Line sharing in the original 6 Seasons

[Asclepius]

All %s are rounded to the nearest figure. No-one taking <0.5% is recorded (hence to Clare Grogan in Season Six, for example).

In the Season One scripts, Craig gets 39% of the lines, Chris 36%, Holly 9% and Cat 4%. One-off guests total 4%, with Mac McDonald, Tony Hawks, Clare Grogan, Paul Bradley and John Lenahan getting 1% each.

In Season Two, Craig gets less lines – 34%, with Chris also getting less – 31%. Holly increases to 11% (mainly due to Queeg) and Danny increases to 10%. One-off guests also total 10%, with David Ross, Mac McDonald, Tony Hawks and Clare Grogan all also getting 1% each.

In Season Three, Craig again gets fewer lines – 32%, with Chris getting just 30%. New arrival Robert gets 15%, with Danny taking 11%. Holly’s taking is drastically reduced to just 5%, which is lower than the one-off guest percentage of 6%. Mike Agnew takes an additional 1%.

Season Four. Craig’s line takings collapse to just 25%. Chris and Robert have 24% each. Danny gets 11% still. Guest actors take 9% of the total, with Holly getting, again, just 5%. David Ross, Tony Hawks and Richard Ridings take 1% each.

Season Five. Craig increases slightly to 26%, and Robert takes 25%, with Chris behind on just 22%. Danny takes 10% – his lowest since Season One. Holly takes just 4%. Guest actors take a whopping 13%.

Finally – for now – Season Six. Robert leads the pack with 27%, Craig 26% still, and Chris on 23%. Danny gets 14% – his highest ever. Guest actors take 9%.

That’s it. No analysis. Enjoy. Or not.

Topic

[Flap Jack]

Interesting, thank you for the number crunching.

I am a bit confused about why Norman and Hattie (and Danny in Series 1) have had their personhood taken away. A compliment to their acting skills, perhaps?

[Technopeasant]

Dress it up a little more and you could get this as a guest article.

[Dave]

In the Season One scripts, Craig gets 39% of the lines, Chris 36%

[Technopeasant]

I am a bit confused about why Norman and Hattie (and Danny in Series 1) have had their personhood taken away. A compliment to their acting skills, perhaps?

You are suggesting they were anything less than consumate method actors?

[Warbodog]

Good stuff. I don’t know if it tells us much about anything, but that’s not your responsibility.

[Asclepius]

Interesting, thank you for the number crunching.
I am a bit confused about why Norman and Hattie (and Danny in Series 1) have had their personhood taken away. A compliment to their acting skills, perhaps?

Interesting, thank you for the number crunching.
I am a bit confused about why Norman and Hattie (and Danny in Series 1) have had their personhood taken away. A compliment to their acting skills, perhaps?

Because I am an appalling checker. Yes, totally my mistake.

[Asclepius]

Dress it up a little more and you could get this as a guest article.

I could. But while running Excel code to look stuff up and then writing it down and colour coding it as something that I find Very Relaxing and De-stressing, the actual writing up of anything is very stressful. I’m happy to send all the raw data to anyone who wants to Make Something Of It. I’m also happy to continue with it if anyone knows where I can find Series IX-Promised Land scripts.

Btw what *was* fun was creating rolling-averages every six episodes. Robert becomes the third main character by Last Day. And the second-main character by DNA. Drops back to third in Meltdown. Up to second by Demons and Angels. Becomes main character by Legion. Drops back briefly by Gunmen and reclaims it again by Out of Time.

[Asclepius]

In the Season One scripts, Craig gets 39% of the lines, Chris 36%

I laughed.

[Asclepius]

Good stuff. I don’t know if it tells us much about anything, but that’s not your responsibility.

Yeah. I like crunching numbers. I don’t like doing Key Findings and/or Recommendations.

[Flap Jack]

Because I am an appalling checker. Yes, totally my mistake.

No problem, it’s easily done, but now I’ve got to know how you ended up double-quoting.

[Dave]

Because I am an appalling checker. Yes, totally my mistake.

No problem, it’s easily done, but now I’ve got to know how you ended up double-quoting.

You just put a blockquote in a blockquote.

[Jenuall]

Nice! I did something similar myself a while back when I was interested to see how Hattie’s lines stacked up against Norm’s.

However, line numbers is one thing but word count is another. I’d be interested to see how this evolves over time as well as I suspect it would tell even more of a story. For example I suspect that not only is Cat getting a very low number of lines, but they are also some of the shorter ones so his overall percentage contribution could be even lower than suggested here.

Likewise it would be interesting to see if some of the longer lines that characters get at times are significant enough to influence their overall percentage contribution in a meaningful way – as someone’s quantity of lines drop is that offset by an increase in the length of those lines etc.

