a longform series rather than short Smegazine-style strips) but despite loving comics it’s not my preference over those first two.
If it’s not TV, I’d like more novels, by Rob and/or Doug. If neither of those are happening, audios with the original cast might work. A comic might be interesting (and I’d prefer a longform series rather than short Smegazine-style strips) but despite loving comics it’s not my preference over those first two. And if none of those end up happening… they could always try and make a movie.
One chapter into Sin Bin Island, and there’s already a mysterious series of notes inside a Babushka doll, that seem to be Cassandra-like future communications, good vibes. One of the quoted reviews calls It Goonies as a novel and Craig Charles is quoted as calling a movie franchise waiting to happen that he wants a part in!
And the real test it got laughs from the 7 year old in my house, reading along with me. Some of the school bully stuff in chapter 2 reminded me of Rimmer school days , the Timeslides torture with ants video.
