1 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:09,775 (PETER Ridsdale-SCOTT) ...And at the time, I suppose everybody felt 2 00:00:09,799 --> 00:00:11,416 this was a totally mad project. 3 00:00:11,440 --> 00:00:17,176 (RIMMER SCREAMS) 4 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:19,816 This, I thought well, people are gonna love it or hate it. 5 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:27,616 I was crapping myself. I thought, "Here I am with the big boys" you know? With no acting experience whatsoever... 6 00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:35,496 And my ex-wife had already filled me with dread before I left that morning for the interview. 7 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:38,896 when she turned around and said to me "Why are you going to do this?" 8 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:43,156 And I said "Well, you know, they've offered me a chance to go and read it."... 9 00:00:43,180 --> 00:00:47,136 "But you can't act..." 10 00:00:47,160 --> 00:00:50,936 "...and you're not that funny!" (LAUGHS) 11 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:54,736 I first read the script- I'd worked with Rob and Doug on 'Three Of A Kind' 12 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:56,496 and on other shows, on 'Carrott's Lib' and so on... 13 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:01,776 and they said they've got this brilliant sitcom, that they wanted to do, wanted me to read. 14 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:04,138 and it was called 'Lance Blood: News Hound' I think. 15 00:01:04,162 --> 00:01:06,856 Something like that. Lance, somebody, News Hound 16 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:11,976 And I didn't really like it very much. It wasn't very good. It was a kind of a 'Mike Hammer' type thing. 17 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:18,548 And everyone who read it, said it was too long. They never said it was funny, or it wasn't funny 18 00:01:18,572 --> 00:01:21,616 they just said it was too long. 19 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:24,476 And we sent this script to Paul and we said 20 00:01:24,500 --> 00:01:27,743 "Paul, every time we send this script, everyone says it's too long. 21 00:01:28,267 --> 00:01:30,696 Can you tell us whether you think it's funny or not?" 22 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:34,916 and he went "Sure..." and he read it he said "This script, it's too long..." 23 00:01:34,940 --> 00:01:38,013 And so, there was never any conversation about whether it was any good or not, 24 00:01:38,537 --> 00:01:40,216 although you could tell that he didn't like it very much. 25 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:43,816 Anyway, I gave them some notes on why I didn't like it. And they said we'll go away and re-write it. 26 00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:47,664 And then they phoned me up and said "What do you think about a sci-fi?" 27 00:01:47,688 --> 00:01:51,216 and I said "I thought we were doing Lance Hammer" or whatever his name was. 28 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:53,339 And they said "No no no, we've got this better idea we want to do" 29 00:01:53,363 --> 00:01:57,020 and I said "Don't- don't guys, honestly, don't write a sci-fi sitcom!" 30 00:01:57,044 --> 00:01:59,796 because, nobody ever buys sci-fi sitcoms. 31 00:01:59,820 --> 00:02:04,187 You know, It's like, you don't- there are rules in this business and one of them is "Don't do sci-fi sitcoms" 32 00:02:04,211 --> 00:02:07,040 So they said "Well it's not a sci-fi sitcom, just read it..." 33 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:13,056 Manchester had been given the opportunity to do a sitcom. 34 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:20,016 and then, like now, in BBC terms there are very few sitcoms produced outside the London area. 35 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:29,016 And I'd read dozens of sitcoms, and they were all middle England, middle-aged, middle-of-the-road. 36 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:32,348 You had the right-on red wedge- sort of, Saturday Night Live... 37 00:02:32,372 --> 00:02:36,588 Ben Elton... Rik and Ade. The Young Ones had just happened as well. 38 00:02:36,612 --> 00:02:39,696 But they were still making things like Terry and June as well. 39 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:42,228 And the one thing Manchester could not possibly do, 40 00:02:42,252 --> 00:02:45,348 was produce an average, middle-of-the-road comedy. 