Extra Bits

More Extras - by Andrew Ellard

10 August, 2007

Every time we think we've given all there is to give, we figure out more ways to pack every spare inch of The Bodysnatcher Collection with interesting content. What else can we add? Well...

First up we have a 1991 interview featuring Rob Grant and Doug Naylor on the BBC's Daytime UK, facing the incisive interrogation of Alan Titchmarsh. "What are the rules of comedy?" is just one of the gems in a five-minute segment the boys have dubbed The Most Embarrassing Interview in the Universe Ever.

But don't take our word for it - Rob and Doug have provided a painfully funny commentary for the sequence! Listen as they recall the whole ghastly ordeal - inane questions, stumbled responses, comedy snow on set, and an entire audience with grey, white or blue hair. The horror, the horror...

You want more? How about two versions of a Remastered Promo, featuring Ed Bye voiceovers, used to pitch the show to worldwide sales teams? A cut-down version of this very promo (sadly made from sections without voiceover) was used at the start of BBC2's first broadcast of The End: Remastered, introducing the new shows to the world as part of Red Dwarf's tenth anniversary.

Now, all of these pieces are available individually on the DVD, but we've also got a few fascinating clips within the documentaries themselves. There are context moments from I Lovett, Norman's oft-mentioned sitcom, and Wrinkles, the Grant-Naylor radio comedy that introduced the writers to original Kryten actor David Ross.

Imbedded in the remastered doc we also have a piece of test footage from Red Dwarf: The Movie - an FX pitch from 2001 created by Mill Film. It shows the new-style Red Dwarf ship - model, not CGI - pushing through space as the figure of an astronaut drifts across its surface.

Test or not, it's amazing to see how great that controversial model looks. This is, in fact, only the second time the live-action version of this Red Dwarf ship was filmed. The first was an over-the-top camera pass filmed, but never used, for the Remastered end credits - which, again, we'll be showing you on the DVD.

And speaking of effects shots, there was also a rather interesting CGI cargo bay shot constructed - and then rejected - for the beginning of The End. A Chris Veale creation, this uses the existing footage of Rimmer and Lister filmed through a grille (check the ep, it's right there at the start) but frames them small and to the side, revealing the working cranes and conveyor belts of a busy Red Dwarf cargo section.

There's no doubt about it, this DVD is going to hold Red Dwarf fans utterly enthralled.

Good news, too, for those fans in DVD region 4 - we can at last reveal that The Bodysnatcher Collection is getting a release in Australia! The four-disc set will be out in the land of (insert antipodean cliché here) in December. No word yet on the USA...

More DVD Details will follow soon...

Red Dwarf: The Bodysnatcher Collection will be out in the UK on October 22nd, and in Australia in December.