The boys from the Dwarf are posse-ing again. Three years on from Red Dwarf X, Lister, Rimmer, Kryten and the Cat will return to UK freeview channel Dave for series XI and XII, to be broadcast over the next two years. The news was announced accompanied with a familiar theme in the video below over the weekend.
The sci-fi sit-com's original run was on the BBC for eight series between 1988 and 1999. It was then picked up by Dave in 2009 for an odd three-episode mash-up taking in Coronation Street and Blade Runner, before its full six-episode run three years ago (check out Empire's special podcast here).
Despite the long hiatus, its new episodes were still able to pull in audiences close to (and occasionally over) two million. Since it first aired on the BBC it's been shown in 25 territories worldwide.
"[We were] originally asked for more shows back in 2012," says Red Dwarf's co-creator Doug Naylor, "but frustratingly it's taken until now to get our ducks in a row and all the boys available at the same time. Now they are, we're all absolutely delighted."
Craig "Lister" Charles has been playing cabbie Lloyd Mullaney on Coronation Street for the last decade, but will leave the soap (for the time being, at least) to rejoin his crew of space misfits.
"Lloyd has become a huge part of my life and I've had an absolutely fantastic ten years," he says. "But I feel I owe it to my colleagues on Red Dwarf to join them in filming the new series and finding out what is in store for Lister and the others."
The two series will shoot back to back, and production starts in the autumn. Red Dwarf XI will make its debut on Dave in 2016, with XII following in 2017.