41 00:02:45,372 --> 00:02:51,548 It had to be dangerous, it had to be risky, it had to be innovative... all those things. 42 00:02:51,572 --> 00:02:53,336 Otherwise we were dead. 43 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:55,428 The truth is- do you know this story of why he bought it? 44 00:02:55,452 --> 00:03:01,628 What had happened was, I had gone up to Manchester the previous year to do a Ben Elton script, 45 00:03:01,652 --> 00:03:03,748 which was a show called 'Happy Families' which was a six-parter 46 00:03:03,772 --> 00:03:06,428 where Jennifer Saunders played six or seven different characters. 47 00:03:06,452 --> 00:03:08,536 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' kind of thing. 48 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:19,108 And the way the BBC worked at that time was you did a series and the budget for the next year got allocated. 49 00:03:19,132 --> 00:03:24,436 So you did 'The Two Ronnies 7' and they allocated the same budget for 'The Two Ronnies 8' 50 00:03:24,460 --> 00:03:29,148 And you did 'Happy Families 1' so they would write into their budgets for next year 'Happy Families 2' 51 00:03:29,172 --> 00:03:36,176 and everybody knew there wasn't going to be a 'Happy Families 2', but that'll corral us off some money for a sitcom. 52 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:39,468 Very usefully as it happened, because Happy Families was shot entirely on film 53 00:03:39,492 --> 00:03:44,896 and therefore was a little bit more expensive than your average sitcom. So it was actually quite a nice budget. 54 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:47,268 It had became apparent- Peter Ridsdale-Scott and I had known for some time, 55 00:03:47,292 --> 00:03:50,948 but it had become too blatant to conceal it for much longer that there wasn't going to be a Happy Families 2, 56 00:03:50,972 --> 00:03:55,616 so we had this 'Paul Jackson slot' as it was written into Manchester 57 00:03:55,640 --> 00:04:00,868 So when I read this script I said to them "Well, it's still not gonna sell, but there is this slight little chance, 58 00:04:00,892 --> 00:04:05,068 "because there's 6 half-hours sitting up in Manchester, funded with nothing in them at the moment. 59 00:04:05,092 --> 00:04:07,176 I'll take it to Peter Ridsdale-Scott." 60 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:10,748 So, I got on the train one day, and it was my favourite place for reading scripts 61 00:04:10,772 --> 00:04:15,508 on the trips to London, and the usual five scripts had been given me by the office. 62 00:04:15,532 --> 00:04:21,148 I asked the secretary, I said to them "what are these all about?" and she said "Oh, the usual thing..." 63 00:04:21,172 --> 00:04:26,736 "except... there's one at the top there called 'Red Dwarf'" and I said "What's that about?" 64 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:31,308 She said "I'd probably better not say, just read it" 65 00:04:31,332 --> 00:04:35,068 and so I got on the train and read the four others and they were sent back at Euston 66 00:04:35,092 --> 00:04:41,376 and as a treat I read this different one... 'Red Dwarf'... 67 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:48,068 And I think I'd only got as far as Page 2, when I let out a laugh on the train that could be heard at Carlisle. 68 00:04:48,092 --> 00:04:51,696 It was a line of the Cat's, actually, I remember it now. 69 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:56,388 Hey this has been a good day, I've eaten five times, I've slept six times 70 00:04:56,412 --> 00:05:04,412 And I've made a lot of things mine. Tomorrow, I'm gonna see if I can't have sex with something. Ooooowwww yeah... 71 00:05:04,940 --> 00:05:12,628 But that was the start. Red Dwarf... yes it was a science fiction comedy. But it was a comedy first off. 72 00:05:12,652 --> 00:05:17,088 Most importantly it had got a good pedigree with Grant and Naylor 73 00:05:17,112 --> 00:05:21,900 who worked in Manchester because they were writers-in-residence with BBC Radio in Manchester. 74 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:24,868 But I'll just point out that 'Red Dwarf' got made 75 00:05:24,892 --> 00:05:28,376 because 'Happy Families 2' had been written into an annual budget, when it never existed. 76 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:30,996 Fantastic, this is what I always dreamed of. I'm in heaven. 