RED DWARF
Hanging With The Dwarf
W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K |^025
is where Danny John-Jules’ Cat comes from.
The early seasons were built on these
huge, often surprisingly dark, ideas, and the
cat society was arguably one of the biggest
and the least explored. As Naylor explains,
“it's not a comedy premise. But... in fact,
there is lots of great comedy in it, I think.
I hope. Everyone is affected in different
ways... Rimmer (Chris Barrie) winds up
having an existential crisis, which is quite
interesting. And equally has the opportunity
to become a kind of superhero. So it's
basically about gods and men. Because
Lister, of course, is the god to some of the
c at p e ople.”
Like Naylor, Chris Barrie has been with
the show from the start. His long, diverse
career has included everything from being
Lara Croft’s gloriously laconic butler to
the greatest leisure centre manager ever to
bestride television screens. His roles in Red
Dwarf however, are arguably his most iconic
and Barrie shares Naylor’s excitement at The
Promised Land. He tells us that “fans and
us here at Red Dwarf have been relishing
the prospect of actually linking up with the
cat world again. We encounter clerics who
are fleeing from the feral cat king, and we
encounter these clerics who worship Lister
as their god, which of course goes all the
way back to an earlier series we did... It’s
basically our adventures on the cat ship
and trying to get away from them and all
that sort of stuff. And for Rimmer, we find a
machine that can upgrade holograms and of
course he relishes that prospect.”
This longer format also gives the show
a chance to expand on both its story
and characters. “We thought it would be
interesting because it would give more time
to explore an idea,” Naylor says. “Because
when we did 30 minutes, you’ve got to
wrap everything up so quickly.” Red Dwarf
has always been an ensemble show and
has given every cast member a surprising
amount to do. For Naylor, the new format
was a chance to double down on that, as
the special looks at how Lister, Rimmer,
Cat and Kryten (Robert Llewellyn) “cope
with a variety of situations. Sometimes
it's separated and sometimes it’s together,
but ultimately together... I think it’s quite
a surprising story in the directions [Cat]
takes.” The special also brings back Norman
Lovett’s ship’s computer Holly, who hasn’t
been seen since a one-off appearance in 2017
episode ‘Skipper’.
The extra time allowed in this 90-minute
special was a boon to Barrie too. “It’s more
filmic, so much more paced for a one-and-
a-half-hour story. Whereas, if you're trying
to put a story into half an hour, sometimes
it's got to go at a feral clip, and a bit more
frenetic. Having seen it back even on the
audience nights, some of the extended,
prerecorded bits that we did, seeing some of
those, it is much more paced for film length.”
One of the charms of Red Dwarf has
always been its classic ‘live studio audience’
format – but how can you replicate that
when you’re doing a feature-length special?
The Promised Land was filmed in front of a
live audience, albeit split in two, with each
audience only watching the recording of half
the episode, as well as prerecorded play-ins.
“We’ve never done anything like this before,
a 90-minute studio audience sitcom version
of the film version of Red Dwarf,” Naylor
says, but losing the studio audience simply
wasn’t an option for him. “The thing is, it’s
easier shooting without the live audience
because you’ve got a lot more time. It’s not
live. You can possibly do more retakes.
However the [cast] absolutely love live
audiences. They love that instant feedback.
They love getting big laughs. I mean, I can’t
blame them for that. And they come alive in
a way that some crew come in and you can
see them thinking, ‘god, this is a shambles’.
[But] when they see them on the live sides,
it’s ‘oh my god, they’ve become something
The Red Dwarf crew are
back for a new adventure.
Rimmer has to
be a weasel...
RED DWARF
Hanging With The Dwarf
W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K |^025
is where Danny John-Jules’ Cat comes from.
The early seasons were built on these
huge, often surprisingly dark, ideas, and the
cat society was arguably one of the biggest
and the least explored. As Naylor explains,
“it's not a comedy premise. But... in fact,
there is lots of great comedy in it, I think.
I hope. Everyone is affected in different
ways... Rimmer (Chris Barrie) winds up
having an existential crisis, which is quite
interesting. And equally has the opportunity
to become a kind of superhero. So it's
basically about gods and men. Because
Lister, of course, is the god to some of the
c at p e ople.”
Like Naylor, Chris Barrie has been with
the show from the start. His long, diverse
career has included everything from being
Lara Croft’s gloriously laconic butler to
the greatest leisure centre manager ever to
bestride television screens. His roles in Red
Dwarf however, are arguably his most iconic
and Barrie shares Naylor’s excitement at The
Promised Land. He tells us that “fans and
us here at Red Dwarf have been relishing
the prospect of actually linking up with the
cat world again. We encounter clerics who
are fleeing from the feral cat king, and we
encounter these clerics who worship Lister
as their god, which of course goes all the
way back to an earlier series we did... It’s
basically our adventures on the cat ship
and trying to get away from them and all
that sort of stuff. And for Rimmer, we find a
machine that can upgrade holograms and of
course he relishes that prospect.”
This longer format also gives the show
a chance to expand on both its story
and characters. “We thought it would be
interesting because it would give more time
to explore an idea,” Naylor says. “Because
when we did 30 minutes, you’ve got to
wrap everything up so quickly.” Red Dwarf
has always been an ensemble show and
has given every cast member a surprising
amount to do. For Naylor, the new format
was a chance to double down on that, as
the special looks at how Lister, Rimmer,
Cat and Kryten (Robert Llewellyn) “cope
with a variety of situations. Sometimes
it's separated and sometimes it’s together,
but ultimately together... I think it’s quite
a surprising story in the directions [Cat]
takes.” The special also brings back Norman
Lovett’s ship’s computer Holly, who hasn’t
been seen since a one-off appearance in 2017
episode ‘Skipper’.
The extra time allowed in this 90-minute
special was a boon to Barrie too. “It’s more
filmic, so much more paced for a one-and-
a-half-hour story. Whereas, if you're trying
to put a story into half an hour, sometimes
it's got to go at a feral clip, and a bit more
frenetic. Having seen it back even on the
audience nights, some of the extended,
prerecorded bits that we did, seeing some of
those, it is much more paced for film length.”
One of the charms of Red Dwarf has
always been its classic ‘live studio audience’
format – but how can you replicate that
when you’re doing a feature-length special?
The Promised Land was filmed in front of a
live audience, albeit split in two, with each
audience only watching the recording of half
the episode, as well as prerecorded play-ins.
“We’ve never done anything like this before,
a 90-minute studio audience sitcom version
of the film version of Red Dwarf,” Naylor
says, but losing the studio audience simply
wasn’t an option for him. “The thing is, it’s
easier shooting without the live audience
because you’ve got a lot more time. It’s not
live. You can possibly do more retakes.
However the [cast] absolutely love live
audiences. They love that instant feedback.
They love getting big laughs. I mean, I can’t
blame them for that. And they come alive in
a way that some crew come in and you can
see them thinking, ‘god, this is a shambles’.
[But] when they see them on the live sides,
it’s ‘oh my god, they’ve become something
The Red Dwarf crew are
back for a new adventure.
Rimmer has to
be a weasel...
