'Red Dwarf' Will Return With New Special In 2025
'Red Dwarf' Will Return With New Special In 2025
Nobody’s dead, reader! Nobody’s dead! The long-running British sci-fi comedy is bringing everyone together again!
Mango juice everyone! Long-running British sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf, which has spent the last 25 years rather jagged in its run, is returning for a new special next year, identical in format to its first 21st century return, 2009’s Back to Earth.
Since this is my first time talking about the show, I should probably summarize: Red Dwarf is about Dave Lister, played by Craig Charles, the last human alive, who is stranded three million years into deep space on the mining ship Red Dwarf thanks to a radiation leak that killed the rest of the crew. His only companions are the hologram of his frenemy bunkmate, Officer Arnold Rimmer, played by Chris Barrie, the enigmatic Cat, who is a humanoid descendant of his cat he snuck aboard and played by Danny John-Jules, the ship’s computer, Holly, largely played by Norman Lovett, and the mechanoid (android) Kryten, played by Robert Llewellyn, the man who delivered the wonderful news of the show’s latest return.
On his Fully Charged YouTube channel, Llewellyn said: "We knew we were going to do more Red Dwarf and we're actually now doing it in the middle of October to the middle of November this year. A 90-minute special, three half-hours. So yes, we are making more. I can't believe I've agreed to do it, I'm insane. I'm much too old." This is probably a good point to explain Red Dwarf’s airing history. The show ran for six initial six-episode series on BBC Two from 1988 to 1993. From this point, the show never ran so consistently again. It first returned for two eight-episode series in 1997 and 1999. Ten years later in 2009 came the aforementioned miniseries Back to Earth on a channel called Dave. Three six-episode series followed in 2012, 2016, and 2017. The Promised Land ran in 2020 as a TV movie, equivalent to four episodes in runtime. Llewellyn’s first appearance as Kryten was in the III opener which first aired in 1989, meaning he’s only about a year behind the rest of the cast, but they’ve been playing these characters for 35 years! The title of the special has not been revealed.
Llewellyn had told his audience two weeks ago that "We've all agreed to do more. We're not going to do a new series but we're making something and it should be fun." Speaking to the Liverpool Echo in December, Charles remarked: "We're in talks with the BBC and UKTV to do another series… It hasn't been on the BBC for so long but now they're in talks with UKTV to do a co-pro that will go out on Dave and the BBC." Currently, no airing home has been secured for the special either. Under current arrangements, these episodes are not set to air on the BBC. The Beeb's commercial arm, BBC Studios, holds a majority stake in Red Dwarf production company Baby Cow, and owns UKTV outright.
While awaiting this new story, fans can watch every episode of Red Dwarf much like they can Doctor Who, especially Classic. In its home country of the United Kingdom, it’s all on BBC iPlayer. In the United States, one can choose to subscribe to Britbox, or watch it free with ads on Tubi.
Source: British Comedy Guide