77 00:05:31,020 --> 00:05:34,668 Paul Jackson, who had given me the script and, incidentally I said, 78 00:05:34,692 --> 00:05:43,136 "'This is a bit well worn isn't it, Paul? How many people have seen this?" and he said, "Oh, it's been around" 79 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:46,788 The script really only went to the BBC, about three times, 80 00:05:46,812 --> 00:05:48,268 it was the same script that went around but it didn't go, you know, 81 00:05:48,292 --> 00:05:52,636 all over the world to every production company, it just kept going back to the BBC. 82 00:05:52,660 --> 00:05:59,416 Certainly everybody in Manchester, and certainly everybody in London in the BBC, thought we were out of our heads. 83 00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:03,336 - Aaaaarrrrghh! - Raaaargh. Dog attack! 84 00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:07,428 So the casting was me, Rob and Doug, Peter Ridsdale-Scott who was the Commissioning Editor up at Manchester, 85 00:06:07,452 --> 00:06:12,656 and Ed Bye who was going to direct the series. 86 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:14,056 And we saw a really significant number of people, we saw lots and lots of people 87 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:18,388 We had a week, where we saw quite a lot of people 88 00:06:18,412 --> 00:06:22,608 And then Paul got pretty bored and said "Choose someone or die..." 89 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:28,028 he had business meetings he needed to go to, and quite rightly he sensed 90 00:06:28,052 --> 00:06:31,336 that I'd've been, and probably still there now going "Just let's just see a few more people" 91 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:33,948 I was doing Saturday Night Live with Paul Jackson 92 00:06:33,972 --> 00:06:40,388 and Paul was the producer of it. He had this script, and sent me the script to read the part of the Cat, 93 00:06:40,412 --> 00:06:46,108 He sent it to me to see if I thought the part of the cat was racist. Because they were worried about this really sharp, black guy. 94 00:06:46,132 --> 00:06:49,400 Remember this was in the politically correct 80s as it were, y'know? 95 00:06:49,424 --> 00:06:57,424 So I read the part and said "Oh no, it's not racist. It's really funny. How about letting me read for the part of Lister?" 96 00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:01,776 and the guys hadn't really thought about that at all, and they weren't that keen. 97 00:07:01,800 --> 00:07:06,188 I mean, we saw a lot of people, we saw Alan Rickman, who really liked the script 98 00:07:06,212 --> 00:07:15,376 said it was the best script he'd received in two, three months. And he wanted to play Lister. 99 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:19,548 And we saw, Hugh Laurie- there was a whole bunch of people we saw, 100 00:07:19,572 --> 00:07:23,988 and I'd seen a bit of Craig Charles on Saturday Night Live just channel hopping. 101 00:07:24,012 --> 00:07:29,388 And he was, 'Mr Angry right-on poet', doing angry stuff, 102 00:07:29,412 --> 00:07:34,948 and it was just I instantly made my mind up about him which is 'No, I don't like you' and switched to something else. 103 00:07:34,972 --> 00:07:43,588 Then Paul said, hey I've got this Craig Charles guy coming in, and I just honestly didn't think he had a prayer 104 00:07:43,612 --> 00:07:50,988 because he was so unlike the Lister we were looking for. He was also not likeable as far as I was concerned. 105 00:07:51,012 --> 00:07:58,748 He didn't have a likeable persona. And then when I met him he was a completely different guy to this, angry poet guy. 106 00:07:58,772 --> 00:08:02,868 And it was a real problem, he did the best reading by a mile. 107 00:08:02,892 --> 00:08:10,496 We were told he had never acted before, which was like ugh... so already it's a gamble. 108 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:15,028 and then he came back because we were really sure, hasn't really acted but let's get him in again, 109 00:08:15,052 --> 00:08:16,696 and then his second reading was really bad. 110 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:20,776 I read that one really, really badly, so I thought, Oh God, I'm not gonna get this, y'know? 111 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:25,468 but by then we liked him so much, we were going "Doesn't matter, that he's never acted before" 112 00:08:25,492 --> 00:08:28,708 "We like him, we want Craig, we want Craig to be Lister" 113 00:08:28,732 --> 00:08:33,016 and also we could see that there was a great double-act with Craig and Chris 114 00:08:33,040 --> 00:08:38,996 and Paul Jackson come out and said you've got the gig! 115 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:42,696 The fact is Craig is Lister, which I hadn't thought of when i sent him the script. 