[Dave]

I think another consideration is that the number of lines or words doesn’t necessarily equate directly to a character’s presence. Danny has done a lot of ‘silent’ acting over the course of the series, particularly in those early years. And a lot of gags involve long setups from one character and quick payoffs from another. So more lines doesn’t automatically equal a more meaningful share of the show.

[Flap Jack]

You just put a blockquote in a blockquote.

You just put a blockquote in a blockquote.

You just put a blockquote in a blockquote.

[Asclepius]

Nice! I did something similar myself a while back when I was interested to see how Hattie’s lines stacked up against Norm’s.
However, line numbers is one thing but word count is another. I’d be interested to see how this evolves over time as well as I suspect it would tell even more of a story. For example I suspect that not only is Cat getting a very low number of lines, but they are also some of the shorter ones so his overall percentage contribution could be even lower than suggested here.
Likewise it would be interesting to see if some of the longer lines that characters get at times are significant enough to influence their overall percentage contribution in a meaningful way – as someone’s quantity of lines drop is that offset by an increase in the length of those lines etc.

I 100% agree. I did try word count, but the way the available online scripts are formatted made it impossible, sadly. Unless anyone has them written up/coded where lengthy lines all appear one line if pasted into, say, notepad.

[Asclepius]

I think another consideration is that the number of lines or words doesn’t necessarily equate directly to a character’s presence. Danny has done a lot of ‘silent’ acting over the course of the series, particularly in those early years. And a lot of gags involve long setups from one character and quick payoffs from another. So more lines doesn’t automatically equal a more meaningful share of the show.

Absolutely. Also interesting to see, though, that almost every one of 20 or so lines he tends to get per episode is a *very* ‘bankable woofer’

Holly in S1 and S2 is very similar. Holly in S3-S5 is very much not. The writers really served Hattie poorly in that.

[Hamish]

I’m also happy to continue with it if anyone knows where I can find Series IX-Promised Land scripts.

Well, all of the actual lines are on the Smegadrive of course, but the formatting is not as conducive to your purposes.

I was able to get a workable transcript of The Promised Land by just copying all of the captions into a text editor and chopping out the blank spaces using sed but the lines of course are still not neatly delineated.

[Warbodog]

Asclepius is too lazy to just watch all the episodes and keep pausing to type the lines after they say them like it’s the 90s.

[Asclepius]

I’m also happy to continue with it if anyone knows where I can find Series IX-Promised Land scripts.

Well, all of the actual lines are on the Smegadrive of course, but the formatting is not as conducive to your purposes.
I was able to get a workable transcript of The Promised Land by just copying all of the captions into a text editor and chopping out the blank spaces using sed but the lines of course are still not neatly delineated.

That sounds…laborious. I’m assuming, though, that if the lines are in there, then somewhere in the data that’s been uploaded to the smegadrive, there would be the actual scripts…? But I don’t know what format the Boys from the GAT uploaded it…

[Asclepius]

Asclepius is too lazy to just watch all the episodes and keep pausing to type the lines after they say them like it’s the 90s.

Ha. Typed with contempt.

What I love about those ancient scripts from the early 90s is the detail you get about where they were uploaded to, by whom, and other info. One of the people even included their home address in the file! I bet there’s an article/some research to be done on those early dedicated fans who were doing that stuff.

Oddly, too, looking at a file typed and uploaded to a newsgroup in 1994 or something feels a lot more ancient than considering a copy of the Smegazine from the year before. I am not sure why. We’re used to old comics, I suppose, but seeing something surviving from the very earliest days of the Internet is very evocative…

[Dave]

That sounds…laborious. I’m assuming, though, that if the lines are in there, then somewhere in the data that’s been uploaded to the smegadrive, there would be the actual scripts…? But I don’t know what format the Boys from the GAT uploaded it…

I think the smegadrive is based on the subtitles from the DVDs/Blu-Rays.

[Asclepius]

  I think the smegadrive is based on the subtitles from the DVDs/Blu-RayBlu-Rays.

Thanks!

Well, if one of those three young men who live in that room together and talk about Red Dwarf every few days on their podcast ever finds this thread, and are then able to advise me on what’s available and in what sort of format, I’d be very indebted.

And, obviously, happy to share the numbers and work if anyone wants to write about this…

[Warbodog]

Ha. Typed with contempt.

I didn’t try my hand at Red Dwarf, but I did type out the first few scenes of Monty Python and the Holy Grail on Word 95. I remember the Constitutional Peasants scene being extremely tedious because I wasn’t familiar with most of the terms used, so had to keep rewinding and making my best guess. I eventually saw a version of the video in the shops that said it came with a small script book inside or something, so they’d already bothered and I was free from the obligation.

