Red Dwarf: Titan – the full synopsis News Posted by Ian Symes on 10th February 2026, 10:06 Following last week's unheralded appearance of Red Dwarf: Titan on various obscure booksellers' websites, some bloke called Rob has got in touch with us to clarify one or two things. Hi G&Tians A couple of bookshops seem to have misunderstood the publisher’s embargo, and made a premature pre-launch of the new RD novel, Titan. It’s not even been through the final copy edit yet. They also announced a publication date in July, which is the first we’ve heard of it, and over which we have no control. It’s still not confirmed. Likewise, the blurb we’d written for the cover wasn’t shown in full, presumably to accommodate a word count. Now the Cat’s out of the baggy suit, here’s the full version. ROB & ANDY Read more →
Peter Ridsdale-Scott RIP News Posted by Ian Symes on 9th February 2026, 12:10 News has only just reached us, via Paul Muller on our forum, that the great Peter Ridsdale-Scott passed away on Christmas Day 2025, as announced on his website. Peter was a giant of British television, hugely popular and well respected. After starting out as a jobbing actor in his native Blackpool, he worked his way through the ranks behind the scenes at the BBC in London, where he ended up as a writer, director and producer of children’s programmes, including thousands of episodes of the iconic Play School. He then moved to Manchester to take up an executive producer role on programmes such as Cheggers Plays Pop and EBC1: Emu’s Broadcasting Company, before becoming the Commissioning Editor for BBC North West. Having been approached by Paul Jackson, Peter was the first commissioner to see the potential in the Red Dwarf pilot script, which had already been rejected multiple times by his counterparts in London. It was Peter who green lit the series, put his faith in the relatively unproven Rob, Doug and Ed, signed off on the casting, championed the show within the BBC, and fought for it to be remounted after the initial production was halted by a technician’s strike. While actors, writers, directors and producers are the first to be praised for their successes, none of them can do their jobs without a commissioning editor who believes in the project, takes risks, and makes things happen. Quite simply, if it wasn’t for Peter Ridsdale-Scott, there would be no Red Dwarf. None of us would be reading this website today. The friendships, relationships and offspring that have been born from the show over the last 38 years wouldn’t exist. We owe him everything. We celebrate his vision and determination, and we will remember him. His contribution to Launching Red Dwarf, the documentary on the Series 1 DVD, is already legendary, showcasing his enthusiasm and love for the show in the most endearing way. He also took part in The First Three Million Years in 2020, and did a Mr Flibble interview back in 2002. And if you want to see him in his element, he took a starring role in a fascinating BBC training film on videotape editing, in his days as Play School director. Plus of course, he’s immortalised in Red Dwarf itself, as the inspiration behind Chris Barrie’s performance as Brannigan, the ship’s psychiatrist, in Queeg. Peter Ridsdale-Scott may now be late, but he was so good. He was brilliant.
Rob Andy readin’ Titan, yes sir I’ve been around News Posted by Ian Symes on 6th February 2026, 16:20 Well then. Exactly five years to the day that Rob Grant told us that he wanted Red Dwarf flying out of our buttskis, it seems we're a little over six months away from the first scheduled flight. Thanks to our Czech mate barbucha in our forum for spotting that a novel called Red Dwarf: Titan is beginning to turn up in online listings, with a release date of July 16th. An all-new prequel, and the first Red Dwarf novel in thirty years with Red Dwarf creator Rob Grant returning alongside Andy Marshall, creator of sitcom 2point4Children and Quanderhorn! Before the beginning. Before the accident that wipes out the crew, the mining ship Red Dwarf is in orbit around Titan, and the crew is heading down for shore leave, all with different intensions… However, their objectives are scuppered somewhat unexpectedly when they receive a cryptic message. A message from the future. Two feuding crewmen are catapulted into a breakneck race to save not only this but every other Reality. So strap yourself in - the Dwarfers are taking on TITAN. This novel is the perfect reboot for those who have never seen the series but also full of wonderful Easter eggs for the fans. Read more →
DwarfCast 179 – The Smegazine Rack – Volume 2 Issue #1 DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 5th February 2026, 13:31 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes "INT. Chris Barrie's Arse" 8 extra pages! 2 free postcards! Smeggier than ever before, it's the new-look Smegazine Rack! Yes, after a prolonged gap since our last sojourn to the early-to-mid 1990s, we return to discover everything's become glossier, wider and more densely packed, as we finally reach Volume 2 of the Red Dwarf Smegazine. There is much to discuss, not least the most unfortunate cover line of all time, but also a comic strip with remarkable parallels to a much later TV story, the latest news on just how messy the production of Series VI was, the evils of red chairs, the soap opera parody that refuses to die and the crossover event of the century. Plus, we give a very special welcome to a new Smegazine writer, who would go on to have a very, ahem, "interesting" career. Read more →
