I don't know if you have ever like me mapped out the perfect scheme idea or dream on bar matts during a heavy all dayer in a pub.

But that was the beginning of a TV comedy that became known as Red Dwarf.

Though other sit coms had toyed with sci-fi Red Dwarf was in fact ground breaking comedy.

The concept was brilliant, Dave Lister a man more than happy to wear the same socks for weeks on end and scrape the fur off an old curry has a job, its not a great job he is a service mechanic on a huge mining space ship Red Dwarf.

His lack of ambition and total disinterest in anything at all is contrasted by the Anal retentive Arnold Rimmer who delights in regime, discipline and naval life, even though he is hopeless at all three.

After smuggling a cat on board Dave is sent into cryogenic suspension as punishment. He is awoken by the computer Holly who tells him that he has been in fugue for the past 3 million years. Red Dwarf has drifted into unknown space the entire crew have been wiped out by a nucleur accident and Dave Lister is probably the last man alive.

He is joined by the reanimated hologram of Arnold Rimmer, a creature that has evolved from the cat he smuggles aboard (with as much vanity and selfabsortion as a cat) and the ships computer Holly.

So starts the first episode of the first series called appropriately "The End"

The great thing about this series is the way that the characters evolve, they are joined by their own Mr Spock in the shape of an Android called Kryton and the ultimate objective moves along nicely.

To start with Lister is like a kid with a new toy, desperate to find earth he runs around the ship like a maniac. Rimmer and Lister's lives become a chance to make the others a misery. As the plot develops, Listers personality mellows and matures (while staying very funny) and Rimmer becomes less, well less of a Smeg Head to quote the series.


The first 4 or 5 series of Red Dwarf are classic and belong in everyone’s video collection. The later ones however loose the plot a little but are still worth a watch. The first ones were so good that the later ones look terrible in comparison but they are OK.

Bottom line is next time you map out an idea on a bar matt, just think, it may make you a few bob after all!