British Comedy Guide
British Comedy Guide
Red Dwarf. Image shows from L to R: Cat (Danny John-Jules), Rimmer (Chris Barrie), Lister (Craig Charles), Kryten (Robert Llewellyn). Copyright: UKTV
Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf

  • TV sitcom
  • U&Dave / BBC Two
  • 1988 - 2020
  • 74 episodes (13 series)

Science fiction sitcom based in space. The crew aboard the damaged mining spaceship Red Dwarf are doomed to drift in space for the rest of eternity. Stars Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Robert Llewellyn, Norman Lovett and more.

  • Due to return for Untitled three-part special
  • Series IV, Episode 4 repeated Monday at 1am on U&Dave
  • JustWatch Streaming rank this week: 152

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All series

Red Dwarf. Image shows from L to R: Rimmer (Chris Barrie), Kochanski (Clare Grogan), Lister (Craig Charles). Copyright: BBC

Series I (1988)

The crew of the mining space ship Red Dwarf are wiped out by a radiation leak. Dave Lister, who was concealed in suspended animation during the accident, emerges 3 million years later to discover that he's the last human being alive.

Red Dwarf. Image shows from L to R: Cat (Danny John-Jules), Lister (Craig Charles), Rimmer (Chris Barrie). Copyright: BBC

Series II (1988)

In the second series, broadcast shortly after the first, the crew meet Kryten for the first time. Holly's new invention of the 'Holly Hop Drive' promises to take Red Dwarf back home to Earth in a mere instant. What it manages, however, is to flip the ship across the fifth dimension divide and into a parallel universe.

Red Dwarf. Image shows from L to R: Kryten (Robert Llewellyn), Rimmer (Chris Barrie). Copyright: BBC

Series III (1989)

The team go back in time, get marooned, fight a shape-changing mutant, swap bodies, experience different lives and battle a new, more advanced android trying to replace Kryten. Oh, and Holly the ship computer is now a female.

Red Dwarf. Image shows from L to R: Cat (Danny John-Jules), Kryten (Robert Llewellyn), Holly (Hattie Hayridge), Lister (Craig Charles), Rimmer (Chris Barrie). Copyright: BBC

Series IV (1991)

In the fourth series, the Dwarfers try to date a green blob, cause trouble with a DNA altering machine, play a game of pool with some planets, meet Arnold 'Ace' Rimmer and end up fighting a waxwork war.

Red Dwarf. Image shows from L to R: Kryten (Robert Llewellyn), Cat (Danny John-Jules), Rimmer (Chris Barrie), Lister (Craig Charles). Copyright: BBC

Series V (1992)

Rimmer visits a Holoship, tries to justify his existence to a moody guy called The Inquisitor, visits a planet made up of his mind, contracts a holo virus and comes face to face with a Rocky Horror version of himself!

Red Dwarf. Image shows from L to R: Kryten (Robert Llewellyn), Rimmer (Chris Barrie). Copyright: BBC

Series VI (1993)

The Dwarfers get into more trouble in the 1993 series. Their adventures include meeting a creature called a psiren, saying hello to a really nice guy called Legion, dealing with yet another ship virus, meeting older versions of themselves and braving the fearsome and ugly 'Kinitawowi' tribe.

Red Dwarf. Image shows from L to R: Kryten (Robert Llewellyn), Cat (Danny John-Jules). Copyright: BBC

Series VII (1997)

The crew were back for a seventh series in 1997 after a four year break. They had to face such disasters as the ship running out of curry, a fatally wounded Ace Rimmer, and the Epideme bug. Plus Christine Kochanski is back thanks to a rip in the space-time continuum.

Red Dwarf. Image shows from L to R: Rimmer (Chris Barrie), Kochanski (Chloë Annett), Kryten (Robert Llewellyn), Lister (Craig Charles), Cat (Danny John-Jules). Copyright: BBC

Series VIII (1999)

The final Red Dwarf series for a decade was broadcast in 1999. The entire crew of Red Dwarf had been re-created by the Nanobots and so Kryten, Cat, Rimmer and Lister had a whole host of people to try and avoid again including Captain Hollister and the Space Corps. Trouble is, they're in jail. This series was considered a low point for the show, and the programme was axed after this series.

Red Dwarf. Image shows from L to R: Rimmer (Chris Barrie), Kryten (Robert Llewellyn), Lister (Craig Charles), Cat (Danny John-Jules). Copyright: UKTV

Series IX - Back To Earth (2009)

Revived for digital channel Dave, Back To Earth - a short, three episode series - marked the return to Red Dwarf, and the first shows since the millennium. It was filmed using single-cameras and without a studio audience giving it a cinematic feel... but perhaps losing the feeling of being a sitcom in the process.

Red Dwarf. Image shows from L to R: Lister (Craig Charles), Rimmer (Chris Barrie), Kryten (Robert Llewellyn), Cat (Danny John-Jules). Copyright: UKTV

Series X (2012)

After a long wait, we returned to mining vessel Red Dwarf for a tenth series in 2012... with the show back in the studio, recorded in front of a live audience. Space battles, quantum entanglement, and love triangles with snack dispensers - just some of problems facing the four Dwarfers in this series.

Red Dwarf. Image shows from L to R: Cat (Danny John-Jules), Rimmer (Chris Barrie), Lister (Craig Charles), Kryten (Robert Llewellyn). Copyright: UKTV

Series XI (2016)

This series sees two of the Dwarfers' dreams come true: Rimmer accidentally saves the life of a Space Corps Captain and is promoted to Officer, while Cat takes time off from being in love with himself to fall in love with a female Cat with a secret.

Red Dwarf. Image shows from L to R: Rimmer (Chris Barrie), Cat (Danny John-Jules), Lister (Craig Charles), Kryten (Robert Llewellyn)

Series XII (2017)

For the very first time, the rest of the crew discover just how it feels to be Kryten when they're arrested by the Mechanoid Intergalactic Liberation Front. The Dwarfers come across a ship where criticism is illegal, and another where the crew have developed a cure for evil. The Cat struggles to choose between Kryten or Rimmer when the ship's machines revolt, while Lister discovers a simple update of the Red Dwarf's latest software could be a matter of life or death. Finally, Rimmer decides to leave this universe in search of a parallel one where hopefully he isn't such a massive loser.

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