It’s the exciting news that we’ve all been waiting for; Red Dwarf is finally returning to our screens, with a new series filming later this year to air in 2016! That’s not all though; another series has been commissioned for 2017 and will be recorded in early 2016 back to back with the Series XI shoot.
At the Red Dwarf Fan Club’s convention Dimension Jump, Doug Naylor today announced to an excited crowd that there will finally be a new series of the show. The last series of the show aired on Dave back in 2012, and fans have eagerly awaited a follow up ever since, backed up by the good reviews and strong rating the series received.
The main cast of Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn are all confirmed to return with Craig ending his 10 year tenure on Coronation Street to venture back into deep space.
Although many might think these 12 episodes are the end of the road for the small rouge one, Doug stated that these shows won’t finish the Red Dwarf story with scope for more in future. The co-creator of the show also hinted at some possible plot strands with a Kochanski episode in progress; a show addressing the Cat’s virginity situation; and an episode where everyone becomes Kryten, whatever that means. There have also been suggestions of a tour, which seems highly plausible given how easy it’s been to bring the cast together for any period of time.
In terms of production many of the existing sets will be used which will provide scope for building new standing sets with the return of Starbug promised. There will also be location shoots, something which has added texture to the shows since Series II but was sorely missed from the last outing. There is a change to the location with the shoot moving away from Shepparton where it’s been shot since Series IV, to the world famous studios at Pinewood.
Curiously enough, these two series will mean that there will be more episodes of Red Dwarf in the post Rob Grant era, after the co-creator departed after Series VI, than there were in it.
The show will be a co-production between Grant Naylor Productions and Baby Cow with Henry Normal acting as Executive Producer for the latter, joined by Steve North as Executive Producer for Dave. Producers will be Richard Naylor and Kerry Waddell. Once again Doug Naylor will write and direct.
If you think our credibility is as high of What Culture’s then look, there’s an official trailer and everything.
We’ll be keeping an eye out to bring you any further news as we get it, but in the meantime don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, where Alex will be tweeting directly from Dimension Jump where he is currently working as part of the Fan Club team.