Welcome back to the Rack! The latest installment in our periodical drama takes us back to March 1993, a time when perhaps too much information about the forthcoming Series VI is being made public, Rob and Doug's relationship is definitely absolutely fine, and the elephant in Hattie Hayridge's room goes unaddressed. Join us as we witness a space monkey genocide, "enjoy" a double length Androids and contemplate life as a living fridge, a sentient armchair and a big fish-frog thing. Plus spend far too long indulging in nostalgia for analogue-based editing systems. Seriously, that's most of the podcast.

In order for any of the above to make sense, you'll need a copy of the mag to refer to, which you can find via archive.org or Stasis Leak.

Show notes

The Smegazine strips organised by series, by Warbodog (huge spoilers if you're reading the mags along with us)

Starburst's review of the Smegazine

Danny found someone who likes Timewave

Building a Human, because any excuse

Righty dokey matey bloke flap old salty seadog amigo skip-jack jockstrap piano tuners, we're back with another in our occasional series of Dwarf-adjacent commentaries, this time covering Bottom Series 2, Episode 4, Parade. Not only is the series produced and directed by Ed Bye, this particular episode guest stars both Robert Llewellyn and Lee Cornes, which is as good an excuse as any to rabbit on over this episode and tackle your Bottom-shaped waffles. We cover pretty much all the affiliated spin-offs - the live shows, the Fluff video, Guest House Paradiso - as well as discussing what happens when TV schedules are affected by real life events, how Rik and Ade could have fitted in to Red Dwarf and trying to figure out if there's any modern equivalents to this madness.

Show notes

Our recent Hammersmith bench-based pilgrimage.

The opening theme is a cover of BB's Blues (as opposed to BB's Theme)

Here's a full rip of Bottom Fluff, just because.

With apologies for the delay, it's finally time to get back on the rack! Our Smegazine odyssey reaches February 1993, a very interesting time in Red Dwarf history, as the magazine's news page documents. In this episode, we uncover the origins of Entangled, some foreshadowing of The Promised Land and the first ever use of the smeg hammer. Other super relevant and definitely on-topic discussion points include the Bottom Exposed documentary, various 1990s adventure game shows, and the state of the Hitchhikers franchise after Douglas Adams's death. Oh, and the results of a caption competition from two years ago. We may not be fast...

Show notes

Returning the shout-out, even though we recorded this months before his shout-out to us, Stuart Millard on Scavengers

G&TV covers Cyberzone

Terrible news - turns out the photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's arses was photoshopped after all

Bryan Lewis Saunders's Drugs project

Even by the standards of the Red Dwarf DVDs, the series VI release was special and probably represents the arguable pinnacle of the original set of releases. As such, Cappsy, Danny and Ian had a marvellous time reliving an absolutely packed release of musical insight, more SFX behind the scenes goodies, plus a very amusing and previously unknown tale regarding Craig and horses!

Show notes

Ian's review

Cappsy's review

Sonic The Hedgehog music theory

Howard Goodall: How Music Works

Howard's 30th anniversary song

Laredo's website, with lots of up-to-date pictures and links to things that have been filmed there

Lionel Blair rides bareback before facing down a load of cowboys wanting to unload on him.

Bee Gees vs Chaka Khan

In this very exciting instalment of our journey through all things Smegazine, Cappsy, Danny and Ian are joined by two very special guests - Chris Barrie's nipples. Listen along as the five of us discuss neural networks, yuppies, Kochanski's giant forehead, Norman Wisdom's popularity in Albania, whether or not Back To Reality was actually any good, and how The Inquisitor is accidentally responsible for the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.

It's best to have the magazine in front of you as you listen. If you don't have an actual copy, scans are available on archive.org or Stasis Leak, you freeloading bastard.

Show notes

G&TV covers Cyberzone

John's ancient Episode Orders article, and Christopher Wickham's oft-linked-to Red Dwarf Broadcast Guide

We couldn't find the footage of Norman Wisdom pissing about ahead of Albania vs England, but here's a bit of C5's coverage to prove we weren't making it up

Dave's competition winning Inquisitor vs Judge Dredd comic

FAO Jane Killick in late 1992: all the changes made in the Red Dwarf Omnibus

G&TV covers The Reconstructed Heart

We thought we ought to do something slightly out of the ordinary for our landmark 169th episode, so here's two specials in one - it's time for some Christmas Waffles. Once again our lovely listeners slash readers provided us with a veritable smorgasbord of tasty topics, which we gobbled up whilst writing fan-fiction about the ship's Secret Santa, sharing our ultimate Red Dwarf Christmas wishes, pondering the best box sets of all time, weighing up the current state of the fandom, and coming up with a really good idea for a Christmas special. Plus, like all great festive episodes, we end on a good old sing-song. We apologise for nothing.