[Asclepius]

Ha. Typed with contempt.
I didn’t try my hand at Red Dwarf, but I did type out the first few scenes of Monty Python and the Holy Grail on Word 95. I remember the Constitutional Peasants scene being extremely tedious because I wasn’t familiar with most of the terms used, so had to keep rewinding and making my best guess. I eventually saw a version of the video in the shops that said it came with a small script book inside or something, so they’d already bothered and I was free from the obligation.

I love this sort of stuff.

Back in that sort of day, but probably earlier. Certainly before we had Word 95, and I know it was before we had a PC that could run Windows, I had a program called Protext 4. Green text on a black background. I would type things on there. I’d started a complete history of Doctor Who, but based only on what I knew from the novels I had. So for example, I never did know how the Fourth Doctor regenerated.

Anyway, lacking a printer, the only way to make a hard copy was to copy it all across a typewriter I’d bought at a jumble sale.

Shame I didn’t have a hobby. Or use that time to do homework. Or make some friends. But there you go.

[Flap Jack]

You can download the subtitle files from the Smega-Drive of course, but unfortunately speaker names aren’t a part of those.

[Jenuall]

It is a shame that nobody has provided transcripts for the Dave era episodes, especially considering some of the crap online that manages to get that treatment – I mean FFS you can get transcripts for Mr’s Brown’s Boys! Red Dwarf fans clearly not dedicated enough!

Also whilst googling around on this I ended up on the Amazon page for Primordial Soup and remain baffled at how wrong their description of the book is able to be:

The seventh series didn’t arrive until 4 years later Mr Bezos, and it didn’t coincide with the release of any series – it was famous in fact for coming out with a script for an episode that nobody would see for months!

Also what a weird order to list their other publications, I’m assuming it’s just alphabetical because why not just put them in publication order?!

[Ian Symes]

If you go on the Episode Index on Smega Drive, all the episodes have subtitle files available to download. These will indeed put everything on its own line if you open them in Notepad. However, as Flappo says they don’t have the character names attached, and also you’ve got the issue that one continuous speech from one character could be split over several entries in the subtitle file, so it would definitely need some manual interpretation.

If you do end up finding a way to complete the research, I would indeed be interested in getting hold of the data for a full write up!

[Asclepius]

It is a shame that nobody has provided transcripts for the Dave era episodes, especially considering some of the crap online that manages to get that treatment – I mean FFS you can get transcripts for Mr’s Brown’s Boys! Red Dwarf fans clearly not dedicated enough!

Also whilst googling around on this I ended up on the Amazon page for Primordial Soup and remain baffled at how wrong their description of the book is able to be:

The seventh series didn’t arrive until 4 years later Mr Bezos, and it didn’t coincide with the release of any series – it was famous in fact for coming out with a script for an episode that nobody would see for months!
Also what a weird order to list their other publications, I’m assuming it’s just alphabetical because why not just put them in publication order?!

It would be good for Mrs. Brown’s Boys to have scripts written up by fans because, for many episodes, it would be the first time that a script existed for them.

[Asclepius]

If you go on the Episode Index on Smega Drive, all the episodes have subtitle files available to download. These will indeed put everything on one line if you open them in Notepad. However, as Flappo says they don’t have the character names attached, and also you’ve got the issue that one continuous speech from one character could be split over several entries in the subtitle file, so it would definitely need some manual interpretation.
If you do end up finding a way to complete the research, I would indeed be interested in getting hold of the data for a full write up!

Thanks!

Looks like there’s no easy way around it, then. Scripts do seem to be available up to the end of S8, which I’ll take on. After that – and back to the four leads – it’s probably less of an interesting procedure, anyway.

[Asclepius]

In Seasons 1-6, this data is rolling for the most recent six episodes. Once we hit episode 7 of Season VII, it starts rolling from Tikka to Ride, taking account of the extent of that season.

From The End, Craig is the main character, then Chris, then Norman, then Mac.

From Future Echoes, Danny takes fourth place.

Better Than Life sees Chris take first place, before Craig claims it back in the next episode.

In Backwards, Danny becomes the third character, with Norman fourth.

In Timeslides, Bobby takes the fourth place.

In The Last Day, Bobby moves to third, with Danny moving to fourth.

In Justice, Kryten moves into Second Character territory, with Chris moving to third.

Holoship throws everything around Chris slides into first place, with Craig second and Bobby third.

Demons and Angels sees Craig back in first place, with Bobby second and Chris third.

It remains that way until Out of Time, when Bobby takes first place, Craig second and Chris third.

Stoke Me A Clipper sees Craig move back to first, Chris in second, with Bobby third.