116 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:52,616 I don't think I've been typecast as Lister, but people associate me very much with being Dave Lister, a curry loving slob. 117 00:08:52,640 --> 00:08:58,828 The original Lister was gonna be someone quite different from the Lister we have now, 118 00:08:58,852 --> 00:09:09,068 Our ideal Lister was someone like Christopher Lloyd, who was in the American sitcom 'Taxi', 119 00:09:09,092 --> 00:09:14,188 and was also the professor in 'Back To The Future' it was someone like that 120 00:09:14,212 --> 00:09:19,548 or it was someone like the spaced out American stand-up Steve Wright. 121 00:09:19,572 --> 00:09:23,508 We certainly didn't see a scouser, 122 00:09:23,532 --> 00:09:32,028 our take on was he was going to be someone whose brain was fried, he was slightly deranged 123 00:09:32,052 --> 00:09:40,096 and all the curry, lager Lister was totally not there then. 124 00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:46,788 I see the characters of Rimmer, Lister, Cat and Kryten now as kind of caricatures of the people that play them. 125 00:09:46,812 --> 00:09:56,708 Kinda blown up, taking their idiosyncrasies and expand on them a bit more. 126 00:09:56,732 --> 00:10:01,468 'Cause Robert's got the middle class guilt that Kryten has. 127 00:10:01,492 --> 00:10:08,468 And I know Chris is not gonna thank me for saying this but there's parts of Chris that are very, very Rimmer, you know, 128 00:10:08,492 --> 00:10:14,896 his collecting of cars and... his spotting of trains and things like this. 129 00:10:14,920 --> 00:10:15,676 Poppycock! 130 00:10:15,700 --> 00:10:23,228 I was very much 'Jack the Lad', although I don't eat curry and I don't drink lager. 131 00:10:23,252 --> 00:10:28,708 I do drink, I drink vodka, I don't drink pints and pints of lager. 132 00:10:28,732 --> 00:10:34,028 I don't go out and have Indians and curries and things like that. 133 00:10:34,052 --> 00:10:37,840 Which people assume I do, but I really, really don't! 134 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:41,160 (LISTER HUMS TO HIMSELF) 135 00:10:41,184 --> 00:10:44,508 Oh yeah, originally, did you know that I went up for Rimmer? Did you know that? 136 00:10:44,532 --> 00:10:46,788 Well, I did. I went up for Rimmer. 137 00:10:46,812 --> 00:10:51,348 And Peter-Hugo Daly, don't know whether you know him, 138 00:10:51,372 --> 00:10:54,548 he's a really good actor, he was Lister, he read Lister with me and we did that. 139 00:10:56,120 --> 00:10:59,136 We did the thing in the episode 'The End', we did that. 140 00:10:59,160 --> 00:11:02,556 Obviously, it didn't really work out, because otherwise I would have got the job. 141 00:11:02,580 --> 00:11:10,908 I think my earliest memory of Red Dwarf was in a hotel room, I think near Broadcasting House, 142 00:11:10,932 --> 00:11:18,656 auditioning for... I think I auditioned for Lister, actually, and Rimmer possibly at the time 143 00:11:18,680 --> 00:11:21,268 I was also very intimidated about working with Chris, 144 00:11:21,292 --> 00:11:24,216 because I thought Chris was just so much funnier than I was. 145 00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:28,988 And Chris just came in and did an audition and he really made it his own, he just got this- 146 00:11:29,012 --> 00:11:35,388 he comes from a background where, you know, he's met these very public school, uptight officer class, 147 00:11:35,412 --> 00:11:38,916 he comes from a military family. He knew what the type was. 148 00:11:38,940 --> 00:11:45,476 and soon after that we got a letter saying, "We don't want you for this, we've employed someone else." 149 00:11:45,500 --> 00:11:54,756 Paul brought Fred Molina in, he did a very good reading so he got the part there and then, Chris got his rejection letter... 150 00:11:54,780 --> 00:11:56,656 And I thought "Right... bu-bye to that one" 151 00:11:56,680 --> 00:12:01,348 Then we realised, "Who's going to play Lister?" I hadn't a clue. 152 00:12:01,372 --> 00:12:07,428 And it just wasn't working. I don't think Fred's head was completely round... 153 00:12:07,452 --> 00:12:10,308 he wanted to know how long he would be a hologram and would he be turning back into a human. 154 00:12:10,332 --> 00:12:13,736 I don't think he was quite happy with the hologram thing. 155 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:17,348 Anyway, we thought this isn't right, we need to rethink, 156 00:12:17,372 --> 00:12:22,596 and that's when we said "Let's get Chris back, let's try with Craig". 