Red Dwarf: Discovering the TV Series by Tom Salinsky

Volume 1: 1988-1993 – Review with Guest Fun Facts by the author

Having been a fan of Red Dwarf since the very beginning, I had to read this book. Of course it brought all the memories flooding back – well most of them! Back in the day, we struck lucky getting tickets for one of the recordings and took a coachload from work to Shepperton TV studios. But could I remember which episode we saw? No, apart from it being a Starbug one and in the early 1990s. Luckily, in my gigs and theatre spreadsheet, I had the date of the trip, and It turns out it was one of the better episodes, Quarantine in Series V. I’ve just rewatched it on BBC iPlayer and it is indeed a classic!

Back to the book which covers the first six series. In the introduction we learn that Red Dwarf was pitched to the suits as ‘Steptoe in Space’, a necessary move to get SF on the telly (Star Trek was ‘Wagon Train to the Stars’). Salinsky tells us how Lister, Rimmer, Cat and Holly were cast – Chris Barrie had read for Lister originally, Danny John-Jules turned up late but in character as Cat winning him the part. Thereafter, each chapter focuses on one series, beginning with its production history which details all the trials and tribulations of bringing it to the screen, from the writing to the editing into a finished product. I hadn’t realised that the running order for the episodes wasn’t really set, so they were often recorded out of order, and scenes within an episode too. Salinsky has talked to many of those involved over the years and is able to chronicle all the dilemmas from script rewrites, to set design, camera set-ups, crew changes, budgeting and negotiating with the suits and more, but not forgetting the regular cast’s issues and those involving guest stars too. These details all build into a fascinating picture of a TV production from start to finish.

This series by series production history is followed by the episode guide for that series, and after a plot summary, this is where Salinsky is able to show his geekery by picking out what (in his opinion) worked and didn’t work, what made him laugh or didn’t, inconsistencies between episodes, bloopers, intertextual references to other films, shows, books etc. These all come under a set of repeated headings including ‘That Rimmer’s a solid guy’ which explores how Rimmer’s hologram status is working that episode! He can be critical, but it comes from hindsight, naturally, and a long love of the series rather than any negative intent. I love reading about continuity errors and so on, don’t you?

He is pretty consistent in his praise for the special effects team, who managed so well on tiny budgets for instance. Also the actor David Ross, who originated the role of Kryten in Series 2. He was a hard act for Robert Llewellyn to follow, but he would make the part his own. The key to everything though is the dynamic of the ‘odd couple’ relationship between two of life’s losers: Lister and Rimmer. As Salinsky says, ‘The vital difference is that Lister is a happy loser and Rimmer is a frustrated loser.’

There are funny stories aplenty dotted through the text, one that made me laugh involved Kryten’s new suit for Series VI, which had shoulder lights – which only worked once:

‘Robert Llewellyn speculated that Craig Charles might have touched them, or breathed on them, or looked in their direction. Charles had a remarkable ability to damage props, to the point where the art department defined a working prop as one that Craig Charles hadn’t handled yet.’

I did enjoy this book, I loved the level of geekery in it, I loved being reminded of the highs and lows and everything in between. Needless to say, it is a book for fans, you would be unlikely to read it not knowing the series, but such is Red Dwarf‘s reach, it’s audience is probably bigger than you’d think. Volume II will look at the subsquent reboot of the series, and all the other formats it has appeared in.

I’m now going to hand over to Tom, who has kindly supplied a set of fascinating Red Dwarf facts for our delectation:

Red Dwarf | 6 Top Facts for 6 Series | By Tom Salinsky

Red Dwarf is a TV phenomenon, a science-fiction comedy series made by a BBC who were insistent that sitcoms should revolve around sofas, drawing rooms and French windows, and definitely should not feature curry-obsessed-chicken-soup-machine-repair operatives, uptight holograms, loopy computers and well-dressed cat people. Beginning in 1988, it has been cancelled multiple times, but rumours are swirling of yet another iteration coming in 2025.

Here are six facts – one per series – for the first six years of the show, covered in the first volume of my book Red Dwarf: Discovering the TV Series. Plus, a zeroth fact about how the show came to be.

0. The show was commissioned only because of a BBC accounting loophole. BBC Manchester allocated funds for a second series of Ben Elton’s Happy Families, which he had no intention of writing. Producer Paul Jackson took the cash and made Red Dwarf with it instead.

1. For the first series, production designer Paul Montague was inspired by the writers’ description of the ship as being like a submarine. The result is that the first series is grey. Very grey. Even the cans of lager are grey.
2. For a show that nobody wanted to make, getting a second series was suspiciously easy. The first set of six episodes went out in 1988 and got decent ratings (especially episode one) but didn’t set the world on fire. Nevertheless, six more episodes were commissioned and on the air before the end of the same calendar year. Various theories have been advanced as to why this happened so quickly, ranging from a hole in the schedule, to a desire from an outgoing executive to throw his successor under the bus by committing another million plus quid to an obvious turkey. Either way, Red Dwarf’s fanbase grew and grew.
3. Wanting to expand the cast for the third series, the writers hit upon the idea of re-using the mechanoid Kryten who had appeared in one episode of the second series – but actor David Ross was doing a play and couldn’t make the recording dates. His successor in the part, Robert Llewellyn, has gone on to appear in every subsequent episode of Red Dwarf, appears at conventions, was in the one-off American remake and even wrote an episode for the show’s seventh series.
4. For the fourth series, the writers quietly rewrote some of the show’s history, adjusting the nature of the relationship which lead character David Lister had had with communications officer Kristine Kochanski and upping the number of crew on board Red Dwarf from 169 to 1,169. These changes are never explained – continuity is for smegheads.
5. Due to behind-the-scenes problems with the fifth series’s opener ‘Demons & Angels’, after the usually raucous end-of-filming “wrap party”, the cast and crew had to reassemble the following day for extensive reshoots, directed by the writers as the original director had left the project.
6. In the episode ‘Psirens’, Lister’s guitar licks were provided by Phil Manzanera from Roxy Music, who crouched behind Craig Charles, and thrust his arms through his jacket sleeves. This cunning illusion, also used for the banjo scene in the 1972 film Deliverance, worked brilliantly and Craig Charles was delighted with the result. The end credits read: featuring the hands of Phil Manzanera.

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Thank you Tom!

Source: ARC – thank you. Pen & Sword / White Owl hardback, Sept 2024, 192 pp, 32 colour photos.

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