Comedy bosses are a bunch of smegheads now

SHOCKING NEWS FOR FANS AS RED DWARF SPECIAL FAILS TO LAUNCH

- MEG JORSH

SMOKE all the kippers you like - Red Dwarf isn't coming back. A planned 90-minute special, starring Craig Charles as Dave Lister and Chris Barrie as Arnold Rimmer, has officially been cancelled. And if you ask Doug Naylor, it is typical of a TV industry that no longer supports scripted comedy. The series co-creator, previously a head writer for Spitting Image, tells about his latest projects...

ONCE upon a time, Red Dwarf was a really big deal.

Set on a starship drifting millions of light years from Earth, its cast of lonely misfits brought families together in front of the telly every week.

The show launched in 1988 and went on to spawn 12 series, a feature-length special, four novels and even a magazine the Red Dwarf Smegazine, published from 1992 to 1994.

Devoted fans still turn out for annual Red Dwarf conventions.

But according to co-creator Doug Naylor, the space odyssey may finally be over.

"I wanted to do a story about present-day Lister going back in time to prevent himself having the life that he did," he says.