50 Fun Facts About Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf was created by which writing duo?

They wrote the first six series together; Grant left in 1995 and Naylor carried on with new co-writers.

How long was Dave Lister in suspended animation before waking as the last human alive?

Holly kept him in stasis until the radiation from the leak that killed the crew had died down.

Why was Lister in stasis when the radiation leak killed everyone else aboard?

The cat, Frankenstein, was pregnant and safely sealed in the cargo hold, which is where the Cat's whole species came from.

What was the name of Lister's smuggled pregnant cat?

The Cat learned about her at school as 'the holy mother'; her descendants evolved into a race of humanoid felines.

What is Arnold Rimmer's middle name?

Fitting for a man his crewmates despise; he is a hologram for most of the series, marked by the H on his forehead.

What symbol on Rimmer's forehead marks him out as a hologram?

From series I to V he is 'soft light' and cannot touch anything; Legion upgrades him to hard light in series VI.

By his own count in 'Future Echoes', how many times had Rimmer failed the astronavigation exam?

His failure to become an officer is the wound at the centre of the character.

Which actor was originally cast as Rimmer before struggling with the concept and being replaced?

Alan Rickman also auditioned; the role went to impressionist Chris Barrie, whom the writers knew from Spitting Image.

Which BBC sitcom starred Chris Barrie as a leisure-centre manager called Gordon?

Barrie was a Spitting Image voice artist and later played Lara Croft's butler Hillary in the Tomb Raider films.

What was Craig Charles doing for a living when he was cast as Lister?

The Liverpudlian 'punk poet' was first asked whether the Cat character might be seen as racist, then decided to audition for Lister.

Which gladiator-style game show did Craig Charles present from 1998 to 2004?

He also narrated Takeshi's Castle, played Lloyd Mullaney in Coronation Street and hosts a funk and soul show on BBC radio.

What is Lister's dream for when he gets back to Earth?

Ideally with Kristine Kochanski; his other great love is chicken vindaloo.

What was Lister's rank aboard Red Dwarf?

The lowest of the low, ranking directly under Rimmer, who was a second technician.

Kryten's name is a reference to the butler in which J. M. Barrie play?

The writers had originally planned no robots at all; Kryten was meant to be a one-off.

Who played Kryten in his one-off first appearance in series II, before Robert Llewellyn took over?

Ross was unavailable when the character became a regular, but later returned to voice Talkie Toaster.

Kryten was rescued from which crashed spaceship?

He is a Series 4000 sanitation mechanoid, bound by behavioural protocols until Lister teaches him to break them.

Kryten believes devoutly in what afterlife?

Lister tries and fails to convince him it does not exist; it is where all the calculators go.

Which engineering game show did Robert Llewellyn present?

He now runs the Everything Electric YouTube channel and conventions about electric vehicles.

Which two actors played the ship's computer Holly?

Lovett had auditioned for Rimmer; the female Holly took over for series III to V.

Red Dwarf grew out of a sketch called 'Dave Hollins: Space Cadet' on which Radio 4 show?

In the radio version the computer was called Hab and was voiced by Chris Barrie.

Holly was originally written as what, before Norman Lovett was offered the part?

Lovett had gone up for Rimmer; the role was also meant to be voice-only until he suggested showing the face.

Which BBC regional centre finally commissioned Red Dwarf in 1986, using a spare budget?

The money had been set aside for a second series of Happy Families that never happened, and producer Paul Jackson pushed for Red Dwarf instead.

What delayed filming of the first series in early 1987?

The title sequence had already been shot in January; filming was rescheduled for September and the pilot aired on 15 February 1988.

Who wrote and performed the Red Dwarf theme music?

Jenna Russell sang the closing theme, and Goodall himself sang 'The Rimmer Song' in the series VII episode 'Blue'.

Which Red Dwarf song, released by Danny John-Jules as 'The Cat', hit UK number 17 in 1993?

Goodall wrote the music and Grant and Naylor the lyrics for the series II episode 'Parallel Universe'.

