Sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf will return for two new series, it has been confirmed.
While standing in for Janice Long on BBC Radio 2, Craig Charles revealed that he will return as lead character David Lister.
He said: "I can now announce we are going to be doing two more series of it starting in January next year... I got the call today. They said 'Craig, can you do it?', I said 'I'll sort it out'. So I will be able to do it in January."
Meanwhile, Chris Barrie, who plays Arnold Rimmer, told the Coventry Telegraph: "There are plans afoot to have a tenth series.
"I find it very hard to call it a tenth series, because that obviously means we're calling the Easter special from last year the ninth series. But yes, certainly, I would say some more new Red Dwarf product. There are plans afoot to get that into gear."
He added: "I think of 'Back To Earth' as a sort of 21-year celebration, really, as a proper three-part special. But yes, it would be nice to do, and hopefully we will, another six half hours.
"I don't really know anything more than I'm saying, believe me. I do know plans are afoot, but that's all I can say. In terms of the direction of the show, I don't really want to see it change that much. I just want more strong storylines, probably in a half-hour format."
Well include me out! I used to love this series, but when one of the writers left, the show took a nose dive, & Chloe Annett was wofully mis-cast as Christine Kochanski, a nice girl but not at all funny.
Danny John-Jules, best known as Cat in sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf, has confirmed that the show's highly anticipated 10th series will be filmed in front of a live studio audience, for the first time since 1999.
In an interview with website Cult Box, John-Jules confirmed that Series 10 would record 6 half-hour episodes for digital channel Dave from the end of November, and that the shows would be filmed in front of a live studio audience with laugh-track accordingly.
He said: "We've gone back to our original format, for obvious reasons. Everyone missed the studio audience bit. It's a different play, it's a different rhythm when you've got a studio audience and I like that. Not everyone can do sitcom. It's like being in the theatre and being in the TV studio at the same time.
"You get the timing and you get that thing where you can hear the audience waiting for the punchline. Or sometimes you catch them out and it just smacks them in the face. There's always that bit of fear that you're going to screw up the best gag in the show in front of the audience."
Famously, the show's seventh series, broadcast in 1997, was filmed on a closed set to allow for more elaborate, film-like staging, with laughter recorded at separate screening sessions. The much derided eighth series, from 1999, returned to the traditional set-up, but the three-part revival series in 2009 featured no laughter track at all, which many fans felt jarred with both the show's tone and its history.
Danny John-Jules continues: "The whole industry needs to go back to the basics. The whole reality thing and everyone wanting things to look like the American slick shows. The hardcore Red Dwarf fans want the wobbly sets.
"We like our old-school British sitcom. The Red Dwarf writers loved shows like Rising Damp and Porridge. We were over the moon to be doing a show that was considered to be part of that genre, with very unusual casting. You know, Porridge had a black Scotsman and the poshest guy on Rising Damp was the black guy."
He added: "The reason why it's on Dave is that the BBC said there's no audience for Red Dwarf anymore. This is what we're up against. When a show gets three and a half million viewers on a cable channel, it's not rocket science!"
Dave is part of the UKTV network, a wholly-owned division of BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial business.
The new series is expected to be broadcast in spring 2012.
I don't know, Back To Earth was pretty bad. Maybe they should just leave it be.
I have to agree with this. I was looking forward to the Red Dwarf movie for years... then it never happened. What did we get instead? A meta episode that reuses the entire idea from the depression squid story.
A new series of sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf has been ordered by digital entertainment channel Dave.
Writer Doug Naylor is currently working on scripts for Series 11 of the cult comedy, with filming due to commence in 2014. The news has been widely expected for the past eleven months, following huge ratings for the previous series, the sitcom's 10th, during October and November 2012.
Starring Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn, the series follows the misadventure of a hologram, a human, a far-evolved cat and a Mechanoid robot, stuck aboard the mining space-ship Red Dwarf, millions of years from home.
Llewellyn, who has played Mechanoid Kryten since the sitcom's third series, wrote on his blog yesterday: "We are officially making another series but we don't know when. UKTV, the copmany behind Dave, who broadcast Red Dwarf X, want another series and we'd love to make one.
"It will be sometime in 2014, but I can't be any more accurate that because we simply don't know yet.
"As far as the main cast are concerned, Chris, Danny, Craig and myself are all very committed to making another series, Doug Naylor is working on it like a man posessed but beyond that it's in the lap of the GELFS."
Having begun on BBC Two in 1988, the sitcom originally ran there for 8 series, concluding in 1999. A cult sci-fi hit, rumours of a film spin-off continued for the decade thereafter, before the comedy was revived for a short ninth series, dubbed Back To Earth, by the UKTV network's digital entertainment channel Dave in 2009.
Co-owned by BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial arm, Dave is perhaps best known as home of repeats of many panel shows and cult comedies - of which Red Dwarf's early series had proved a particularly popular schedule staple. The sitcom's revival marked one of the station's first forays into producing its own original programming, and was popular enough to ensure the order of a full-length tenth series, broadcast in 2012.
As primarily a repeats channel aimed at 18-34 males, Dave rarely enjoys high viewing figures, but its two series of Red Dwarf attracted comparitively huge audiences. The Easter 2009 debut of Back To Earth remains their highest ever audience, at some 2.06 million viewers, whilst the opening of Series 10 last year holds the second-highest spot, with 1.59 million viewers. Although the figure slid to 0.98m by the end of the six-episode run, the series averaged an audience of 1.17 million - a significant success for the channel.
Dave have not released an official statement regarding Red Dwarf XI, but the series is likely to be 6 episodes in length. Recording and transmission dates are currently unknown, although Series 11 may well be being lined up for broadcast during a similar October-November period in 2014 to 2012's Series 10.
After a four year hiatus, UK Network’s Dave channel is bringing the Red Dwarf TV program back for its 11th series (i.e. season). A six episode series, Red Dwarf XI premieres on Dave, Thursday, September 22 at 9:00pm. Watch the announcement video, below.
The Red Dwarf TV series cast includes: Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, and Robert Llewellyn. The sci-fi comedy show is written and directed by Red Dwarf co-creator, Doug Naylor, and produced by Richard Naylor and Kerry Waddell for Baby Cow Productions and Grant Naylor Productions.
Subscribers can watch the complete episode the week prior, via streaming service UKTV Play.
Here is more on Red Dwarf XI, from Dave press materials:
Red Dwarf XI, the eleventh series of the legendary sci-fi comedy, reunites the original cast of Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat) and Robert Llewellyn (Kryten) along with a host of guest stars for a brand new series recorded in front of a live studio audience at Pinewood Studios. The series is written and directed by Red Dwarf co-creator, Doug Naylor, and produced by Richard Naylor and Kerry Waddell for Baby Cow Productions & Grant Naylor Productions.
The show’s six episode run sees two of the Dwarfers’ dreams come true: Rimmer accidentally saves the life of a Space Corps Captain and is promoted to Officer, while Cat takes time off from being in love with himself to fall in love with a female Cat with a secret. Meantime, Lister wakes up to discover a deranged droid has stolen some of his body parts and Kryten has a mid-life crisis and considers leaving the Dwarfers for a younger crew. The posse also find themselves in an alternative America where modern technology is outlawed, making both Kryten and Rimmer illegal.
With big laughs and dazzling effects, Red Dwarf XI recaptures the show’s golden age.
Can't say I've ever found Red Dwarf abysmal. Naturally with any series it's got it's peaks and troughs, but I've always found it entertaining. Just seeing that bunch together is enough fun in itself.
