Sin Bin Snippets News Posted by Ian Symes on 17th September 2025, 09:58 Doug Naylor's debut children's novel, Sin Bin Island, was released last week and is now officially launched, following last night's event at Waterstone's Piccadilly. Doug was interviewed by S.F. Said, best-selling author and stablemate at publisher David Fickling Books, then took questions from the audience and stuck around to sign books afterwards. In attendance were Red Dwarf alumni such as producer Richard Naylor and casting director Linda Glover - how lovely that they've all kept in touch since production wrapped. Robert Llewellyn was also there throughout, while birthday boy Danny John-Jules arrived just as the last of the autograph queue dwindled away. Never change, Danny. There are plenty of other events coming up if you missed yesterday's, but in the meantime, here are a few of the things we learned, about Sin Bin Island, Red Dwarf and more... Read more →
UKTV no longer interested in the sort of genre Red Dwarf is News Posted by Ian Symes on 7th September 2025, 14:27 Yesterday, Doug Naylor did an AMA on Reddit, primarily to promote Sin Bin Island, but as you'd probably expect, not least because it took place on the Red Dwarf subreddit, there was a heavily Dwarfy tinge to the conversation. Our community did a lovely job of highlighting all the interesting bits on our forum, but there was one particular answer that deserves closer scrutiny. On the topic of the rumoured new special, Doug said: Back in January 2023, I went in for a meeting with UKTV who said they wanted to progress a new 90-minute Red Dwarf special. The cast were all on board and I was told to start writing. Several months later, things were progressing and I had got two-thirds of the way through the script, I had just signed my writer's contract, when I got an e-mail from UKTV who said they had difficult news to share - they were no longer going to commission scripted comedy, including the RD special, which I hadn't yet sent them. The script involved Lister going back in time to help his 23-year-old self escape from stasis. He and a reluctant younger Lister would go on the run as Lister was trying to give his younger self a more fulfilled life. Meanwhile Rimmer teams up with his younger self to hunt them down on behalf of JMC. Read more →
Sin, sin, sin, sin, sin… oh, I’ve not sin that! News Posted by Jonathan Capps on 22nd March 2025, 22:07 Well, here’s one for all the fans who wanted Doug to write a new novel. Please, ignore that monkey’s paw curling its finger… Thank you to clem over on the forum for spotting that Doug Naylor will be releasing a new children’s book this September, entitled Sin Bin Island. At the end of each year, four pupils from Cyril Sniggs’s Correctional Orphanage for Wayward Boys and Girls are banished to Sin Bin Island, an eerie place surrounded by eel-infested waters. Legend has it, the island has a secret tunnel, used to smuggle magic into mainland England. But in over 300 years the tunnel has never been found. Nor has any of the magic. This year, all that’s going to change. How intriguing! We’ll have to wait until September to see if Cyril Sniggs’s controversial ‘abandon children on the secret magic eel island’ will pay off for the lad. The book is aimed at children 9 to 11, and as someone with a child who will be approaching that age range when this is released I’m really looking forward to seeing what Doug can bring to not quite young adults’ fiction. This definitely seems to be one of those books that will be on the darker side of things, possibly more in line with things like Lemmony Snicket that anything else, and I really do hope he’s able to bring some of the Naylor magic that a lot of us experienced as kids reading the Red Dwarf novels, but this time to the next (next) generation.