Which series VI episode won an International Emmy in 1994?

The crew end up in a Wild West simulation facing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Which episode is the only one to open with a pre-credits warning about its content?

The shape-shifting, emotion-stealing creature is regarded by many fans as the show's finest hour.

Which character upgraded Rimmer to a 'hard light' hologram in series VI?

Hard light made him tangible and virtually indestructible, though he could still feel pain.

In which series VII episode did Rimmer leave the show to become Ace Rimmer?

He returned in series VIII as a nanobot-resurrected human with no memory of his hologram years.

Ace Rimmer, the heroic alter ego from a parallel universe, first appeared in which episode?

The two Rimmers diverged at age seven, when one was kept down a year at school and knuckled down.

What is the name of the Cat's dorky alter ego, with the bowl haircut and overbite?

He is aware of his own awfulness and frequently states that he hates himself.

Talkie Toaster is obsessed with steering every conversation towards what?

David Ross, the original Kryten, voiced it in 'White Hole' and again in series XII.

Which actress played Kristine Kochanski in series I, II and VI?

The Altered Images singer played the original; an alternate-universe Kochanski joined as a regular in series VII.

The four-year gap between series VI and VII was followed by what change in how the show was made?

Series VIII went back to a live audience; the BBC then declined a ninth series.

Which channel revived Red Dwarf in 2009 with the miniseries Back to Earth?

The three parts aired over Easter weekend and pulled some of the biggest ratings ever for a non-PSB commission.

In Back to Earth, the crew arrive on Earth in 2009 and discover what?

They track down actor Craig Charles on the set of Coronation Street; the story was partly inspired by Blade Runner.

The 2020 special The Promised Land pits the crew against Rodon, leader of what?

Ray Fearon played the tyrant who wants every cat to worship him as a god.

What was the title of the first Red Dwarf novel, published in 1989?

Written as 'Grant Naylor', it retells the early series as one narrative; Chris Barrie read the audiobook.

What were the two alternate sequels to Better Than Life (1990), written separately by its creators?

The Grant–Naylor partnership dissolved in the mid-1990s, and each wrote his own continuation.

The show's highest ratings, over eight million viewers, came in which year?

The BBC nonetheless turned down a ninth series, and fans waited a decade for the Dave revival.

Red Dwarf X, the first full series since 1999, aired in which year?

Its finale, 'The Beginning', used material from the long-planned but never-made Red Dwarf movie.

Where was the young Rimmer shown studying in a flashback in 'The Beginning'?

One of his lecturers there is the man he believes to be his father.

Where was the original series filmed after production moved from Manchester for series IV?

The show was commissioned by BBC Manchester but the cast lived in London, which is partly why they felt like BBC outsiders.

What did the BBC allegedly call Craig Charles and Danny John-Jules when refusing to invite them to a 1994 party?

Doug Naylor told the story to illustrate how the cast felt like outsiders at the corporation.

The 1998 remastering of the first three series replaced model shots with what?

It also re-filmed Norman Lovett's Holly footage; the results were later boxed as The Bodysnatcher Collection.

According to the show's own rules, which of these does NOT exist in the Red Dwarf universe?

Every monster the crew meets evolved from Earth life; the creators' original plan banned aliens and robots alike, though Kryten broke the second rule.

Where did Chris Barrie work after dropping out of college, before his impressions career?

He was born in Hanover to a father in the British Army and adopted the surname Barrie because there was already a Chris Brown on the Equity list.

Which channel first broadcast the eight original series of Red Dwarf?

The pilot, 'The End', went out on 15 February 1988 after the script had been rejected three times.

Which original cast member reprised his role in the unaired 1992 American pilot, Red Dwarf USA?

Craig Bierko played Lister and Chris Eigeman played Rimmer, with Frasier's Jane Leeves as Holly.

On what date did the first episode of Red Dwarf finally reach television screens?

The pilot drew more than four million viewers, though ratings dipped across the rest of the first series.