Event: The space: Doug Naylor

With Red Dwarf celebrating its 25th anniversary and comedy writer Doug Naylor visiting Brighton this June, Holly Cozens gets a headstart on the questions

So it’s Red Dwarf’s 25th anniversary this year. Ten series later, do you ever get bored of talking about Red Dwarf?
“Well, there are different aspects of it, there’s always something new and fresh to talk about. So much stuff went wrong during the making of series 10, the documentary became a sort of entertainment show in itself. So there’s always things to talk about.”

So new stories, new experiences?
“Yeah, I mean, at one point we were being told there was an error in the camera and we wouldn’t be able to broadcast any of the shows. It just all went wrong but in the end we got through it and the series was a really big hit. It was a bumpy ride for quite a while though.”

Were you pleased with the reaction from the fans who have been there with you since 1988?
“Obviously there was a great deal of concern as we hadn’t done a proper series since 1999. There was that massive gap and generally you don’t go away for 12 to 13 years and come back, so there was trepidation. But it worked really well. In fact, I just went to a Red Dwarf convention at the beginning of May and it was quite incredible the number of people there. There was a woman who had made this incredible dress which was the same shape as Red Dwarf the ship. That dress was just so elaborate and lit up. She came from Australia especially for the convention.”

It must be great to see people dressed like your characters?
“It is as much to do with how imaginative people can be, to recall a character from the show. A guy came from Czechoslovakia with an absolutely identical mask to Kryten, in fact it was probably better than the one we used in the show!”

Is there a future to Red Dwarf?
Yeah everyone wants it. Series 10 couldn’t have been more successful. Everyone is absolutely thrilled by it, especially UKTV. Everyone wants to do more, it’s just a question of the dates and when people are free before the thing is officially announced. It’s a question of when rather than if.

The Space at The Basement with guests Doug Naylor and Jeff Wayne, Thursday 13 June, 7pm, £10, www.thebasement.uk.com