Top 10 Red Dwarf Moments That Broke the Cast

They say never to work with children or animals, and while Red Dwarf rarely had kids in its episodes, it did often bring out the latter. In this scene from the very first episode, which has to lay a LOT of groundwork for the shows sci-fi premise, were introduced to Frankenstein, Listers pregnant cat. Unfortunately, the cat just didnt want to do what it was told, and kept running away every time Craig Charles opened the cage. The cat still does this in the take that eventually made it into the episode, but he managed to pick it up and show it the milk saucer and complete the scene. Frankensteins descendants would only become more unruly as time went on.

More animals, other than the chicken itself, no cast members were on set when this was filmed. But that didnt stop the faff over the chicken from ruining the crew and their patience, because it turns out that its even harder to get a chicken to do what you want than a cat. Though theyre all clearly more exasperated than anything, that doesnt make it less funny to watch them struggle, as they try to work out how to prod the chicken to get it to walk without their hands being visible on camera. They try everything: pushing it, blowing on it, even trying to make it move with fishing line as a last resort.

While trying to shoot scenes for the Rimmer Experience in series 7, Robert Llewellyn just couldnt get his lines out. To be fair, the line he had to deliver was a bunch of technobabble and he WAS made to dress up in a maid outfit as well, so we cant imagine it was the simplest scene. But he kept getting it wrong, playing his mistake off by stumbling away. And then the contagion spread: Danny John-Jules also broke character before Llewellyn even got into the scene, hearing him coming. Only Craig Charles managed to keep it together, and the laughing you hear is coming from the crew since this series had no studio audience.

Hes not often called on to do voices or impersonations during Red Dwarf, but hes actually a seasoned comedian who began his time in the limelight doing impressions of sportspeople. So, its not surprising that he breaks out these talents between takes when the scenes are being reset, to keep the studio audience amused. At one point he breaks out a solid Kenneth Williams but what comedian doesnt have a dialled-in Kenneth Williams impression?  and also parodies various sports commentators, much to the audiences amusement. Its no wonder why Barrie was eventually given his own sitcom over on BBC1.

It was Danny John-Jules who kept flubbing his lines this time, advising the other characters over and over again to conserve their energy. He gets the line wrong repeatedly, apparently just as frustrated as the Cat is during this episode, as theyve been waiting days for Kryten to return with relief supplies from the cargo hold. But maybe all this is very fitting, since the episodes climax ends with them forgetting whats happened over the last few days because of a nearby white hole. Danny was simply forgetting his lines early, but perhaps he should have conserved his own energy and got them right on the first go.

While going over their possessions to find out whats been lost or damaged, Kryten is relieved to find that Listers guitar  which frequently disappears and reappears throughout the show  remains unharmed. That is, until Cat smashes it and replaces it with a clearly completely different prop. The first prop is black, while the second, broken one is sunburst. Thats not the moment were talking about, though: the moment is an alternate take where Robert Llewellyn says Mr Guitar instead of Mr Lister, prompting an improvised song with him and Danny, and then some ad libbing for the audiences benefit as the scene gets reset.

While hes usually one of the better cast members at remembering his lines and staying professional, poor Chris Barrie just couldnt get a good take here. While lamenting the end of a relationship, he keeps muddling up his pronouns, unable to remember what she thought vs what Rimmer thought from moment to moment. After getting it wrong over and over, when he bungles it for the dozenth time in a row, he switches to an Italian accent and walks off. He completely broke character and it seems miraculous that the scene was ever completed. Maybe hes just as bad at memorising this line as Rimmer was at his engineering exam.

While in VR, Listers supposed to defeat a video game knight in a jousting competition, after using a cheat code to turn his horse into a donkey. Unfortunately, while shooting this scene, the crew found it extremely hard to get the donkey to do what they wanted. It looks like maybe the knight in shining armour was too heavy, and he kept falling off probably not helped by the fact that he was tall enough that his feet touched the ground. The donkey either went off in the wrong direction, bucked him, or didnt move at all. You can hear the crew struggling not to laugh as they reset the scene over and over again.

A worse show would probably pre-record all of Hollys bits, but not so with Red Dwarf; Norman Lovett and, later, Hattie Hayridge, are actually on those screens live elsewhere in the studio, enabling them to have just as many bloopers as the actors who were physically present. In this early scene, Lovett cant get this one line down, repeatedly forgetting and leaving Chris Barrie to redo his own lines over and over again. Perhaps Chris mixing up the tone of the delivery made things more confusing, or perhaps it was just this one line. Were not sure how they eventually resolved things, but it cant have been that tricky to give Lovett cue cards or a prompter.

This memorable moment happened while filming Carbug sequences for Back to Earth, with the gang unaware that driving a car is traditionally a solo job and doesnt require four people. Danny cant remember his lines or what theyre even meant to be doing in the scene, though, which leads to him getting it wrong countless times while the others become increasingly exasperated. Eventually, Craig Charles blames the heat inside the car for the fact they all keep flubbing their lines, and we can imagine that after long shoot blocks, it was getting toasty in there. Though everyones getting frustrated, Craig assures him that theyll just come back and do pick-ups for the scene later.

Let us know in the comments which cast-breaking moments and bloopers we missed.