Red Dwarf

Three years on from the sprawling (but largely underwhelming) Back to Earth mini-series, the boys from the Dwarf go back to basics for this tenth series. It's a smart move, for this is a lively re-creation of the show as we most fondly remember it. It's all here: the studio audience, the bunkroom sparring and the strategies employed by the crew to make their lonely lives bearable.

For the incompetent Rimmer, this means attempting to pass the astronavigation exam and become a Space Corps high-flyer. We've seen him try and fail before, but this time the stakes are higher thanks to an SOS call from an old foe.

Writer Doug Naylor gets plenty of laughs from Rimmer's sense of thwarted ambition while also taking witty pot shots at some classic sci-fi conventions. Watch out for a nice gag that involves Lister faking a talent for touch telepathy, plus the sight of the guys in snug, elasticated Star Trek-style jumpsuits.

Red Dwarf: a beginner's guide

Get up to speed with the smegging sci-fi sitcom ahead of its long-awaited series 10.

Having overreached itself with 2009's Back to Earth, co-creator Doug Naylor sensibly brings Red Dwarf back into the confines of studio sitcom, where it feels more comfortable if also more dated - although any modern day Mac user will nod sadly at the reference to 'spinning beach balls of doom'. We're back to the big four: slobbish human Lister, uptight hologram Rimmer, officious mechanoid Kryten and 'supercool' human-feline hybrid The Cat, the latter now more Little Richard-meets-Bill Cosby than Prince-meets-James Brown. Each is of course played to the hilt, with the flawless cast getting an admirable number of chuckles out of an occasionally creaky script. Tonight revolves around Rimmer, who comes face-to-face with an old enemy while studying, once again, for his oft-failed officer's exam. The laughs are more sporadic and the invention spread more thinly, but TV is still a better place for its return.

Red Dwarf X review

Having Red Dwarf back is what I imagine it's like welcoming a wayward son back from his first term at a good university: sure, he looks a bit different, but thank God he's out of that druggy phase.

Red Dwarf X: have they still got the smegging goods?

The flavour of the gags remains identical without feeling old: Lister is still a loveable dufus, Rimmer an awful bastard, Kryten a hopeless people-pleaser and Cat a fabulous feline. All that's missing is ship's computer Holly.

Red Dwarf (Dave) is back for a 10th series, 23 years after the sitcom first appeared on our non-flat TVs, after an absence of 13 years, barring a brief 2009 comedy-drama reunion. You might consider the idea of new Red Dwarf episodes to be a dubious proposition - a bit like getting Hear'Say back together - but it retains an affectionate worldwide cult following.

Speaking as someone who didn't think much of it in its heyday - as far as I'm concerned it didn't have a heyday - I can only say it works as well as it ever did. In fact it's like watching a lost episode where the characters have suddenly aged 20 years for reasons that go unexplained. All the familiar elements are there: jokes that subscribe to a reliable formula ("Your brain is smaller than the salad section of a Scottish supermarket"), liberal use of the made-up swear word "smeg", the rust-bucket mining ship ("slower than the speed of dark"), plot lines that poke fun at hoary sci-fi conventions and a studio audience that finds everything at least twice as funny as you do. I can't imagine true fans of Red Dwarf being in any way disappointed.

Watching the four main actors embrace their roles with an enthusiasm bordering on the joyful made me want to travel back in time and like it more. A few lines fall flat, some reveal an inventive flair still at work and one or two moments border on the inspired. In the end the writers were right not to tinker with the formula at all. Red Dwarf the sitcom is, like Red Dwarf the spaceship, creaky, old, underpowered and more or less indestructible.

Red Dwarf X, Dave, review

Michael Hogan reviews Red Dwarf X, the first episode of the first new series of the sci-fi sitcom in 13 years, starring the original cast.

Red Dwarf X, episode 1: Spoiler-free review

Apologies to the non-diehard fans out there but this is all going to get a bit complicated, so if you want to skip to the end, I'm going to write "Red Dwarf is back, and better than it's been in 20 years. Watch it. You absolutely must watch it."

After nearly 13 years in television's equivalent of cryogenic suspension (barring a brief defrost in 2009), the Red Dwarf team have been resuscitated for a full-scale series, with a studio audience. A very fond studio audience, judging from the laughter that greeted even relatively straightforward lines in the opening episode. But then the ability of Red Dwarf to mesh the banal with the futuristic is deserving of fondness, as is the polished ensemble comedy of its four principals. Its best jokes aren't transcribable because they sit in the air between the characters, but I laughed. No sign of freezer burn.

Interview: The Red Dwarf cast

Rimmer, Lister, Kryten and Cat are back, in the first original Red Dwarf series since 1999. Can the silly sci-fi comedy characters still create laughs?