157 00:12:22,620 --> 00:12:27,588 Yeah, well, I suppose one thing I did cling on to a bit, 158 00:12:27,612 --> 00:12:31,268 was the fact that it was a relationship with Lister, which reminded me 159 00:12:31,292 --> 00:12:39,108 very much, right from even the pre-audition reading of the script that I did, of two brothers at school. 160 00:12:39,132 --> 00:12:44,668 That kind of bickering, "I'm gonna do better than you". Or like two best mates at school, y'know? 161 00:12:44,692 --> 00:12:48,348 And it did remind me very much of my relationship 162 00:12:48,372 --> 00:12:53,456 at boarding school with sometimes my brother and sometimes my best mate. 163 00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:56,148 Danny just walked in. I mean, we had a lot of people in 164 00:12:56,172 --> 00:12:59,400 for the Cat. Obviously the Cat, you cast specifically for the Cat. 165 00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:07,456 The first lines were "Ow ooo ee aaa ooo, How'm I looking?" 166 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:11,096 Owwwwooooee, how'm I looking? 167 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:13,696 But there's no-one else there, who's he talking to? 168 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:15,016 Oh it's my shadow... 169 00:13:15,040 --> 00:13:21,028 Anyway, I went to the audition and I just went hell for leather. I put on my dad's old wedding suit, 170 00:13:21,052 --> 00:13:25,708 which was a big old baggy zoot suit, y'know, greased my hair back, 171 00:13:25,732 --> 00:13:27,736 and got into the audition half an hour late. 172 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:31,308 Danny turned up, he was half an hour late and he just didn't care 173 00:13:31,332 --> 00:13:37,588 and so it was so gloriously, fantastically as you would imagine the Cat to be. 174 00:13:37,612 --> 00:13:41,628 Rob and I just howled with laughter, 175 00:13:41,652 --> 00:13:46,816 and he was the first guy we saw. And we knew right there and then he was gonna be the Cat. 176 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:52,188 But I didn't know I was late. So, of course I walked in nonchalantly. Y'know , the head of BBC North West, 177 00:13:52,212 --> 00:13:56,988 Doug, Rob, Paul Jackson, all sitting there and I'm ignoring the fact that I'm half an hour late. 178 00:13:57,012 --> 00:14:00,576 And I'm going "Well, y'know, come on then, shall we start?" 179 00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:04,668 And again, he just made it his own. He's got the physical movement, 180 00:14:04,692 --> 00:14:07,748 he was a dancer when I first knew him, in fact he was a dancer and singer. 181 00:14:07,772 --> 00:14:14,976 So he's got a wonderful body movement and that character has to be lithe and panther-like. 182 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:19,988 I was the first in, and Doug said later on, 183 00:14:20,012 --> 00:14:22,676 that he had to sit there all day auditioning people knowing we wanted you. 184 00:14:22,700 --> 00:14:31,028 So, I got a couple of days later they said "Can you come and read for the Holly part" 185 00:14:31,052 --> 00:14:34,360 and it was a voiceover and I went along and read for it and it worked out really well, they were all laughing. 186 00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:37,856 What about Kristine Kochanski, you could have brought Kristine back? 187 00:14:37,880 --> 00:14:42,200 In your entire life, your shared conversations with her totalled 173 words. 188 00:14:42,224 --> 00:14:43,656 So? 189 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:46,496 In terms of wordage you actually had a better relationship with your rubber plant. 190 00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:48,056 I know, but Rimmer? 191 00:14:48,680 --> 00:14:52,316 He was the person you knew best, over fourteen million words in all. 192 00:14:52,340 --> 00:14:55,508 Holly, seven million of those words were me telling him to smeg off. 193 00:14:55,532 --> 00:14:59,396 And the other seven million were him putting me on report for telling him to smeg off. 194 00:14:59,420 --> 00:15:06,628 I wasn't happy about it, because I was on TV as a voiceover and I wasn't happy with that, I wanted to be seen. 195 00:15:06,652 --> 00:15:12,268 I was a bit of a pain in the backside in those days. 196 00:15:12,292 --> 00:15:17,776 But it paid off, because in the end I said, look, let's see me, and I had an idea of how to do it. 197 00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:21,788 Thanks to compound interest, you now own 98% of all the world's wealth. 198 00:15:21,812 --> 00:15:28,216 And because you hoarded it for three million years, nobody's got any money except for you and NorWEB. 