Spot The Dwarfer

Familiar faces from your favourite show popping up across British TV!

25 May, 2018

The Channel 4 show Humans, currently showing on Thursday nights at 9pm, has a nicely Red Dwarf-ish premise - with the tale of lifelike humanoid droids created for servitude but rebelling particularly echoing Kryten's story of the Series 3000 droids in Out of Time. But it also has something else to offer Dwarf fans, which is a nice game of "spot the Dwarfer" - with not one, but two previous guest stars making appearances in the current third series.

If you haven't seen the show yet, we'll show you the below picture and see if you can figure it out:

Did you get either of them? We're mildly impressed if you spotted Matthew Marsh, who played the memorable Captain Hercule Platini in Series V's Holoship; but you can award yourself an extra special Space Corps badge if you also recognised Holly Earl - since, at the age of just six, she played the de-aged Kochanski back in Pete: Part 1.

The thing about Red Dwarf, though, is that opportunities like this come up all the time. Spotting former (or indeed current) cast members isn't the only reason to watch British telly, but it's certainly as good a reason as any. So who else might you have clocked on your screens lately?

Well, for starters, Johnny Vegas (the Crit Cop in Timewave) has recently had his own sitcom on BBC1 in the shape of Home From Home - a class-war comedy about a family (led by Vegas) who buy a home in the Lake District. And meanwhile, his fellow Series XII alumnus Adrian Lukis (Cured's Professor Telford) - a veteran of BBC drama - most recently appeared in the hit series Collateral.

Going slightly further back to Series XI, and Kevin Eldon (7 of 43 in Twentica) will soon be seen in an episode of long-running ITV drama staple Midsomer Murders - in fact, if you're in the US, you may already have seen his episode (it's in series 20, titled Send in the Clowns) on streaming services, but if not it'll hit ITV later in the year. Another upcoming ITV drama with a Dwarf face in it, meanwhile, is Hatton Garden - the real life tale of the daring jewel heist, it stars Back to Reality's Timothy Spall and is set to air some time in 2018 after being postponed from last year.

One of the more successful recent turns from somebody better known to us as a Dwarfer has been from Graham McTavish - the former Warden Ackerman has taken a starring role in AMC's comic book drama Preacher. In the series, which is available on Amazon in the UK, Graham plays the terrifying Saint of Killers - one of the book's most memorable characters - in the first and second seasons. A third season is due to kick off in June, and although the Saint isn't pre-announced as appearing in it, we'd be very surprised if he didn't.

Meanwhile Kerry Shale, Series X's Medi-Bot and voice of Taiwan Tony, has made an appearance in Sky's hit Benedict Cumberbatch-starring drama Patrick Melrose. And Dwarfers' appearances aren't just limited to the small screen, either - earlier this year you could catch Stephen Marcus (Bear Strangler McGee from Gunmen of the Apocalypse) in the British comedy wrestling movie Walk Like A Panther, which should be out on home release shortly.

Eastenders has long been a home for either past or future Red Dwarf guests - but there's one who's particularly made a long-term impact, and that's our very own Kill Crazy, Jake Wood. Jake has been in the show as Max Branning since 2006, and despite the odd break here and there (including a stint on Strictly Come Dancing) shows no sign of moving away from playing the popular character just yet. Question is, though, has Max ever fought a T-Rex?

It was a slightly shorter run in Albert Square, though, for Jenna Russell. Recast in the long-running role of Michelle Fowler in late 2016, she left the show just last month - although of course, it's not Jenna's face you'll recognise from Red Dwarf so much as her voice, from the closing credits theme. And on a similar note, our beloved composer Howard Goodall made a hilarious appearance in two episodes of the spoof mockumentary Cunk on Britain in April, which is still available on iPlayer.

The fact that you can still see so many faces from Red Dwarf's long history popping up on screens of all sizes and on both sides of the pond is testament to the fine calibre of actor that the show attracts, and the great work done by the casting department in picking them out. We look forward to seeing where some of our favourite faces will turn up next!

Spotted any Red Dwarf cast members on the box lately? Why not chat about it on our Forum?