DwarfCast 178 – Re-Disc-overy: Series VIII DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 9th January 2026, 11:49 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes "Birds don't have balls" We may not be fast, but we get there in the end. Just shy of a year later, our voyage of Re-Disc-overy continues as we reach the mammoth collection that is the Series VIII DVD. And there is much to discuss, such as the inter-cast beef evident in the commentary track, the brilliance of the guest stars' contributions to the documentary, a reappraisal of Chris Veale's work on the series, the beginnings of the show's web presence, the moment that secured this fledgling fansite's future, and buffet car food. Oh, and there's always time to discuss the merits of the series itself, because we haven't done that enough over the last twenty-six years. All this, plus not one but two commentaries, on the Children In Need sketch and the collection of PBS idents. You lucky people. Read more →
4 Fuck’s Sake News Posted by Ian Symes on 6th January 2026, 12:34 Bizarrely, Red Dwarf is now available to stream on Channel 4. That's a sentence that's mind-boggling enough on its own. It's part of a new deal between C4 and UKTV, by which certain content from U (formerly UKTV Play) is syndicated to both platforms. U currently has Series 1-VIII and X streaming, but only the first two series are there on Channel 4. This makes it the third most comprehensive collection of episodes available to stream for free in the UK, as iPlayer still has the complete set. There's not much else to say, really - C4 are using the same episode thumbnails as U, so there's nothing really to... OH MY CHRIST, LOOK AT THAT ARTWORK. Read more →
The G&T Review of the Year 2025 Features Posted by Ian Symes on 31st December 2025, 16:29 As the New Year starts to be rung in throughout the world, it can only mean one thing - an obligatory Ganymede & Titan Review of the Year. But in a break from recent traditions, this year's retrospective covers a period of relatively high activity for Red Dwarf. Not all of the news has been good. In fact, much of it has been downright awful. But nevertheless, 2025 will go certainly go down in a history as a year in which Some Things Happened. So let's take a moment to look back and reflect on those Things, as well as our own mediocre output that filled the gaps between Things. Read more →
Red Dwarf: The BBC TV Soundtracks Review Reviews Posted by Flap Jack on 28th November 2025, 12:45 We find ourselves in a new phase of the relationship between Red Dwarf and the BBC. In 1988-1999 they were happily married, in 2000-2007 they were going through divorce proceedings, and in 2008-2020 they were amicable but distant exes. Then in 2023 they must have bumped into each other at a bar, got deep into conversation over one too many Long Island iced teas, and woken up in the same Travelodge bed. Since then Red Dwarf has been eager to re-commit to the partnership, but the BBC have only been interested in hooking up every now and then to relive memories of better times. This new phase has yet to bring us any new episodes, but it has brought us new re-releases. First every canonical episode came to BBC iPlayer, then Series 1-IV were repeated on BBC Two, then we got the ‘Complete Series I-XIII’ Blu-ray box set, and now BBC Audio have brought us this: audio-only, digital-only releases of Series 1-VIII. Whether there’s any hope of ever moving back in together is unclear, but in the meantime, is the sex any good? Tortuous Metaphor mode cancel. Read more →
G&TV: Stand Up Quickies Posted by Ian Symes on 21st November 2025, 09:41 Ah, G&TV, always a reliable indication that we've suddenly realised it's been ages since our last update. As is so often the case, we are eternally grateful to our good friend Jonsmad for keeping the G&T inbox topped up with archival treats, ready to be raided at a moment's notice. This one's a particularly juicy titbit - two episodes from the late 80s/early 90s ITV show Stand Up, both of which feature Hattie Hayridge and Craig Ferguson. Back when this programme started in 1989, whoever was in charge of naming it clearly wasn't anticipating how difficult it would be to Google in a quarter of a century's time. But from what we can gather, these episodes hail from that first series, meaning they were filmed up in Manchester not long after Hattie was there to be Hilly, and not long before she was there to be Holly. However, it was only shown regionally on its initial broadcast, whereas these recordings come from a late night national repeat in the summer of 1991. Read more →