199 00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:29,416 Why NorWEB? 200 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:31,868 You left a light on in the bathroom. 201 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:37,656 I've got a final demand here for £180 billion pounds. 202 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:40,996 £180 Billion pounds?! You're kidding? 203 00:15:41,020 --> 00:15:44,216 April Fool. 204 00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:49,256 Sometimes it's worth moaning about things to get your own way and, boy, did I moan. 205 00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:52,988 The moaning, the constant moaning. He is... 206 00:15:53,012 --> 00:15:56,188 he'd get a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games definitely. 207 00:15:56,212 --> 00:16:00,028 I don't know about the Olympics, he'd come in with a silver or a bronze, but Commonwealth. 208 00:16:00,052 --> 00:16:02,896 Gold medal moaner. I'm serious. 209 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:06,148 The worries were legion. First of all we had the strike, 210 00:16:06,172 --> 00:16:11,268 which meant that every single episode of Red Dwarf for that first series, went into production, went into rehearsal 211 00:16:11,292 --> 00:16:16,108 and never went into the studio. All six of them rehearsed up to pitch, whatever. 212 00:16:16,132 --> 00:16:24,948 So we'd spent all the money, and the BBC said "Well, sorry about this, it's been very good and we're sure it would have been a success, but that's it." 213 00:16:24,972 --> 00:16:31,428 and Paul and I had said oh no. We may have spent the money but we must remount this production. We must get it on. 214 00:16:31,452 --> 00:16:33,856 And we persuaded them, and it was put on. 215 00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:38,908 I think the trouble with sci-fi is, it's perceived as being a minority market. 216 00:16:38,932 --> 00:16:44,868 And it's actually bigger now than it was, what was it, 12 years ago when we started this. (Dan: Christ). 217 00:16:44,892 --> 00:16:50,176 This was before, the Alien films, I think the first Alien film had have just been around at the time. 218 00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:53,508 A lot of TV executives at the time were really science fiction illiterate. 219 00:16:53,532 --> 00:16:58,108 They were aware, really, of how much science fiction was going on 220 00:16:58,132 --> 00:17:02,668 in the Alien movies, there's Star Trek, there's Star Wars, 221 00:17:02,692 --> 00:17:07,908 Back To The Future. E.T, Close Encounters. There was a whole bunch of this stuff 222 00:17:07,932 --> 00:17:13,428 and when we went in with the original idea it was like we'd come up with this real, obscure genre 223 00:17:13,452 --> 00:17:16,056 that only we knew about and no-one else in the entire world had heard of. 224 00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:20,496 A lot hung on Red Dwarf being a success. 225 00:17:20,620 --> 00:17:23,420 I filmed a lot of Red Dwarf with a hangover 226 00:17:23,840 --> 00:17:32,496 It was a first for Manchester, and a lot of the future of, if you like, the Entertainment Department rested on Red Dwarf being a success. 227 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:35,388 Danny can be so annoying when you've got a hangover, 228 00:17:35,412 --> 00:17:39,948 'cause he's up, he's up and he's talking and he's like "hey, do you know what I did last night, guy" 229 00:17:39,972 --> 00:17:45,028 and he was out WITH me and I'm looking at him going "why are you like this?" 230 00:17:45,052 --> 00:17:51,756 "I feel as thought someone has opened up my head and shat in it." (LAUGHS) 231 00:17:51,780 --> 00:17:57,776 Of course, if it hadn't have been a success, we were all in deep trouble. 232 00:17:57,800 --> 00:18:00,628 I mean, even Chris had a hangover sometimes on it. Do you know what I mean? 233 00:18:00,652 --> 00:18:07,108 Cause we'd all go out. We were filming in Manchester. I mean... bad move, bad move! 234 00:18:07,132 --> 00:18:13,836 You take us all from our homes, stick us in a hotel with a free bar... Come on! 235 00:18:13,860 --> 00:18:17,988 But really on a tiny sitcom budget, for the first couple of series, 236 00:18:18,012 --> 00:18:24,588 they created this extraordinary 'Dark Star/Alien' tugboat of the universe. 