What’s Going On With Red Dwarf?

Without his removal, Naylor claims that UKTV would have commissioned a further two Red Dwarf specials.

As for Naylor’s co-creator, Rob Grant gave his side of the story alongside Red Dwarf’s original producer, Paul Jackson, at the Holly Hop event itself. While avoiding speaking about the case directly, they were enthused about the future of the show.

“We all want Red Dwarf to go on and on and on. We want series and specials and stage shows and movies and spin-offs. We want Red Dwarf flying out of our buttskis. Why wouldn’t we? Seriously? And I would really love, personally, to write some of it, just for the record,” Grant said.

Jackson added, “We’ve actually already signed up. Just to be very clear, we’ve already signed our contract for the next iteration of Red Dwarf, whatever it may be, a new special or series, whatever it may be. We signed it last year, everything was negotiated and agreed, we happily signed. Everything was set out – how many, how much, how long. It stipulates very clearly that Doug will be the writer, the director and the executive producer of any such commission. And we’re all delighted and thrilled, and we quite honestly thought by this time we’d have got it going.

“So we’re ready and waiting, there’s nothing we could do to stop it if we wanted to, because we’ve signed a contract already.”

A Broken Partnership

If that all sounds confusing, it’s only the tip of the iceberg. The inner workings of the relationship between Doug Naylor and Rob Grant have been complex and kept private for decades. The two were old school friends, who cut their teeth writing sketches together before eventually hitting on Red Dwarf as a series version of their “Dave Hollins: Space Cadet” sketches for BBC Radio 4.