Chris Barrie

Chris Barrie: The satnav is a breath of fresh air

Actor Chris Barrie admits to being a luddite, but he finds his satnav to be a true guiding light.

The one that's had the fan-site servers running overtime - Red Dwarf - returned for a three-part special. Watching the first episode I thought there was something a little strange and airless about it, an odd hesitancy in the performances that suggested the comic muscles had stiffened during nine years of suspended animation. Then I realised that the laugh track was missing. I don't know whether one was added before transmission, but it had an odd effect on my viewing at first, as if the performers were leaving room for a reaction that was to be pasted in later. I did add some of my own sound effects though, first of all when Rimmer sentimentally sat down by Kochanski's headstone to read aloud to her departed spirit. "I pray God there's some car chases in this one," he said, splitting open a copy of Sense and Sensibility. And I was provoked to a question. How come Chris Barrie just crawls around on big machines these days, when he's such a good comic actor?

For Craig Charles, one of the highlights of making this three-part special was finding he could still fit into the leather jacket and trousers that he wore as Dave Lister 21 years ago.

All the cast (minus Holly in either of his / her incarnations) are here, too - Chris Barrie as hologram Arnold Rimmer, Danny John-Jules as Cat and Robert Llewellyn as Kryten - for this much-anticipated reunion.

The sci-fi comedy ran for eight series on BBC2 between 1988 and 1999, picking up an International Emmy on its intergalactic travels. So well done to Dave (the channel, that is, not Lister) for doing what the BBC never managed - getting the crew of the Red Dwarf back to Earth.

Actually though, that's down to guest star Sophie Winkleman - a comedy favourite thanks to her Peep Show appearances. She plays the new holographic Senior Science Officer Katerina Bartikovsky, who works out a way to send Lister to a new dimension.

Katerina's arrival is bad news for Rimmer - this spaceship's not big enough for two holograms - but good news for Lister as, being the last surviving human, it will be his job to go forth and multiply.

Tonight's episode might feel a bit flat as the crew battle a sea monster but, in the next two instalments - tomorrow night and Sunday - there'll be plenty of surprises as they arrive on Earth in the year 2009 and find themselves on a Manchester street you'll certainly recognise.

Sophie Winkleman injects glamour into Red Dwarf

This attractive rival should certainly bring Red Dwarf's Arnold Rimmer down to earth with a bang. Actress Sophie Winkleman, who is due to marry Lord Freddie Windsor this autumn, will inject some glamour into the cult sci-fi comedy and give uptight hologram Rimmer (Chris Barrie) some stiff competition.

Dwarf is big idea for Chris

Red Dwarf star Chris Barrie wants to bring back the show for a new series after filming the Easter specials.