237 00:18:24,612 --> 00:18:30,516 That's what it was, it was a grotty, dirty old cargo ship. And I really think they brought that to life. 238 00:18:30,940 --> 00:18:39,468 You know we had, colour televisions since what, 1969 or something? And yet that seemed to be, not even black and white 239 00:18:39,492 --> 00:18:42,056 It seemed to be just grey, that first series when we saw it. 240 00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:46,036 You touch that guitar, Lister, I'll remove the E-string and garrotte you with it. 241 00:18:46,060 --> 00:18:50,736 But now it's remembered with great affection really, those times. 242 00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:53,948 I just, would really love to know where the money was spent. 243 00:18:53,972 --> 00:18:59,388 It wasn't spent on the writers, and I can't believe it was spent on the set or the dressing. 244 00:18:59,412 --> 00:19:02,388 It wasn't spent on the cast, I don't think. 245 00:19:02,412 --> 00:19:08,388 So, I think, maybe the money was spent on building a Red Dwarf 246 00:19:08,412 --> 00:19:12,440 and doing those twelve fly-bys and maybe building two skutters. 247 00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:14,856 Maybe. 248 00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:23,085 We also had to work very hard on the internal reaction with the BBC. There were a lot of doubts. Why is it being done in Manchester? Why are you doing it anyway? 249 00:19:23,109 --> 00:19:26,188 It's has never been a trendy show in a way, 250 00:19:26,212 --> 00:19:30,668 we've never been that accepted by comedy officialdom as it were, you know? 251 00:19:30,692 --> 00:19:36,708 We've always been these, sort of, scallies tied on at the end. 252 00:19:36,732 --> 00:19:44,228 We've never broken in the mainstream of the comedy mafia as it were. 253 00:19:44,252 --> 00:19:48,036 Which is great by us. (GIGGLES) 254 00:19:48,060 --> 00:19:53,348 I actually looked at it and thought- because it was quite a distance between making it and watching it, 255 00:19:53,372 --> 00:20:01,588 and I looked at it and thought, my goodness me, this is weird I sort of half don't remember doing that. 256 00:20:01,612 --> 00:20:04,856 And this is like, crazy stuff. This is incredible stuff. 257 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:08,676 - What do you mean "How did I do what?" - Lister, don't be a gimboid! 258 00:20:08,700 --> 00:20:13,976 I'm not being a gimboid! 259 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:17,696 I've just been in the library thinking and I've decided... 260 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:20,736 ...Shut up! 261 00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:23,268 As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, 262 00:20:23,292 --> 00:20:27,496 I've decided when you go into stasis I wanna stay behind, I want to be left on. 263 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:29,496 What? On your own for the rest of your life? 264 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:33,616 - What things? - Eh?! 265 00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:36,908 And the first creaky Red Dwarf has gone out, I think on a Tuesday, 266 00:20:36,932 --> 00:20:42,628 and my boss had said, 'Don't go down tomorrow to Programme Review" 267 00:20:42,652 --> 00:20:46,188 "They won't talk about it, really, it's the first one." 268 00:20:46,212 --> 00:20:52,816 "It's next week that the battle begins. You go." And I said, "Right..." 269 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:56,108 So there I was on Wednesday morning, down to Programme Review, 270 00:20:56,532 --> 00:21:01,348 Worrying about what I was going to say, how we're going to explain what we're trying to do, 271 00:21:01,372 --> 00:21:03,788 what we hope to achieve, all those things. 272 00:21:03,812 --> 00:21:08,188 And halfway through the journey I thought "Oh, forget this, I'm getting nowhere" 273 00:21:08,212 --> 00:21:14,268 And got out the paper. I was reading The Times, and in those days in the back page. 274 00:21:14,292 --> 00:21:24,428 The Times printed the ratings. And I'd completely forgotten that they did that. I'd completely forgotten about ratings, really. 275 00:21:24,452 --> 00:21:29,508 I looked through BBC One... and then I looked at BBC Two. 276 00:21:30,520 --> 00:21:41,388 And there it was! Red Dwarf. Number two. 4.75 million. We'd got the ratings and we got the audience 277 00:21:41,412 --> 00:21:47,576 and I just went to the buffet and got a brandy and thought "Doesn't matter. We've done it." 278 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:53,348 I think in Series 1, throughout the making of it, 279 00:21:53,372 --> 00:21:57,708 I could feel an audience... some people were really latching on to it. 280 00:21:57,732 --> 00:22:11,108 But I think it was really Series 2... I think the scene, if I can be so specific, 281 00:22:11,132 --> 00:22:18,456 was Kryten and it was when we went in to meet the two(?) lovelies... 