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
  • Dave / BBC Two
  • 1988 - 2020
  • 74 episodes (12 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.

Episode menu

Series I, Episode 1 - The End

Dimwitted third-class space ship technician Dave Lister is dumbstruck to find that, after what was supposed to be an 18-month punishment in stasis (suspended animation), he has woken up some 3 million years later, a radiation leak having long killed his Red Dwarf colleagues and left him as the last human being.

Further details

Lister held in stasis. Lister (Craig Charles). Copyright: Grant Naylor Productions / BBC

Having been locked in stasis - a state of suspended animation that not even time can affect - as punishment for smuggling his pet cat Frankenstein aboard the mining vessel Red Dwarf, the interstellar space ship on which he works, Dave Lister is incredulous to discover he is the last surviving human.

Originally sentenced to an 18-month freezing whilst the ship returned to Earth, Lister is woken by ship's computer Holly and informed that whilst he was locked away the rest of the crew died. It transpires that without Lister's help his immediate superior and begrudging work-mate Arnold Rimmer was unable to properly fix a drive plate, leading to a lethal dose of cadmium II to leak throughout the ship and turn the crew to neat piles of dust.

But there's a worse surprise to come for Lister: Holly reveals he had kept him in stasis not for the mere moment it felt like; not even for the 18 months of his sentence; but for some 3,000,000 years whilst the radiation from the cadmium leak died down to a safe background level. In the meantime, if it hasn't died out completely, the rest of the human race must have evolved far beyond Lister's feeble imagination.

However, he's not entirely alone. Rimmer has been brought back as a hologram. There's also Cat, a creature evolved from Frankenstein, who was hidden and sealed away in the hold by Lister before his suspension - and Holly itself, the ship's emotionally unstable and somewhat mentally challenged computer, charged with attempting to get them back home...

Broadcast details

Date
Monday 15th February 1988
Time
9pm
Channel
BBC Two
Length
30 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Saturday 7th January 2012 12:40pm Dave
Saturday 7th January 2012 6:20pm Dave
Wednesday 23rd May 2012 6:40pm Dave
Wednesday 23rd May 2012 11:00pm Dave
Sunday 30th September 2012 11:00am Dave
Saturday 5th January 2013 10:00am Dave
Friday 29th March 2013 1:00pm Dave
Saturday 30th March 2013 9:00am Dave
Saturday 7th September 2013 11:40pm Dave
Sunday 8th September 2013 12:20am Dave
Sunday 8th September 2013 2:00pm Dave
Sunday 5th January 2014 11:00am Dave
Sunday 5th January 2014 6:00pm Dave
Friday 18th April 2014 1:40am Dave
Friday 18th April 2014 11:00am Dave
Saturday 15th November 2014 3:00pm Dave
Tuesday 14th April 2015 12:20am Dave
Saturday 2nd May 2015 11:00pm Dave
Monday 6th July 2015 10:20pm Gold
Tuesday 7th July 2015 1:00pm Gold
Sunday 4th October 2015 11:00pm Dave
Sunday 6th March 2016 4:00pm Dave
Monday 13th June 2016 11:35pm Gold
Tuesday 14th June 2016 2:35am Gold
Monday 29th August 2016 2:00am Dave
Tuesday 6th June 2017 2:35am Dave
Monday 9th January 2023 12:00am Dave
Saturday 18th February 2023 2:00pm Dave
Monday 19th June 2023 12:40am Dave
Friday 25th August 2023 10:00pm BBC2

Cast & crew

Cast
Chris Barrie Rimmer
Craig Charles Lister
Danny John-Jules Cat
Norman Lovett Holly
Clare Grogan (as C P Grogan) Kochanski
Mac McDonald Captain Hollister
Guest cast
Robert Bathurst Todhunter
Paul Bradley Chen
David Gillespie Selby
Robert McCulley McIntyre
Mark Williams Peterson
Writing team
Doug Naylor Writer
Rob Grant Writer
Production team
Ed Bye Director
Ed Bye Producer
Paul Jackson Executive Producer
Ed Wooden Editor
Paul Montague Production Designer
Howard Goodall Composer

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