DwarfCasts (a Red Dwarf podcast)

Oh yes. Just under five whole years since we finished covering every single Red Dwarf novel in ludicrous depth, the DwarfCast Book Club is back, ready to tackle the latest addition to our collective book shelves. It may have taken us a little longer than expected to start bringing you our nitty-gritty analysis of Rob Grant and Andrew Marshall's all-new side-universe prequel, but we're making it up to you by releasing a podcast so long that you'll have to take the afternoon off to get through it all. And we're only covering half of the first part. So open up your by now well-thumbed copy of Red Dwarf: Titan, and join us for a chapter-by-chapter (and in some sections, pretty much sentence-by-sentence) run through of the prologue, Proloog, and chapters 1-16 of Part One, Walverlof. Oh, and there is very obviously extreme levels of spoilers, so for goodness sake, don't listen to this before you've read the bloody book.

Show notes

Red Dwarf: Just The Franks (no Randolphs)

Throwing Ewoks into a lake of farts

Chapter 3 in YouTube form

We've tried our best to clarify whether "boweliest" is a valid word in Countdown, to no avail.

The loss of Rob Grant earlier this year was a complete shock. Whether you knew him personally or were one of his thousands of fans, it was a bolt out of the blue. It's taken us a little while to be able to talk about it, but with the release of Red Dwarf: Titan - Rob's final work - rapidly approaching, we wanted to get together and discuss just how much he meant to us. So join us for our reminisces about all of G&T's interactions with Rob over the years, discover the origin of that "ex-wife's honeymoon video" quote, relive the moment that Ian's imminent fatherhood was announced to the world unexpectedly, and discover what's on the wall of Rob's downstairs toilet.

You can also peruse the show notes section below for a bumper dose of Rob-related content, and feel free to share your own memories of Rob in the comments.

Show notes

Cappsy's ancient White Hole interview

Mr Flibble Talks To Rob Grant

Danny and Ian interview Rob and Andrew

The Quarantine Commentaries archive

The last G&T interview with Rob

Andrew Marshall's tribute

Our obituary for Rob

The incredible TOS tribute

8 extra pages! 2 free postcards! Smeggier than ever before, it's the new-look Smegazine Rack! Yes, after a prolonged gap since our last sojourn to the early-to-mid 1990s, we return to discover everything's become glossier, wider and more densely packed, as we finally reach Volume 2 of the Red Dwarf Smegazine. There is much to discuss, not least the most unfortunate cover line of all time, but also a comic strip with remarkable parallels to a much later TV story, the latest news on just how messy the production of Series VI was, the evils of red chairs, the soap opera parody that refuses to die and the crossover event of the century. Plus, we give a very special welcome to a new Smegazine writer, who would go on to have a very, ahem, "interesting" career.

Show notes

The magazine, via archive.org or Stasis Leak, whatever's your poison

It was actually us that tweeted a list of all the times the crew could have got back to Earth, although Curtis Threadgold did indeed come up with a number of other suggestions.

We haven't managed to dig up any of Chris Barrie's Jackanory episodes, but we have figured out the TX dates: Jack Crater, 1st-3rd March 1993; The Fox and the Chicken, 25th February 1994; The Greatest, 9th March 1994

Ace Rimmer Worlds Tour

Smegazine signing event at Forbidden Planet, May 1993

What Stanley Didn't Say, by Anthony Frewin

We may not be fast, but we get there in the end. Just shy of a year later, our voyage of Re-Disc-overy continues as we reach the mammoth collection that is the Series VIII DVD. And there is much to discuss, such as the inter-cast beef evident in the commentary track, the brilliance of the guest stars' contributions to the documentary, a reappraisal of Chris Veale's work on the series, the beginnings of the show's web presence, the moment that secured this fledgling fansite's future, and buffet car food. Oh, and there's always time to discuss the merits of the series itself, because we haven't done that enough over the last twenty-six years. All this, plus not one but two commentaries, on the Children In Need sketch and the collection of PBS idents. You lucky people.

Show notes

Contemporary reviews from Cappsy and John Hoare

What's Funny About..?, the radio equivalent of Comedy Connections

Bill Pearson's Christmas special script, via Gazpacho Soup

Whatever You Want, and its Pearson-built Starbug

Terry Wogan's penis

Swirly Thing Alert and Smegheads in Seattle

Back In The Red Xtended - commentary and Xtended Revisited

After an enforced absence where it proved impossible to find an afternoon where all three of us were available and awake, we are back in your ears with a brand new DwarfCast! There was a lot to catch up on, including the new Bluray boxset, Doug's debut children's novel and the forthcoming audiobook releases of the TV soundtracks. Join us for a big old news round up, supplemented by a fresh stack of waffles, provided to us by you, the faithful listener/reader. Does Red Dwarf have a future on TV? What would feature in a modern day Smegazine? Are there any dream DVD extras that haven't yet been made? What's the best Best of the Beatles album? All this and more in our latest Wafflemen Special.

Show notes

What would it be like if naughty German Adolf Hitler had actually spoken with the voice of the Beatles producer George Martin?

Static Dress - face

Patrick Wolf - The Libertine

The Northern Boys - F The World

Kneecap - Drug Dealin Pagans

Paul Oakenfold & Kilanova - Ordinary World

Danny's playlist of interesting cover versions

It's the end of a relatively minor era, as we conclude our coverage of Volume 1 of the Red Dwarf Smegazine. Get ready for the cross-over event of the century, as one character from Back to Reality meets another character from Back to Reality, along with about fifty other comic strips of varying quality. We also uncover some scandalous censorship on the news pages, discuss Robert Llewellyn being sodomised by a rabbit, covet tiny cardboard models, deride one of the worst April Fools jokes of all time, and stalk a baby. It's quite the ride.

We recommend reading along as you listen; you can find scans of the mag at archive.org or Stasis Leak.

Show notes

Buy The Thursday Man by Grant Naylor on Amazon!

Robert Llewellyn on KYTV - with no actual sodomy, but plenty of slightly less rude antics

Limmy and the paper aeroplane

Book 'Em and Risk It, an accidentally topical G&TV

Norman Lovett plays with his dolls house

Cool to do drugs.

As we enter the twentieth anniversary year of one of the most seminal short films of all time, it's an opportunity for us to reflect on our own pasts as we explore the The Movie: Yeah No Yeah No DVD, which features among its bonus material the entirety of Red Dwarf VII. It's the most personal trip down memory lane in our Re-Disc-overy series so far, as we not only commentate on the fan films, but also reveal all the behind the scenes details of the haphazard production processes, cringe at our past selves' incompetence, and consider how one simple film-making competition ultimately changed all three of our lives.

But that's not all, as there's an awful lot to discuss in the rest of this three disc package too. Join us as we attempt to make amends for our past criticism of someone who really didn't deserve it, reminisce about the time Grant Naylor Productions threatened us with legal action, piece together Chris Barrie's whereabouts during the bits of Series VII he wasn't in, reveal the link between this DVD and the world of gardening, and begin to assemble our complete history of Red Dwarf via the medium of cancelling every single person involved.

Show notes

Contemporary reviews from Ian and Cappsy

The Flymo Garden Vac 2700W Turbo

The Movie: Yeah No Yeah No bonus features - the video bits are also on YouTube for convenience

They're amazing, and they're machines

Early drafts of all the Series VII scripts, plus our original analysis of Identity Within from before the DVD version was made

This is what Danny found in his DVD case. Aww.

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