282 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:22,616 THEY are dead, they're all dead! 283 00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:32,176 My God, Well, I was only away two minutes! 284 00:22:32,200 --> 00:22:34,856 They've been dead for centuries! 285 00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:37,696 - No. - Yes! 286 00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:41,296 Are you a doctor? 287 00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:42,548 You've only got to look at them. 288 00:22:42,572 --> 00:22:46,296 They've got less meat on them than a Chicken (Mc)Nugget. 289 00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:50,388 And I think just the length of laughs that we had in that scene 290 00:22:50,412 --> 00:22:56,348 made you realise that the people who do like this show, really do love it. 291 00:22:56,372 --> 00:22:59,256 We've probably got a cult hit on our hands. 292 00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:04,148 I travel the world and I'm recognised all over the world which is really quite weird. 293 00:23:04,172 --> 00:23:09,668 I was working down Broadway going to a liquor store on the corner of 71st and West End in New York, 294 00:23:09,692 --> 00:23:12,948 And I was going to buy a bottle of tequila, I was going to this do. 295 00:23:12,972 --> 00:23:18,188 So I walks into the liquor store and the guy just looks at me like that... nearly faints. 296 00:23:18,212 --> 00:23:22,668 Gets me around the back of the counter into the backroom and there's him and five of his mates 297 00:23:22,692 --> 00:23:25,696 all sitting watching Red Dwarf on the telly, they're all... 298 00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:33,960 Well, it's very difficult to stand on a railway platform without at least one person saying "Oi, Smeghead!" 299 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:37,548 And of course, there are people who are blatantly honest and come up and said 300 00:23:37,572 --> 00:23:40,828 "That show's crap that you're in, you know? What is it about?" 301 00:23:40,852 --> 00:23:44,468 "That Spock thing, you play a Dracula, don't you?" You know, they've got it all wrong. 302 00:23:44,492 --> 00:23:50,196 Obviously that haven't really studied the show, they call me everything but a Cat. 303 00:23:50,220 --> 00:23:55,108 I was waiting for a train, and a big skinhead, huge- it was a hot summer's night- 304 00:23:55,132 --> 00:24:02,388 huge, tattoos everywhere, huge bloke with his girlfriend and another bloke drinking lager 305 00:24:02,412 --> 00:24:06,388 and I was sitting on the opposite side on the other platform. Thank goodness, I thought. 306 00:24:06,412 --> 00:24:11,708 And he spotted me and he climbed down the platform, walked across the two lines 307 00:24:11,732 --> 00:24:17,336 and said "Great to meet you, great to meet you, mate" and I said "Yeah, good... here comes my train." 308 00:24:17,360 --> 00:24:21,748 Once you attract a dedicated following, they'll stay with you. As long as you keep the standard up 309 00:24:21,772 --> 00:24:24,308 and Rob and Doug have been meticulous about keeping the standard up. 310 00:24:24,332 --> 00:24:28,576 I think you've got the best of both worlds, you've got a very good, structurally sound comedy 311 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:31,388 with this added twist that once the audience had found it, 312 00:24:31,412 --> 00:24:36,188 once the specialist, if you like, 'Trekkie' type audience had found it. (Rude) 313 00:24:36,212 --> 00:24:41,428 The Dwarfy audience grew. You've got a very successful motor there. 314 00:24:41,452 --> 00:24:44,976 People want more and more and more. They want more than you could ever possibly give them to be honest. 315 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:46,788 There's a little postscript to that. 316 00:24:46,812 --> 00:24:49,908 As I walked through the door of Programme Review, just down this corridor, 317 00:24:49,932 --> 00:24:59,228 they're all going in and you're getting a few sidelong glances... "He's the one"... "What about that" 318 00:24:59,252 --> 00:25:05,468 and a senior executive of Youth Programmes was walking along the side in a grumpy mood, 319 00:25:05,492 --> 00:25:08,468 and just as went through the doors he said 320 00:25:08,492 --> 00:25:13,268 "I wish we'd done Red Dwarf..." and I went 321 00:25:13,292 --> 00:25:15,100 "We've got it. We've done it!"