Gareth Gwenlan RIP News Posted by Ian Symes on 9th May 2016, 13:23 We're sad to note the death of the hugely influential comedy producer and commissioner Gareth Gwenlan, aged 79. And on the same day as Reg Grundy, who was in many ways the real life equivalent of Kylie Gwenlyn. Yes, despite Gwenlan not having directly worked on Red Dwarf, we feel the need to mark his passing due to the way the show immortalised him, both on screen and in behind-the-scenes folklore, as being intrinsically linked to the programme's fledgling fortunes in those early days. As well as being the inspiration for the producer/director of Androids, the same episode, Kryten, sees Lister use his name as insult, calling the eponymous character a "total Gwenlan". The reason for Rob and Doug's apparent lack of affection for the man was that, as the BBC's Head of Comedy between 1983 and 1990, he had turned down Red Dwarf several times. One notorious meeting is recounted by Rob Grant on the Six of the Best CD: Read more →
The Smegazine Catalogue Features Posted by Ian Symes on 1st May 2016, 17:21 It seems strange now. Even though Red Dwarf is a current TV show once more, is popular enough to maintain an official fan club even during the ten year hiatus, and has always been extremely well represented on fansites, blogs and social media... a magazine? A whole magazine, dedicated to just Red Dwarf? In proper shops and everything? Monthly? It's baffling. But remember, back in the early to mid '90s, Red Dwarf was a pretty big deal. Viewing figures were constantly on the rise, the likes of Ace Rimmer and Talkie Toaster were invading the public consciousness, conventions were being organised and the show was expanding into other platforms. The audience of teenagers and young adults were ripe for commercial exploitation, as books, videos, t-shirts, posters and more started to hit the shelves. So actually, why the hell not add a magazine to the mix? Read more →
Nice Going On The Idiotic Gaffe Front, Sirs Features Posted by John Hoare on 17th April 2016, 17:45 The other day, I snapped. In our forums, there is a spoiler, which came about from a careless photo posted by a crew member. It's not a huge spoiler, maybe. I doubt many people will be upset reading it. But it's the latest in a long line of spoilers about the show posted online since the recordings started late last year. There's an interesting thing about these spoilers, mind. Nearly every single one them have come from the cast, crew, and - in one notable case - an executive at UKTV. The large audiences full of excitable fans who came to watch the shows have remained generally shtum. Read more →
BBC Cow News Posted by Ian Symes on 7th April 2016, 16:52 Big changes are afoot at Baby Cow, the production company that currently co-produces Red Dwarf alongside GNP. Co-founder Henry Normal is stepping down after sixteen years, Steve Coogan is stepping up to fill the gap, and most intriguingly, BBC Worldwide has gained a controlling stake in the business. It's an amusing twist of fate that Auntie Beeb is once more involved in the production of our favourite show, but the big question remains: how is all this going to affect Red Dwarf? Read more →
DwarfCast 70 – Mac McDonald Interview DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 1st April 2016, 12:01 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes Somewhat foolishly, film star, comedy veteran and Space Corps captain Mac McDonald willingly allowed two members of the G&T team to enter his home. This is the resultant conversation, which takes in such topics as duetting with Dolly Parton, being terrified of Sean Connery, illicit sexual encounters during the filming of Series 1, cereal and fat jokes. Ian Symes is your host, and his posse consists of Danny Stephenson and Jo Sharples. An enormous thank you to Mac for his time, hospitality and pecan cake. Read more →
DwarfCast 69 – Epideme & Nanarchy Commentary DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 25th March 2016, 15:50 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes You heard. It's two for the price of one, although double nothing is still nothing. Danny Stephenson and Ian Symes continue their odyssey to watch the shit bits so that the rest of the team don't have to, with occasional interjections from guests Jo Sharples of TORDFC, and Tom Pyott. We tackle the loose two-parter of Epideme and Nanarchy, discussing such diverse topics as the merits of Gary Martin, the practical applications of nanotechnology and recently proposed changes to disability benefits, as well as revealing the fate of the Epideme communicator prop, and proposing a new animated spin-off. We also get a lot of basic facts wrong, get confused about what's happening on-screen and go quiet for a few moments at a time fairly frequently. So it's not very good, but at least it gets another quarter of Series VII out the way. Read more →
Not A Good Day News Posted by John Hoare on 23rd March 2016, 07:06 With Dwarf understandably going quiet since the last audience recording, maybe it’s time to check in on the world of Brittas. When we last “reported” on things, a revival was “in development”. Let’s hear what Chris Barrie has to say: “Regarding the possible return of The Brittas Empire, which caused a moment or two of excitement last year, things have gone very quiet indeed – in fact totally silent. I believe a script was being developed with a view to recording a special or pilot at some stage. So if you are a journalist, don’t bother emailing me about an interview as I would prefer to wait until there is something concrete to talk about and that doesn’t look likely at the moment.” Oh. Cock it. Something to ponder: the BBC’s sitcom season this summer contains a number of revivals, which Brittas would have slipped neatly into. The fact that the project hasn’t managed to capitalise on this really isn’t promising, unfortunately. Continue reading →
“An enormous amount of Krytens” News Posted by Jonathan Capps on 14th March 2016, 11:14 Those with slightly longer memories will recall that, at DJ last year, Doug mentioned that he was planning an episode where "everyone was Kryten" causing much excitement/hand-wringing/wailing and gnashing of teeth (delete as appropriate) from fandom. Now, in an interview conducted at MCM Liverpool, two chaps by the name of Robert Llewellyn and Danny John-Jules have pretty much confirmed that this episode exists. There's no going back now... Read more →
DwarfCast 68 – Red Dwarf XII – Episode 6 – Set Report DwarfCasts Posted by Jonathan Capps on 10th March 2016, 23:35 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes A potential final ever episode of Red Dwarf has been filmed for the 10th time in 28 years. G&T were there, represented by beardy Yorkshiremen Daniel Stephenson and Jonathan Capps. Join this duo, along with Tom Pyott and the Fan Club's Jo Sharples and Mick Hayes as they attempt to summarise an exciting, confusing and slightly emotional recording. Oh, and apologies for the Brummie barging in half way through; he lives in the same house and there's nothing we could do to stop him. Read more →
John’s Newsround – 6/03/16 News Posted by John Hoare on 6th March 2016, 01:41 Yo. Welcome to the first John's Newsround for very nearly five years. Let's see if I can remember how to do this shit, shall we? Some of the stuff that's happened over the past week: THE LAST RECORDING: Last Sunday, Robert Llewellyn posted a little update about the final episode of Red Dwarf XII, in which he reveals that at the time of writing, the cast hadn't actually seen a final script yet. (The readthrough ended up happening on Tuesday.) Speculation below then, as to whether this is an unusual state of affairs for Red Dwarf or not, although seeing as both The Last Day and Out of Time were late scripts, it's also debatable whether it even matters. I'm far too busy wondering about why the update was posted on Robert's Fully Charged site rather than his main blog. And where did his main website go, anyway? Face it: you've missed me talking about anything other than the main fucking point, haven't you? Read more →
