So, I’ve been going through some old books looking for things I can sell, and I found a book I forgot I had, that I probably got as a present many many years ago. And it’s the best thing ever.
At first glance I thought it was a diary, and it kind of is, only the crew have filled it in themselves. Parts of it are hilarious. Parts are a little sad, like when it gets to December and all the crew draw a picture of what they want for Christmas and Lister draws the Earth.
But then there’s this, which is next level amazing…
Because yes, that is Rimmer and Lister attempting to write smut. 😂
(You should get this book if you can. You won’t regret it!)
Turns out there’s just about to be a French-Canadian version of Brooklyn 99! Almost shot-for-shot and all.
I stumbled across tweets about this yesterday, the same day the last episode of Red Dwarf: The First Three Million Years aired and discussed the extremely ill-advised American version of Red Dwarf. You know, the one where they whitewashed everybody Last Airbender-style. (Craig Charles has some thoughts on it. Thankfully it never made it past the pilot stage.) So gah, my very first, pre-actually-watching-it reaction to this was “See America, it’s not so fun when someone else remakes your show, is it?!” But that’s probably unfair, especially since this version is whitewashed too, what with Amy and Rosa no longer being Latina. SO I would frankly prefer no more remakes or adaptions of this kind please, ever again.
· I love that when they brought Howard Burden in to design the costumes for series 3 he didn’t watch a single episode from series 1 or 2 but instead just based the new costumes on the series 3 script. That explains a lot!
· Finally getting a look at the back of Lister’s painted short-sleeved black shirt from series 11 and 12! I don’t believe this was ever shown on screen? (please correct me if I’m wrong!). It’s got little drawings of the Cat and Kryten as floating heads to match the Rimmer and Lister drawings on the front!
· I absolutely love the fact that Howard had basically no money at the beginning to make all of the Cat’s fabulous costumes and that to make the yellow and black coat from Terrorform they just took the old zebra print coat and coloured in the white bits with yellow felt pen!
· Howard and Danny both saying that the Cat made their careers. In all of the years that I’ve watched the show, I’ve never really given much thought to the person who actually makes the Cat costumes – I just look at them, think ‘well, that’s amazing’, then move on. But of course getting the opportunity to design such incredible outfits would be a dream come true for a costume designer, and it must (as Rimmer would say) look so good on the old CV!
· Robert talking about how long it took to get him into the Kryten costume (five hours!) and how the others had it easy in comparison, especially Chris who only had to put his H on. And then Chris talking about putting the H on as if it’s the trickiest thing ever – “We have a hard time getting that H straight”
· Craig sweating out of his ear holes in his mechanoid costume – ewwwwww
· And then Craig talking about wearing the costume – ‘Having done it, I’ve gotta take my hat off to him. But then again, he’s had three books out of this – Man in the Rubber Mask – he’s made a fortune out of it – get on with it!”
· Chris talking about Low Rimmer – describing him as ‘extraordinary’. And then describing
the costume: ‘It was such an uncomfortable outfit. I’m sure there were pins sticking into me and all sorts of things. Motivated me to be, you know, Low Rimmer. Because the outfit inspired that kind of evil, you know.”
· Craig pretending for years to anyone who asked that he ate real dog food in Marooned when it was actually just tuna with a bit of jelly on it!
· Great episode, loved the focus on the costumes. Can’t wait for the last episode!
· David Tennant doing the narration! Love a bit of the DT
· I know that Chris Barrie can do a brilliant Cat impression, but having his impression followed immediately by a clip of the Cat speaking really highlights how flawless it is – I genuinely couldn’t tell the two voices apart
· I didn’t know that Chris auditioned but was turned down at first! And I didn’t know that after they cast Craig they brought Chris back to read with him and cast him based on the chemistry they had together – love that!
· “So, instead of proper actors what we wound up with was a poet, an impressionist, a stand-up comedian and dancer. Looking back, the best possible cast we could ever have imagined.”
· Bless Peter Ridsdale-Scott for saving those sets! The fact that if he hadn’t of made sure they got safely stored during the electrician’s strike the show would never have been made is crazy. Also bless him for loving the script and insisting the show be filmed in Manchester – would the show have ever been made without him?
· I love that the extra rehearsal time they got because of the strike gave them more time to work on the characters – particularly Danny’s crazy cat mannerisms and Rimmer’s salute. The fact that Chris ended up with “14 different varieties of salute” is just brilliant
· Howard Goodall singing the alternative theme tunes had me cracking up – “I want to swim, nakedly, get quite drunk in several wooden huts”, “Get things nicked and ruin all my shoes”. “So, there’s a theme there.”
· I really like that in the Radio Times listing for the first episode Danny’s character was just listed as ? Also that Chris was listed as playing ‘Arnold Rimmer, BSC, SSC’
· Craig reciting that nasty old review once again – I love that he’s got that memorised.
· The fact that they shot the Better Than Life beach scenes on Rhyl beach – “We all froze to death”. And the boys had to be wrapped in coats and blankets between takes to keep them warm!
· That deleted scene from Bodyswap with Kryten doing a posh English accent! Really weird to hear him talking in any accent that isn’t his not-Canadian one.
· Loved the first episode! So many interesting little nuggets of information that I’ve never heard before. Can’t wait for episode two!
