The Red Dwarf phenomenon

What broadcast comedy has been BBC-2's top rated show; won countless awards including an Emmy; been broadcast in Britain, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Serbia and Sweden (to name but eight) and features the end of the entire human race - except for one person.

The answer is, of course, Red Dwarf. The science-fiction comedy is set three million years in the future, and the only human being left alive is Dave Rimmer, a vending machine serviceman who was put into suspended animation shortly before the rest of the crew of his mining spaceship, the Red Dwarf, were wiped out. His companions are Rimmer, a hologram; Cat, who evolved from Rimmer's cat; Kryten, an android; and Holly, the computer.

The Red Dwarf website at http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/ has all the background information you could want to know and then some.

The comedy is a success despite, rather than because of the science fiction. What makes the series funny is the characters (as is true of all great comedy). Dave Lister, played by Craig Charles, is a scruffy, lazy, dodgy individual with less than perfect personal hygiene. Rimmer, the hologram, played by Chris Barrie is the exact opposite - an over-achiever, with impossibly high standards. What ties them together is the same quality - they are both failures. Lister is the classic under-achiever - he is intelligent but chooses always to take the easy way out. Rimmer would love to be an over-achiever if only he had the brain power. Which sadly, he does not.

While the comedy revolves around the edgy relationship of the two humans, it is completed by the addition of Cat, played by Danny John-Jules, who is the coolest creature in the universe. In the words of the Red Dwarf fan club (at http://www.jupitermining.com ), all he ever requires is adequate napping and preening time, a shiny thing or two, and adequate materials to create endless outrageous suits, and he is happy. Conversely, a creased suit, and food deprivation devastate him. Later episodes also saw the introduction of Kryten (Robert Llewellyn), an android pathologically unable to do anything except look after people, and clean up after Lister (a full time occupation).

Rounding the regular cast out is Holly, the computer (Norman Lovett), with a sardonic sense of humour which seems to hint at the fact that he is the only person who has the faintest idea what is going on.

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