Red Dwarf is a British science fiction comedy franchise created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor which primarily consists of a television sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999, and on Dave since 2009, gaining a cult following.[1] The premise of the series follows the low-ranking technician Dave Lister, who awakens after being in suspended animation for three million years to find he is the last living human, with no crew on board the mining spacecraft Red Dwarf other than Arnold Rimmer, a hologram of Lister's deceased bunkmate, and Cat, a life form which evolved from Lister's pregnant cat.
As of 2020, the cast includes Chris Barrie as Rimmer, Craig Charles as Lister, Danny John-Jules as Cat, Robert Llewellyn as the sanitation droid Kryten, and Norman Lovett as the ship's computer, Holly.
To date, twelve series of the show have aired, in addition to The Promised Land. Four novels were published from 1989 to 1996. Two pilot episodes of an American version of the show were produced but never aired. The magazine The Red Dwarf Smegazine was published from 1992 to 1994.
One of the series' highest accolades came in 1994 when an episode from the sixth series, "Gunmen of the Apocalypse", won an International Emmy Award in the Popular Arts category. In the same year the series was also awarded "Best BBC Comedy Series" at the British Comedy Awards.[2] The series attracted its highest ratings, of more than eight million viewers, during the eighth series in 1999.[3]
The revived series on Dave has consistently delivered some of the highest ratings for non-Public Service Broadcasting commissions in the UK.[4][5][6] The show has been critically acclaimed, and has a Metacritic score of 84/100.[7] Series XI was voted "Best Returning TV Sitcom" and "Comedy of the Year" for 2016 by readers for the British Comedy Guide.[8] In a 2019 ranking by Empire, Red Dwarf came 80 on a list of the 100 best TV shows of all time.[9]