Odd. The Red Dwarf Shop UK was launched last Friday, but went unreported on the official site. Goodness knows why. The most exciting product there is, of course, the Series III DVD. They have a tiny, tiny picture of the cover, which features a picture of Lister and Rimmer from Maroonedon the front, and Hattie as Holly on the side. Interestingly, the writing on the logo on the site will be black; for some reason I’d imagined a white one. They also give the date of release – the 3rd November, precisely twelve months since Series I came out. I’ve already booked the day off college.

In site news, we’ve launched yet another section – all about The Brittas Empire. At the moment, the section consists of a rather nice Episode Guide, featuring the original Radio Times synopsi. Obviously, we don’t know as much about Brittas as we do about Red Dwarf, so we are appealing for Brittas fans everywhere to contact us, with additions, corrections, and anything else you might like to add.

As reported yesterday, Red Dwarf is featured on a BBC compilation called More Great Comedy Moments. This is clearly a technique specifically designed to make ME buy the DVD, and I have done. The clip is of Kryten learning to lie and swear in Camille, and it’s a good choice. I love that scene. Chris Barrie features in three clips, which explains his prescence on the cover. Aside from the Dwarf one, there’s a scene from The Brittas Empire (of Carole smashing up Brittas’s car in Back from the Dead) and a Blankety Blank spoof from Filthy, Rich and Catflap, where Chris plays an exasperated director. There are some good clips on the DVD, but why are they releasing compilations like this instead of bringing out the series in full? There’s a great Fry & Laurie sketch on there, but I’d rather see The Complete A Bit Of Fry & Laurie on the shelves.

And finally, everybody wish John a happy birthday for tomorow. Bless him.

Bah. The BBC are FORCING us to purchase their latest ‘Greatest Comedy Moments’ collection, which was released on Monday (see how up to date we are?). They’ve teasingly placed a picture of Rimmer, c. Series I, on the front. According to Blackstar, the DVD features “Red Dwarf’s Kryten as he painfully tries to learn to lie”. A scene that doesn’t involve Rimmer, particularly not in his Series I uniform, there. Still, it’s not like the BBC to feature the wrong publicity photos on a DVD. (SATIRE) Unless, of course, there’s another RD clip. I’ll find out when I buy it, which will be when I get paid.

Meanwhile, Robert Llewellyn’s WomanWizard DVD arrived this morning, so I’ve written a review of that. Also included in the package was a little note from Rob, in which he reveals he is “presently planning a new DVD, to promote an even better software package called iSpin. The idea behind this product is that in an ever increasing world of confusion, we need help in developing rapid political opinions on any subject. iSpin will give you a one click opinion solution.” Sounds promising; Robert is officially a workaholic.

Oh, and I’ve finally done the Norman Lovett review. What a bastard I am.

Here’s a few quick links to details of the Crime Traveller IIDVD (which contains the second half of the first and only series), which is to be released on the 26th May:

BBFC Entry – Sins of the Father
BBFC Entry – Death Minister
BBFC Entry – The Lottery Experiment
BBFC Entry – The Broken Crystal
Blackstar listing
Play listing

The extras just aren’t worth bothering with – biographies of Michael French, Chloe Annett, Sue Johnston, Paul Trussell, and creator Anthony Horowitz, episode synopsis, and the ultimate in pointlessness – a trailer for the Crime Traveller One DVD. Are you seriously telling me the BBC didn’t trail this series, and they couldn’t have dug up a couple of original broadcast ones? Anyway, we’ll have a review of this at some point – meanwhile, you can read our review of the first Crime Traveller DVD. Both releases are also avaliable on VHS.

In actual Dwarf news, Jonathan Capps has got in contact with us to mention that Red Dwarf will feature in The Sitcom Story (Dawn French’s series detailing the history of the sitcom), also on Monday 26th May, at 10:55pm on BBC ONE. Apparently, it will feature a new interview with Craig Charles, so it’ll be well worth watching. Many thanks to Jonathan for this, and we’ll bring you all a report on it when it’s broadcast.

Not a major update today – just a Scene Summary for Balance of Power. Ian will have his review of the Norman Lovett gig tomorrow, the bastard.

Guess what was on yesterday? Something that we announced ages ago? Chris Barrie, driving the car of his dreams, on Top Gear? Something that not only did we forget to remind you lot that it was on, but completely forgot to watch ourselves? Gah. Anyway, the episode is repeated on UK Horizons in a few weeks – we’ll catch it then, and make sure we warn you lot about it as well. Thanks to Peter Naulls, aka Chocky, for the info. Expect a new section to be added to G&T next month, similar to the official site’s Dwarf Tracker, but also containing details of guest appearances on various shows by the cast. And whatever you do, don’t go back and see how we took the piss out of that website for mentioning Chris Berry, after our latest mistake. It’s too painful.

Onto today’s updates. The capsule for Balance of Power is now online. And an article has been added to the Movie section – Model Behaviour, possibly the dodgiest name for an article we’ve come up with, which is an opinion piece detailing our reaction to the revelation that the movie will use a varient of the Re-mastered version of Red Dwarf. Get in contact if you disagree – we’d like to know what you think, as that’s part of the point of being ridiculously opinionated and offensive.

More stuff tomorrow. Oh, and according to Ian, Norman Lovett is “a genius”. Expect his report in the next couple of days. He’s still a bastard.