Ouroborous, unsurprisingly, sees Chris drop to third, with Bobby up to second.

Blue sees Chloe move into third place, with Chris fourth. Danny stops being one of the four main characters.

Beyond a Joke sees Danny overtake Chris to retake fourth spot.

And that’s how it continues until Season Eight, which I haven’t ‘done’ yet…

[loadoftottnumb]

Thanks for compiling this. I’m mostly surprised that Chris Barrie doesn’t have a higher share of lines in V. Whenever I think of that series it feels like The Rimmer show. 

[Moonlight]

I still think Rimmer is the main character of Red Dwarf even if his line count doesn’t match up.

[Flap Jack]

Credit placement checks out.

[International Debris]

There are three Rimmer-centric episodes in V, but one involves him being captured and another is about the results of his illness, so he’s separate from the rest of them for a lot of those.

[Asclepius]

There are three Rimmer-centric episodes in V, but one involves him being captured and another is about the results of his illness, so he’s separate from the rest of them for a lot of those.

Yes, it jumps around a lot. In Holoship he has 35% of the lines, 24% in Quarrantine (behind both Bobby and Craig), in Back to Reality he has 22% (behind Bobby), in Terroform he has 22% (behind both Craig and Bobby), in Demons and Angels he has only 20% of the lines, and in Inquisitor only 13%.

So Chris has the most lines in one of the shows, Craig has the most lines in three of the shows, and Bobby has the most lines in two of the shows (Quarrantine and Back to Reality).

[Nick R]

Stoke Me A Clipper sees Craig move back to first, Chris in second, with Bobby third.

Beyond a Joke sees Danny overtake Chris to retake fourth spot.

When I read this, I was surprised that Chris and Bobby didn’t get more of a boost in position from playing double roles. But then I realised that the rolling average smooths out the effects of that.

So I’m curious to know: when it comes to the episodes in which one actor plays double roles (Me2, Dimension Jump, Psirens, Stoke, Beyond a Joke; to a lesser extent Rimmerworld), how much does that actor’s line count increase, compared to preceding episodes?

Also, how did you handle counting lines that are split up by stage directions? 

For example, this is one of the online transcripts of Future Echoes:

LISTER: (Counting down as he flips switches) Six ... five...

RIMMER peers around the doorway, holding his fingers in his ears and
grinning maniacally.

LISTER: ...Four ... three ... (sticks his free finger in one ear) two ...
  (screaming) aaaaaahhhhhh!  One!

He flips the last switch.  The noise and sparks stop.  Everything returns
to normal.  LISTER gradually realises this and grins with relief.

LISTER: I did it!  I'm not gonna die!  *Aaargh!*

Did you count that as three Craig lines, or just one?

[Asclepius]

Stoke Me A Clipper sees Craig move back to first, Chris in second, with Bobby third.

Beyond a Joke sees Danny overtake Chris to retake fourth spot.
When I read this, I was surprised that Chris and Bobby didn’t get more of a boost in position from playing double roles. But then I realised that the rolling average smooths out the effects of that.
So I’m curious to know: when it comes to the episodes in which one actor plays double roles (Me2, Dimension Jump, Psirens, Stoke, Beyond a Joke; to a lesser extent Rimmerworld), how much does that actor’s line count increase, compared to preceding episodes?

Also, how did you handle counting lines that are split up by stage directions? 
For example, this is one of the online transcripts of Future Echoes:

LISTER: (Counting down as he flips switches) Six … five…

RIMMER peers around the doorway, holding his fingers in his ears and
grinning maniacally.

LISTER: …Four … three … (sticks his free finger in one ear) two …
(screaming) aaaaaahhhhhh! One!

He flips the last switch. The noise and sparks stop. Everything returns
to normal. LISTER gradually realises this and grins with relief.

LISTER: I did it! I’m not gonna die! *Aaargh!*

Did you count that as three Craig lines, or just one?

On the double-up episodes – say Dimension Jump – generally it increases a fair bit. I can post examples.

As for your other comment, it’s quite an automated process I’ve used. In the example you’ve quoted, I’m entirely led by Craig’s colon. If I can see his colon, then I will count it. If I can’t see a colon, it doesn’t get counted. So yeah, that one’s three lines.

if I had more time, and no job, I could do it more accurately :)

[Nick R]

If I can see his colon, then I will count it.

Ewwww

[Dave]

If I can see his colon, then I will count it.

I think the closest he got was when he was picking up Frankenstein and one of his bollocks popped out.

[Jenuall]

[Asclepius]

No-one in the online Season Eight scripts has colons. This is making the rest if this process very messy indeed. I keep losing track of what I’m doing due to the cast no longer having colons.

[Hamish]

[Warbodog]

[Nick R]

[Author]

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