That’s it, the Christmas break is over, we are about to head into a 5 week long Red Dwarf marathon. We’ve got 2 shows recorded and before Christmas that felt like a real achievement, but now it feels like we’ve just scratched the surface.
We are rehearsing tomorrow, then shooting complicated bits on Wednesday and Thursday, more rehearsals Friday and we record the next show in front of an audience on Saturday night.
So far it seems the people who’ve seen the shows being recorded have not been posting spoilers, they have all been incredibly honorable and well behaved. I’ve seen mountains of tweets and comments about the shows being ‘really funny’ and ‘classic Red Dwarf’ which is really encouraging, and I think, not wishing to blow my own trumpet, largely true.
It is an utter joy to be working with the cast again, I think I am enjoying that aspect more this series than ever before. We really do get along very well, I laugh so much when I am in their company so apart from the rubber, it’s a massive privilege to work on the show. Doug Naylor is being amazing, somehow managing to cope with the ten thousand decisions an hour he has to make.
The crew are all lovely, charming, hard working and talented, my new make up lady, Liz, is a dream. The mask now goes on in under an hour, in fact I am no longer the one in make up for hours before anyone else. Due to the passage of time, every member of the cast spends a little longer in the make up chair than they used to 10, 15 or 22 years ago, when I started my involvement with this bonkers show.
While I was cooling off outside the studio the other night between scenes, I did ponder what my life would have been like if I had, as I intended at the time, said no to playing the role of the rubber headed one in 1989. Through all the hardship, sore eyes, insane body heat and line learning horror, I’m rather grateful I said yes.
Red Dwarf series X will be broadcast on Dave in September this year, it’s really funny and it is, classic Dwarf.