Cast Round-Up

Catching up with the Dwarfers...

16 March, 2012

Contrary to what you might think, the Red Dwarf cast aren't kept in a cupboard at the Grant Naylor offices, to be dusted off when there's a new series afoot and carefully placed back in bubble-wrap once filming has ended. Outside of their time on board the good ship Dwarf, they actually have jobs and lives elsewhere, too. We know, we were shocked when we found out, as well.

So with their shooting work on Red Dwarf X firmly in the can, and some months still to go before we need to wheel them out to face the publicity gauntlet, the cast have all been off working on their own projects, or even just taking some much-needed down time. As such, you can catch them all in a variety of places at the moment.

Craig Charles turned up on BBC Breakfast last weekend (March 10th), discussing the tenth birthday of radio station 6music - where his Funk and Soul Show is still going strong every Saturday night. As well as briefly mentioning Red Dwarf X, it's now been announced that Craig will be returning to the cobbles of Coronation Street at the end of March - meaning his character Lloyd Mullaney should start appearing on screens again around late April or early May. He can also be found doing live funk and soul DJing at assorted venues throughout the Spring and early Summer.

Motorcycling exploits seem to be taking up most of Danny John-Jules' time at the moment - as well as recently announcing his latest MotoVentures competition he's about to start riding the Granada-Dakar rally route as part of a new Motorbike Diaries project. Teaming up with fellow bike enthusiast Graham Hopkins, the first Motorbike Diaries trip was documented for a TV series, Mad in the Med, which starts showing on the Extreme Sports channel (Sky 419, Virgin 527) at 8pm on Monday 9th April. Despite all this two-wheeled fun, however, Danny has still found time - as announced on Twitter - to complete the script for his upcoming short film Bucky.

Fresh from celebrating his birthday - politeness prevents us from mentioning the exact year - Robert Llewellyn has been spending time in the Arctic Circle test-driving Swedish electric cars, which sounds to us like just about the most Robert Llewellyn-ish thing he could be doing. His upcoming sci-fi novel News From Gardenia smashed through its fundraising target with ease, but is still available for pre-order along with its assorted bonus goodies. He's also just released the first chapter of volume two of The Man in the Rubber Mask, documenting his time recording Series VI - including a retelling of the memorable Laredo horse-riding story - and it goes without saying that it's a must-listen for any Red Dwarf fan.

Of the main cast, Chris Barrie has been perhaps the most publicly quiet recently, but he did make an appearance at the National Space Centre's Brit Sci-Fi conference last weekend, discussing Red Dwarf (among other things) along with Danny. He'll also be appearing at the Corsham Sci-Fi Family Fun Day on 28th April. We may be hearing more from him in the coming months, however, as his official website mentions that he's thinking about joining the Twitter revolution...

The two Hollys, Norman Lovett and Hattie Hayridge, are continuing to bring their distinctive blends of standup to a variety of venues nationwide. On Saturday 17th March, Norman is appearing in Notting Hill(that's the place, not the Hugh Grant movie), while his new stand-up DVD, Outside the Box, is available now to order online. Meanwhile, Hattie's next gig is in Runcorn on 10th May, supporting Rory Bremner.

And finally, one of Red Dwarf's favourite recurring supporting cast members, Tony Hawks, can be seen on TV screens this coming weekend, as his movie Round Ireland with a Fridge is showing on BBC Four at 9pm, Sunday 18th March. So if you didn't catch it for free while it was on his website, you can do so now - and, we suspect, on iPlayer for a while afterwards, too. Marvellous.

If you spot a Red Dwarf cast member in the wild, do not approach or try to feed them, but report them to us on the Forum!