As fresh immigrant to USA, watching it on local PBS on the gigantic back projection jumbotron TV someone offloaded on us back in mid-90es, it made a huge impact with its absurdity and silliness.
I sing "Drinking Fresh Mango Juice" every time I get it out of the fridge, and when my wife and I visited Egypt and got room service with fresh mango juices, it was in heavy rotation. And every time I leave and it's cold outside, I tend to sing "It's cold outside!".
RIP
nephihaha•Feb 27, 2026
For a brief period there it was fashionable to have fish nibbling at your feet (in the 2010s?). Not goldfish shoals although that is probably what Lister wanted to farm in Fiji.
alephnerd•Feb 27, 2026
I'll pour out a lager and grab some chicken vindaloo in his memory.
busterarm•Feb 27, 2026
Smeg
jl6•Feb 27, 2026
Damn. Guess I’ll be smoking some kippers in his memory.
Can we get a black bar?
On second thoughts, that would mean changing the CSS.
tarkin2•Feb 27, 2026
Ah, there are so many jokes like that which still make me smile. I'm grateful Red Dwarf and his books were part of my childhood.
moffers•Feb 27, 2026
They’re all dead, Dave! What a great franchise.
hinkley•Feb 27, 2026
Peterson isn't, is he?
petermcneeley•Feb 27, 2026
RIP with the calculators.
stevekemp•Feb 27, 2026
Silicon heaven .. hopefully free of talking-toasters.
arprocter•Feb 27, 2026
Not now, not ever. No toast.
ColinEberhardt•Feb 27, 2026
My random claim to fame; I was the support act (juggler) for Norman Lovett (the red dwarf ships computer), for one night only in the Welsh town of Bangor.
What a life I’ve lived.
nephihaha•Feb 27, 2026
Yes, I remember him. He briefly had his own show called "I Lovett" or something like that. Also spent time in Bangor back in the mid nineties.
kinlan•Feb 27, 2026
I still spend time in Bangor
ColinEberhardt•Feb 27, 2026
One drunken night in the company of Norman Lovett was enough for me :-)
bravoetch•Feb 27, 2026
I used to stay up late to watch Red Dwarf. [dark reference to the show incoming] Maybe he's moved on to somewhere Better Than Life.
nullhole•Feb 27, 2026
RIP, thanks for the memories.
No sci fi effect has ever given me the same sense of wonder that I got from the shot of the camera slowly travelling over the gigantic ship in the Season 1/2 intro.
Btw: @dang : Grant was the co-creator, alongside Doug Naylor, who is still kicking
nephihaha•Feb 27, 2026
The intro was actually strangely eerie/bleak. I felt sorry for Lister (I think it is) out there painting the ship. There was kind of a sadness because he had lost pretty much all his friends and you could feel the vastness of space.
thx4allthefish•Feb 27, 2026
Smeeeeeeeeg head
ddellacosta•Feb 27, 2026
As an American, Red Dwarf along with Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy created a deep appreciation both for British humor and funny sci-fi in my adolescent self. I now own the box set on DVD and even have a random Red Dwarf novel I got at a yard sale (I forget which one of them wrote it though).
RIP Rob! Will be having a vindaloo, lager, and maybe some fish (Fish! Fish! Fish!) later in your honor
(EDIT: 100% talking about the UK version here, had no idea or forgot there _was_ an American version)
afandian•Feb 27, 2026
Maybe it was written by:
> Grant Naylor is a gestalt entity occupying two bodies, one of which lives in north London, the other in south London. The product of a horribly botched genetic-engineering experiment, which took place in Manchester in the late fifties, they try to eke out two existences with only one mind. They attended the same school and the same university, but, for tax reasons, have completely different wives.
> The first body is called Rob Grant, the second Doug Naylor. Among other things, they spent three years in the mid-eighties as head writers of Spitting Image; wrote Radio Four's award-winning series Son of Cliche; penned the lyrics to a number one single; and created and wrote Red Dwarf for BBC television.
> They have made a living variously by being ice-cream salesmen, shoe-shop assistants and by attempting to sell dodgy life-assurance policies to close friends. They also spent almost two years on the night shift loading paper into computer printers at a mail-order factory in Ardwick. They can still taste the cheese 'n' onion toasties.
> Their favourite colour is orange.
ddellacosta•Feb 27, 2026
Haha I went and actually looked and yep, that's it...no wonder I couldn't remember
afandian•Feb 27, 2026
Somehow enough fragments of that stayed in my brain since 2004 to google it. My first and last real-life encounter with the word 'gestalt'.
evanelias•Feb 27, 2026
Yeah the first two novels were credited to their "Grant Naylor" partnership, and they're both excellent.
After that, they each wrote an additional Red Dwarf novel individually / separately. Personally I've never come across those last two novels, although I always check for them whenever visiting a used book store. Maybe they were only released in the UK. They're available on Amazon in the US, but I haven't quite given up hope on stumbling across them naturally yet...
beloch•Feb 27, 2026
Red Dwarf is an absolute classic, but I think people of all nations can agree that the American version was better off cancelled.
I have watched the American pilot, and one thing I found curious was that the two female characters were the most interesting (Cat and the Computer played by Terry Farrel and Jane Leeves who were both in major series - Deep Space Nine and Frasier). Holly/Computer has been female for much of the British series and Cat did work as a female character. Contrast with the British show which was very male except for computer (sometimes) and Kochanski when she became a regular character (Chloe Annette didn't really work. I wish Clare Grogan had been a regular instead.)
ddellacosta•Feb 27, 2026
I agree, Clare Grogan is still who I picture when I think of Kochanski tbh, I loved her energy
nephihaha•Feb 27, 2026
Clare Grogan is definitely who I think of. I couldn't really see Chloe Annette being Kochanski, she was miscast and I don't think she got good scripts.
hermitcrab•Feb 27, 2026
Kryton is one of the greatest characters to ever grace a tv screen.