G&TV: Carrott’s Lib (22/10/1983) Quickies Posted by Ian Symes on 6th November 2024, 09:50 As we once again prepare to stick our fingers in our ears and try not to think about things for the next four years, let's take the opportunity to hark back to a far happier time, ie before many of us were even sodding born. We're heading back to 1983 to take in a crucial component of the Grant Naylor oeuvre. Having pretty much mastered the art of radio comedy with the first series of Son of Cliché, it was time to take on television, and the pair began successfully submitting sketches for the likes of Paul Squire, Cannon & Ball and Three of a Kind. But arguably the most quintessentially Rob-and-Doug feeling project of this era was Carrott's Lib. Starring Jasper Carrott, one of this country's greatest ever stand-ups, this was a pre-Spitting Image topical, satirical comedy, broadcast live on Saturday nights on BBC One. Paul Jackson produced the first series, but we're going to focus instead on the first episode of series two, for reasons that will become apparent. The first thing to note is the date - the series started just eleven days after the first series of Son of Cliché concluded on Radio 4, and given how last-minute a lot of those scripts were, Rob and Doug presumably had very little time to breathe between projects. This series also established a new supporting cast for Jasper: future Cadbury's Caramel bunny Jan Ravens, alongside the trio of Nick Wilton, Nick Maloney and Chris Barrie. Now where have I seen those guys together before? Huge thanks to Jonsmad for pointing us in the direction of this YouTube upload: Read more →
DwarfCast 165 – Father of Dwarf: Son of Cliché at 40 DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 23rd August 2023, 08:45 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes "Doctor Fitzwilliam: Village Rectologist" At 6:30pm on Tuesday 23rd August 1983, unsuspecting Radio 4 listeners were ambushed by the very first episode of a seminal new sketch show. Featuring a hugely talented cast, performing the work of two writers who were on the fast track to greatness, it was notable not only for its inherent quality, but for what it would eventually spawn. The programme was, of course, Son of Cliché, without which this podcast would not exist. So in a break from the usual format, we present our fortieth anniversary tribute in the form of a documentary, showcasing some highlights from the series, analysing what made it so great, and of course focusing on the moments that had the biggest influence on Red Dwarf. Think it was just Dave Hollins: Space Cadet that Rob and Doug drew upon? Think again. Read more →
OFFICIAL: Legal dispute resolved News Posted by Ian Symes on 10th March 2023, 12:00 Just a few short weeks ago, we had all but given up hope that this day would come. And yet here we are - following the promising yet inconclusive joint anniversary message from Rob and Doug, we have a brand new statement from the pair, and it's exactly what we wanted to hear. Rob Grant and Doug Naylor are delighted to announce that the ongoing dispute over the Red Dwarf rights has been resolved. Moving onwards and upwards Rob and Doug hope to launch separate iterations of Red Dwarf across various media, working again with the cast and other valued partners, and wish each other the very best. Smoke a kipper, Red Dwarf will be back for breakfast!! Read more →
Wrinkles Wrecovered News Posted by Ian Symes on 14th November 2022, 09:37 I bring very exciting news. You know Wrinkles? The radio sitcom written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, which ran for two series in 1980 and 1981? The one that starred Ballard Berkeley from Fawlty Towers and David Ross from Kryten, White Hole and Mechocracy? The one that is missing from the archives and has never been repeated in the four decades since it was originally broadcast? Well, it's being repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra on Thursdays at 10:30pm. Read more →
New special? Stage show happening? New Doug and cast projects? Who’s eating this chicken? News Posted by Ian Symes on 12th September 2021, 12:50 You join us live from Sunday lunchtime at Dimension Jump XXI, and as the cockroaches have finally finished their incessant shuffling, we're able to bring you an update on what happened last night. For the first time in a long time, Doug Naylor is not attending in person, which we presume is due to, you know, all that stuff. Nevertheless, he sent in a video message which was played betwixt costume competition and auction as part of the Saturday night entertainment, and it was both extremely positive and surprising in its content. With thanks to Si Bromley for sneakily filming it on his phone, here's a full transcript of what was said: Read more →
Take the fifth! News Posted by Ian Symes on 4th February 2021, 12:04 This is probably the most unpleasant news story we've had to cover in the more than eighteen years this site has been going. Not least because it involves linking to the Daily Mail, who today report that Doug Naylor is suing Rob Grant and Grant Naylor Productions, following Doug's removal from the board of the company last year. To save you from clicking onto that shithole, the relevant parts of the article are below, and below that is our initial reaction. [Doug Naylor] has just initiated a dramatic High Court action against his former co-scriptwriter and one-time best friend, Rob Grant. The claim also names Grant Naylor Productions, the company which he and Grant established 30 years ago ‘to exploit their services as scriptwriters’. Read more →
G&TV: Comic-Con@Home (2020) Quickies Posted by Jonathan Capps on 29th July 2020, 11:49 You can say what you like about the deadly global pandemic currently ruling our lives, but at least the little red spikey boi has opened up access to many public events that have been forced to move to a streaming model this year. The result is I've seen two San Diego Comic-Con panels live where I would've previously seen none. Firstly, the lovely Bill and Ted Face the Music panel on Saturday and then on Sunday Red Dwarf had what we believe is its first ever SDCC panel to promote the launch of The Promised Land on BritBox and in attendance were Doug Naylor, Craig Charles, Chris Barrie and Robert Llewellyn. Read more →
