Let’s Talk About The Nether Regions News Posted by Ian Symes on 24th October 2019, 20:37 Ooh, that sounds a bit rude, doesn’t it! Nevertheless, the time has come to not only hear new comedy material from one of Red Dwarf‘s co-creators, but to hear it in his own voice. Rob Grant and Andrew Marshall have written *and* performed Radio 4’s The Nether Regions, also starring Helen Cripps, Edward Rowett and Holly Morgan, and it airs tonight at 11pm on BBC Radio 4. It will also be available thereafter on BBC Sounds and the programme page, for those too sleepy. This broadcast pilot, which was produced by Hudzen 10, marks a return to sketch comedy from two of its most distinguished exponents, and we’re very much looking forward to it. Do let us know what you reckon. And if you haven’t already, why not warm up by listening to our interview with the pair of writer-performers?
E-Norm-ous Casting News News Posted by Ian Symes on 23rd October 2019, 15:27 Today, a readthrough is taking place for the forthcoming Red Dwarf special. Dave have already tweeted a photo of the front page of the script, and now Baby Cow Productions have posted a lovely little cast photo on Instagram. The guys are all there, there’s Danny, Craig, Chris, Robert and… oh wait… We were already aware that Norman’s presence in the special was a possibility after Richard Naylor responded in the affirmative to a question about plans to involve Holly, but I guess this confirms it. Norman Lovett will appear for a second consecutive episode of Red Dwarf. Thanks to Joey Newsome for the heads-up.
DwarfCast 103 – Rob Grant & Andrew Marshall Interview DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 22nd October 2019, 11:14 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes No, really. Ahead of their new sketch show pilot The Nether Regions airing on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 24th October at 11pm, Rob Grant and Andrew Marshall invited your intrepid DwarfCast team of Ian Symes, Danny Stephenson and Jo Sharples for a big old chat at Rob's kitchen table. We touched upon the "terrifying" experience of performing in front of an audience, the intricacies of their writing process, the sketches and characters that didn't make the final cut, their "bloody magnificent" producer Gordon Kennedy, and also got the latest on Quanderhorn Series 2. And yes, we also discussed another show that Rob co-created, covering his experiences at Dimension Jump, being back on set for the first time since the 90s, and the possibility of him ever writing for Red Dwarf again. All this, plus 2point4 Children, Son of Cliché, Strange, Week Ending and how Rob's The Strangerers caused unexpected problems for one of Andrew's series. We also grill Andrew about his connection to Marvin The Paranoid Android, get Rob's thoughts on the proposed return of Spitting Image, his friendship with Martin Kemp, and how he pissed off Billy Ocean when they were both on Top of the Pops. A huge, huge thank you to Rob and Andrew for their candid, thoughtful and hilarious interview. Read more →
OFFICIAL: Red Dwarf Special Announced! News Posted by Ian Symes on 18th October 2019, 00:03 After the merest Morse-based mumblings on Thursday afternoon, the news we've all been waiting for dropped in the very early hours of Friday morning. It's quite late at night and we've got work in the morning, so here's the short version: NEW FEATURE LENGTH SPECIAL! THREE-PART RETROSPECTIVE DOCUMENTARY! LIVE AUDIENCE! RECORDING IN DECEMBER! AIRING NEXT YEAR! TOS, of course, has some finer details, and here are our initial bleary-eyed thoughts... Read more →
DwarfCast 102 – Series XII Retrospective Byte Two DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 12th October 2019, 15:22 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes Following last week's celebration of Series XII's second anniversary, we're back to celebrate Series XII's second second anniversary, with what's possibly the happiest and most overall positive DwarfCast we've ever done on the subject of Dave-era Red Dwarf. It's Byte Two of our series retrospective, with John Hoare, Tanya Jones, Danny Stephenson and Ian Symes returning to ruminate on Mechocracy, M-Corp and Skipper, as well as assessing the series, and indeed the XI and XII production block, as a whole. Along the way we discuss alternative pronunciations of "Mechocracy", how episodes of Red Dwarf are in fact cobbled together from CCTV footage, invisible dildos, the logistics of owning planets, why Mr Rat is a fried egg chilli chutney sandwich face, and alternative pronunciations of the word "grimace". Because this was recorded several months ago, there's also speculation that Skipper might be the last ever episode of Red Dwarf, which seems increasingly less likely after the events of the last few days, but never mind. Read more →
Give me an R, give me an E, give me a D, give me a Red Dwarf… Special? News Posted by Ian Symes on 10th October 2019, 12:49 There has been an increased amount of rumblings about the possibility of new Red Dwarf recently, and as usual we've been kind of ignoring it until something more concrete came along. Most notably, Robert tweeted in a reply to someone the other week that "we start making Red Dwarf XIII in November", which seemed a little too tight a turnaround to be true. But once again following the usual pattern of these things, a cast member has now posted something that reveals perhaps a little more than they intended, and we can't ignore it any more. The cast member on this occasion is Danny, who has shared a snap of the other three at what appears to be a readthrough of something... ...and that sheet of paper on the table is very intriguing indeed if you blow it up and rotate it 90 degrees counter-clockwise... Read more →
