Late last week, Grant Naylor Productions posted a statement to the official “Red Dwarf” Facebook page that has fans Cult favorite sci-fi comedy series “Red Dwarf” excited. According to the post, the ongoing legal disputes over series rights between co-creators Doug Naylor and Rob Grant have been settled!
“Red Dwarf” follows Dave Lister (Craig Charles) who awakens on board a spaceship after three million years to discover that he is the last surviving human. He is joined by a hologram of his tightly wound bunkmate Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie), an evolved humanoid Cat (Danny John-Jules), a robot named Kyrten (Robert Llewelyn), and the ship’s AI Holly (Norman Lovett and Hattie Hayridge).
Naylor and Grant dissolved their partnership in the mid-1990s. Since then, the two have written series and books independent of each other. In 2021, Naylor launched a High Court action against Grant over rights to the show. This legal dispute left the future of “Red Dwarf” in the lurch until now.
Details aren’t very specific, but it sounds like the two will continue to develop their own independent versions of the series. Which probably means fans will be seeing more “Red Dwarf” content sooner rather than later!
Even Craig cannot believe the way “Red Dwarf” has stood the test of time. “We originally thought it would be a quaint BBC2 sitcom that would last two series,” he said. “Now we’ve done more than 60 episodes. Our concern was messing with the legacy. We didn’t want to come back and for it not to be funny, and we were happy it worked.”
The show ran for six series on the BBC from 1989 to 1993. “Red Dwarf” was later rebooted on Dave, with the last installment being the 2020 film “The Promised Land.” Making it the longest-running sitcom in the UK and the second longest-running sci-fi show, where it is only beaten out by the juggernaut that is “Doctor Who.”