Lio•Feb 27, 2026
“It’s a banana. It always has been a banana and always will be a banana. It’s a yellow fruit you unzip and eat the white bits. It’s a banana!“
LeoPanthera•Feb 27, 2026
Robert Llewellyn is just a lovely person in general. He now produces a YouTube/TV show about electric cars, but his outtakes from Red Dwarf are delightful. He stays mostly in character during the outtakes (perhaps that's easy in the suit) and he's very funny.
Loved the show back in its heyday. From what I remember, the novels are pretty good too
dwb•Feb 27, 2026
Fab show, great memories! Thanks for the laughs Rob, RIP.
JojoFatsani•Feb 27, 2026
There was nothing like Red Dwarf on TF (British or American) back then - a laugh-tracked show that could be simultaneously the most hilarious dry wit, not-so-dry bawdy humor, and a compelling and thought-provoking sci-fi action-adventure all at the same time.
I fell off it after they had that comeback season roughly in 2000 where the whole ship got revived. Then I saw a few clips from a later season where everyone was pretty schlubby. I'll need to track down some way to re-watch the whole thing.
nephihaha•Feb 27, 2026
I watched the whole lot thanks to lockdown. I used to like up until series six or so, but had a look at the later ones. Yes, the actors certainly all look more "lived in" nowadays.
The later series/seasons are very uneven, which surprised me. I stopped watching originally around when Chloe Annette's Kochanski was introduced but I was surprised that instead of a steady decline that the quality was very up and down.
jeffwask•Feb 27, 2026
I rewatch it a lot and the only season I skip is 9. There are a couple bad later episodes I'll skip but there are more than a few bangers in the later seasons.
evanelias•Feb 27, 2026
Ditto here, season 9 ("Back to Earth") is the only one I have no desire to rewatch.
Season 12 is particularly good though. In my opinion, the first and last episodes of that season are among the funniest they've ever done!
hansjorg•Feb 27, 2026
He's dead Dave. At least he went peacefully in his Jeep.
sbarre•Feb 27, 2026
Anyone else read Rob Grant's book Colony[0]?
It's a pretty funny sci-fi book, similar dry wit.. I picked it up at a yard sale only because it said "from the creator of Red Dwarf" even though I mostly only knew of the show through others..
19 Comments
Rest in peace.
There's no kind of atmosphere
I'm all alone
More or less
Let me fly Far away from here
Fun fun fun
In the sun sun sun
I want to lie
Shipwrecked and comatose
Drinking fresh
Mango juice
Goldfish shoals
Nibbling at my toes
Fun fun fun
In the sun sun sun
Fun fun fun In the sun sun sun
> Shipwrecked and comatose
is how I have often felt.
Can we get a black bar?
On second thoughts, that would mean changing the CSS.
What a life I’ve lived.
No sci fi effect has ever given me the same sense of wonder that I got from the shot of the camera slowly travelling over the gigantic ship in the Season 1/2 intro.
Btw: @dang : Grant was the co-creator, alongside Doug Naylor, who is still kicking
RIP Rob! Will be having a vindaloo, lager, and maybe some fish (Fish! Fish! Fish!) later in your honor
(EDIT: 100% talking about the UK version here, had no idea or forgot there _was_ an American version)
> Grant Naylor is a gestalt entity occupying two bodies, one of which lives in north London, the other in south London. The product of a horribly botched genetic-engineering experiment, which took place in Manchester in the late fifties, they try to eke out two existences with only one mind. They attended the same school and the same university, but, for tax reasons, have completely different wives.
> The first body is called Rob Grant, the second Doug Naylor. Among other things, they spent three years in the mid-eighties as head writers of Spitting Image; wrote Radio Four's award-winning series Son of Cliche; penned the lyrics to a number one single; and created and wrote Red Dwarf for BBC television.
> They have made a living variously by being ice-cream salesmen, shoe-shop assistants and by attempting to sell dodgy life-assurance policies to close friends. They also spent almost two years on the night shift loading paper into computer printers at a mail-order factory in Ardwick. They can still taste the cheese 'n' onion toasties.
> Their favourite colour is orange.
After that, they each wrote an additional Red Dwarf novel individually / separately. Personally I've never come across those last two novels, although I always check for them whenever visiting a used book store. Maybe they were only released in the UK. They're available on Amazon in the US, but I haven't quite given up hope on stumbling across them naturally yet...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mlnntKi2no
Even the second attempt at it, with Star Trek DS9's Terry Farrell (as Cat), was a bad idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfJsViD9SjM
The original was lightning in a bottle.
Some random Red Dwarf outtakes: https://youtu.be/l6VTzq5N0Mo
I fell off it after they had that comeback season roughly in 2000 where the whole ship got revived. Then I saw a few clips from a later season where everyone was pretty schlubby. I'll need to track down some way to re-watch the whole thing.
The later series/seasons are very uneven, which surprised me. I stopped watching originally around when Chloe Annette's Kochanski was introduced but I was surprised that instead of a steady decline that the quality was very up and down.
Season 12 is particularly good though. In my opinion, the first and last episodes of that season are among the funniest they've ever done!
It's a pretty funny sci-fi book, similar dry wit.. I picked it up at a yard sale only because it said "from the creator of Red Dwarf" even though I mostly only knew of the show through others..
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_(Grant_novel)