DwarfCast 101 – Series XII Retrospective Byte One DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 5th October 2019, 14:56 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes We published the first part of our Series X semi-retrospective two months after the first episode aired. For Series XI, we waited five months. Today is the second anniversary of Series XII launching on UKTV Play, so I guess it's time to admit that we no longer have a "semi" on our hands. Yes, having finally given up on the plan to get all five of us together in one room, join 80% of the G&T team - namely John Hoare, Tanya Jones, Danny Stephenson and Ian Symes - as we look back on Cured, Siliconia and Timewave. Revisiting the episodes with fresh eyes and ears, we analyse how they stand up now that they're no longer brand new, and track how our opinions have changed since our initial instant reactions. Spoilers: we're still not keen on Timewave. Along the way we discuss Doug's obsession with castration, Uncle Frank's questionable true nature, the purpose of James Buckley, a surfeit of MILFs, how annoying it is to have coffee poured on one's bollocks, and how to fix the "spit on her wrist" joke with one simple word substitution. Read more →
G&TV Special: Smegheads In Seattle Features Posted by Ian Symes on 22nd September 2019, 15:24 Here's an incredible find that was first brought to our attention by Tom Selway on Twitter at the start of August, just a few days after it surfaced on YouTube. We immediately sprung in to action, opening our to-do list and pencilling it in for September's G&TV. Which would have been fine if things like TORDFC's newsletter and reddwarf.co.uk didn't exist, both of which have featured it in the meantime. Nevertheless, it's well worth sharing in case those two passed any of you by, as it's not every day you get to see a fully-fledged broadcast programme all about Red Dwarf. Before Comedy Connections and The Making of Back To Earth, but after Red Dwarf Night, there was Smegheads in Seattle. Produced and broadcast by KCTS, a local PBS affiliate serving Seattle and Tacoma in Washington, it features Craig Charles and Danny John-Jules on a visit to the eponymous city in May 1998. It's a compilation of material from various sources: one main interview by KCTS's Ken Vincent, another interview with Danny solo, viewer Q&As from two separate pledge drives for the station, at least two different convention appearances, plus a couple of specially-shot sections, which we'll come to. After it initially aired, it did the rounds as a bootleg VHS for a while, along with another show from the same station, Swirly Thing Alert, but then disappeared and slipped from the memory, until now. Read more →
DwarfCast 100 – 100th DwarfCast Special DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 1st September 2019, 13:16 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes That’s 100th DwarfCast. Not 100th PodCast like you and Skeletor think. Very nearly thirteen whole years ago, a group of young and self-important Red Dwarf fans decided to tip their toes into the barely-chartered waters of podcasting, unleashing their verrucas into the world with the first edition released on October 1st 2006. The fact that it's taken this long for the hundredth episode to come out should be a source of embarrassment and regret, but instead, brace yourself for the most self-indulgent and smug thing we've ever done: a documentary about ourselves, which runs for nearly an hour and a half. Join Jonathan Capps, John Hoare, Tanya Jones, Daniel Stephenson and Ian Symes for a look back on the history, highlights and lowlights of what is undoubtedly a podcast about Red Dwarf, ably assisted by a former regular making a one-off guest appearance many years later, reddwarf.co.uk editor Seb Patrick. We discuss the origins of DwarfCasts, the evolution of our style from ill-informed dickheads to slightly-better-informed dickheads, how the Back To Earth weekend nearly tore the group apart, and the difficulties faced when one of your hosts is on the verge of death in intensive care when he's supposed to be doing a live podcast. There's also music, testimonies from loyal listeners, and tonnes of clips of our best and worst moments - including snippets from the proto-DwarfCast episode commentaries recorded by a barely-pubescent Ian and John, previously not heard in the last fifteen years. Thankfully. Read more →
Happy New TV Years News Posted by Ian Symes on 5th August 2019, 12:15 Having previously tackled the 80s, the 90s, Christmas telly and children's telly, TV Years, Bauer Media's excellent magazine that celebrates classic British television, is back with a new sci-fi themed edition, and naturally Red Dwarf features heavily. Comics writer and, it turns out, big Red Dwarf fan, James Roberts has interviewed (separately, before anyone gets any ideas) Rob Grant and Doug Naylor about the show's development, for an in-depth feature that we're reliably informed covers "how a lunch with Ray Galton and Alan Simpson informed Red Dwarf’s opening scenes, and how an encounter with Richard Curtis profoundly affected how we would come to know the show". The magazine is out tomorrow (that's Tuesday 6th August 2019 for anyone reading this in the future), but we've been kindly provided with a little extract, concerning the end of Rob and Doug's writing partnership... Read more →