Show notes

Our fellow Dwarfy podcasters / YouTubers: The Garbage Podcast, Everyone's Dead Dave, Shipwrecked & Comatose, Better Than Life, Red Dwarf Nerd, Gallifrey Gals

All the leaves are brown...

Frank Kelly's Christmas Countdown

As we continue our series revisiting the now decades-old DVD releases, the main thing we re-disc-over this time out is that Series V tempts us down conversational side roads like nothing else. So join Cappsy, Danny and Ian as we discuss Juliet May's short-lived tenure as director, attempt to get to the bottom of conflicting stories about Red Dwarf USA, and uncover more examples of institutional racism within the Metropolitan Police. We also speculate as to what the visual effects workshop smelt like, hunt down pictures of Timothy Spall dressed as a pig, and confess the real reason behind our lukewarm response to the fan commentaries nearly twenty years ago. Strap yourself in, this is a waffley one.

Show notes

Ian's review from November 2004

A much more succinct explanation of what "crossing the line" means

It's a fucking emu!

Timothy Spall develops PTSD in The Tale of Little Pig Robinson

Holoship Xtended - Pete Part Three did a complete edit while John Hoare posted one scene from his version.

Ian's slow motion face

Creating new lines from existing dialogue

It's been far too long, but we are finally back on the Rack to continue our odyssey through the wonderous world of early 90s publishing. Join Cappsy, Danny and Ian as we take a deep dive into the epic Jake Bullet story that graces the cover, welcome another legendary Red Dwarf fan writer to the fold, marvel at the versatility of Chris Barrie's face, discover an obscure sci-fi writer that none of us have heard of, and attempt to figure out why a parody of Red Dwarf USA bears absolutely no resemblance to Red Dwarf USA. Mostly though, we rip the absolute shit out of everyone who took part in the all-episodes survey. Without looking, see if you can guess what the people of 1992 thought the second worst episode ever was. The 1992 idiots.

Show notes

The famous Casablanca poster that the magazine's cover pastiches

The Last Temptation of Kryten (the fan fiction that launched a thousand headcanons)

Oh Bosanquet, Howard Goodall's second contribution to Not The Nine O'Clock News

Disturbing content warning - what became of Hoggle from Labyrinth

The Kryten tissue dispenser, as featured in this article on Gazpacho Soup

Our voyage of re-disc-overy continues, as we tackle a most unusual release; the one that was out in the US before the UK, and that Young Cappsy managed to review before Young Ian for once. We rake over this bitterness as well as embarking on not one, not two, but three commentaries, forgoing the tradition of focusing on one big extra in favour of covering a handful of little bitty ones, the regular features that would otherwise be glossed over. Once again, we ensure that every single aspect of the release is discussed, and along the way we re-evaluate Hattie Hayridge's return to the role of Holly, try to get to the bottom of why the cast commentaries are so difficult to get through, and attempt to comprehensively solve the issues of both war and racism.

Show notes

Contemporary reviews from Cappsy, Ian and Ian again.

Series IV Deleted Scenes commentary (2013)

TOS article (via The Unofficial Archive) on stock footage in Red Dwarf

The Smeg Ups Rough Cut

The history of feral parakeets in Great Britain

Sexual assault of men played for laughs

Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff (and Bob Mortimer) perform Dizzy on Top of the Pops

Can't Smeg Won't Smeg commentary (2011)

Pip Madeley's remastered trailers

The TV watershed was introduced in 1964, just twenty odd years earlier than we guessed during the discussion

At 6:30pm on Tuesday 23rd August 1983, unsuspecting Radio 4 listeners were ambushed by the very first episode of a seminal new sketch show. Featuring a hugely talented cast, performing the work of two writers who were on the fast track to greatness, it was notable not only for its inherent quality, but for what it would eventually spawn. The programme was, of course, Son of Cliché, without which this podcast would not exist. So in a break from the usual format, we present our fortieth anniversary tribute in the form of a documentary, showcasing some highlights from the series, analysing what made it so great, and of course focusing on the moments that had the biggest influence on Red Dwarf. Think it was just Dave Hollins: Space Cadet that Rob and Doug drew upon? Think again.

Show notes

The complete series of Cliché and Son of Cliché on archive.org

The original "Father of Dwarf" article, published nearly 20 years ago

Our old SoC section on an ancient version of the site

John Hoare's History of a Joke article

Oh, and we also recommend looking at the original Radio Times listings for the show, for bonus jokes