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Doug Naylors big announcement

admin — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 09:30:05 +0000

It’s just after 10:30 on Sunday the 10th April 2011, and Doug is currently on stage at this years Dimension Jump.

Doug has been teasing for a while now of his “big announcement” which he has been saving for this very moment.

Just as his promised, he tweeted the announcement just before going on stage, for all of us unable to make it to the convention this year.

The tweet simply reads “GNP have signed a contract with Dave for Red Dwarf X Now in contact with 4 principals. No probs anticipated”

If you want to follow Doug on twitter for further updates, his twitter account is http://twitter.com/DougRDNaylor

6 More Episodes confirmed

admin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:07:37 +0000

BobbyLlew yesterday updated his blog with some great Red Dwarf News.

The original post can be found here

So, the thing is, the whole point was that I was told not to say anything. Doug told me, face to face, ‘don’t tweet this bobby. Not yet.’

So I didn’t. I was really good. I said nothing.

Then I spend a day in my voice over cell and know nothing of the interview Craig had done on the radio, which was, it appears, picked up by the Daily Mail, which, as you know is my fave all time newspaper. Ahem.

http://bit.ly/hFd11E

So then I get back to my trusty lappy and there’s a great slew of tweets telling me that Craig has once again spilt the beans. You’ve got to love him, he knows how to spin the scoop.

I’ve just spoken to Craig, he was as usual gloriously funny about it. He said, and I quote.

‘I did a radio interview and it just sort of slipped out.’

So yes, we are making a new series, commissioned by Dave, not a special or a movie or a one of dooberry. A full 6 half hour episodes of a brand new series.

The previous Red Dwarf Back to Earth Dave specials were incredibly successful. For a Channel like Dave to get viewing figures which beat BBC 2 and Channel 4 combined was an unprecedented achievement which has never happened before or since.

The plan at the moment, and this could change, the plan is that we record the new series in front of an audience.

Now, this is a complicated issue. The last time we recorded a show in front of an audience was in 1998. Anyone remember 1998?

No YouTube, no Facebook, no Twitter, no broadband, no HD video cameras in mobile phones. Okay, a few people had e-mail. I had a crude web page already, but it really was basic.

So when the audience came in the producers would ask them politely not to reveal any spoilers ‘on the world wide web’ as we referred to it then. I’m sure some people did, but so few people would have seen anything it really didn’t matter.

The fear among the producers now is that it’s impossible to imagine an audience of around 400 people at the recording of a TV show like Red Dwarf, where nobody does a bit of a hint on Twitter, or sneaks a picture on Facebook or posts a bit of badly shot video on YouTube.

It’s just too tempting, it’s too easy.

As far as the cast are concerned,we don’t give a stuff one way of the other, but the producers are very worried and I can see why. The gap between recording a show and it’s eventual broadcast is quite long, especially on Red Dwarf. It’s a show which uses a lot of post production time. Special effects, tweaking shots, CGI, even, dare I hope for it, model shots, all take time.

By the time the shows are released on Dave in 2012, half the potential bloody viewers could know an enormous amount about it.

So, here’s what I want to know, because the cast and Doug Naylor all really want to record the show in front of an audience, it makes it much better, we perform to a higher standard, we all come from a live performing background. We raise our game.

If we do record in front of an audience, what clever piece of social media manipulation can we create which will minimize the spoiler spread, What, or how, can we threaten/cajole/convince members of the audience to keep quiet for a few months until the shows are aired.

And just for the record, the laughter track on Red Dwarf was never ‘canned’ as so many people assume. Only on series 7 did we play the tapes to an audience after we shot the shows and recorded the laughter. Every other show was shot in front of an audience and it was great.

We start shooting this in November this year, that is all I know, I haven’t seen scripts, I don’t know anything about plot, I don’t know who else will be in it other than Craig, Chris, Danny and myself. I don’t know how you get tickets yet if there is going to be an audience, I just want to once again repeat Craig’s quote to me.

‘I did a radio interview and it just sort of slipped out.’