#6

I remember loving it in my early teens but I have watched it since then. I doubt it holds up.

#7

Something I solely watch at about 11pm during the Christmas period, pissed to the point of delirium.

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#8

Anyone ever owned a red dwarf t-shirt? No me neither

#9

Was obsessed with this show when I was a kid. In fact, one of my best mates to this day was a kid I happened to get sat next to when I had one of those nightmare secondary school transfers (halfway through a year), and we immediately got chatting about Red Dwarf and bonding over it. Between us we had every series on VHS.

By recollection, the first 3 series are funny-but-dated, series 4-6 are Properly Good and then it’s patchy-to-awful from that point on. I checked out after Series 8, but haven’t been back since so could be completely wrong on all counts. The nosedive it took was attributable to the writing team who created it “doing a Gervais-Merchant” and splitting up, but then one of them deciding to continue it without the other.

They also co-authored a couple of novels which were simultaneously a novelisation of the series and a massively detailed exploration into its wider universe and the character’s back stories way beyond what the TV show’s budget could ever have allowed. I read that Omnibus edition so much that the book literally disintegrated. Again, I remember it being fucking great in a sort of Terry Pratchett/Robert Rankin way but there’s 20 years of nostalgia in blurring my vision.

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#10

One of my schoolfriends had a Red Dwarf bomber jacket!

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#11

That was the holy grail of red dwarf merch

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#13

might re-read those first two novels, remember them being genuinely good and wonder if I was mistaken

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#14

I used to look at them in the Virgin megastore and wonder who on earth bought them.

#15

Smeghead!!!

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#16

Smee…hee…

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#17

When I was a kid I got an abcess behind my eye, and had to spend about a week in hospital. One of the only things I had to entertain me was a whole bunch of audiobooks on tape, two of which were Red Dwarf books for some reason. When I got out I devoured the others I could find.

What I remember most clearly about them was that there was a really sharp difference in tone depending on whether Naylor or Grant was the main author - Grant was the more knockabout smeghead foul-mouthed metaphor guy, Naylor obviously wanted to go for a more serious sci-fi angle. Think the best one was Better Than Life - managed to marry the incredibly bleak setting with the working class humour successfully, which was also the show at its peak.

#18

My da taped them all off the telly except for the polymorph episode because my ma thought it would be too scary for me to watch. Backfired when I used to watch short circuit cos my dad had taped alien before it. Good double bill to be honest.

2 Likes
#19

The two they collaborated on the first two then fell out and both continued the story for their own versions of the third, think I started to lose interest around them but went to a signing of the last human at WHSmith. I genuinely think those first two would be quite respected cult books if it wasn’t for the to show

#20

I heard the latest season was pretty good I remembered thinking the comeback season was okay but never felt the urge to return
I really disliked season 7, 8 had it’s moments and Back To Earth was ridicuously awful.

#21

Yeah, I’m in this boat. Don’t understand people who think seasons 10 to 12 have been awful. They’re not tight up there with the classic seasons, but they’re still very good at times.

#22

Better than 7 and 8 imho 10 was. I’ve heard 11 and 12 were better than 10. Hell might watch them and use the 30th birthday as an excuse

#23

I think I may be the only person alive who really liked series 8. I used to think it was a common opinion but everybody I’ve met since, including big fans and casuals, just has a complete hatred of it.

I agree on series 7 though, the lowest point of the whole thing for me.

1 Like
#24

I didn’t dislike 8. I liked that they changed the formula bit it wasn’t very memorable outside of the setting.

#25

Huge fan. For me the first season is absolutely miles better than any other (and any other sitcom for that matter). After that they got progressively worse, except 6 was better than 4 or 5. Everything after 6 is just rubbish.

Bumped into Craig Charles in The Winchester in Highgate about 10 years ago. Remember drinking shots with him at the bar and singing Dirty Ol Town, and him making a bit of a dodgy reference to Richard Gere when my ex told him her childhood hamster was called Lister.

#26

What’s the one where they went to Coronation Street? Turgid.