We’re sorry to report the passing of Red Dwarf co-creator Rob Grant, who has died unexpectedly, aged 70. Grant was also one of the main writers on Spitting Image for many years, writing regularly with Doug Naylor.
The news of his passing on Wednesday was broken by the long-running Ganymede & Titan Red Dwarf fansite, noting the cruel twist of fate that his death comes within a week of his first Red Dwarf novel for thirty years being officially announced, although, noted the site’s founder, Ian Symes, it was “just the sort of cruel twist of fate that Rob delighted in inventing”.
“We’ll have more to say over the coming days, weeks and months,” Ian said, “to celebrate the life of a man whose imagination, creativity and humour was matched only by his kindness, friendliness and generosity. We will forever be grateful for the impact the world he co-created had on our lives, and honoured to have known him.”
Rob Grant was born in Salford. Despite being hopelessly and incurably tone deaf, he spent ten years at Chetham’s School of Music. His official website notes that after being unceremoniously ejected from Liverpool University, he started writing for BBC radio. Together with Doug Naylor, he created several radio series, including the multi-award-winning Son Of Cliché, and the surreal sitcom, Wrinkles, which, Rob noted, earned the distinction of achieving the second worst audience evaluation rating ever, just being edged out of the top spot by a Radio One quiz show that provided the wrong answers to the questions”.
They also contributed material to just about every living comedian in the 1980s, including Bob Monkhouse, Ken Dodd, Roy Hudd, and the Grumbleweeds.
Moving into television, they supplied sketches for Three Of A Kind and Carrott’s Lib among other shows, before heading up the writing team on Spitting Image, and penning the “inexcusable” No. 1 hit “The Chicken Song”.
The concept for Red Dwarf, commissioned by the late Peter Ridsdale-Scott, initially produced and aired by the BBC and more recently on the UKTV channel, Dave, currently streaming in the UK via Channel 4, was originally developed from the sketch series Dave Hollins: Space Cadet on the BBC Radio 4 show Son of Cliché in 1983.
It premiered on BBC2 in 1988, starring Chris Barrie as Rimmer, Craig Charles as Lister, Danny John-Jules as Cat, Robert Llewellyn as the sanitation droid Kryten, and, initially, Norman Lovett as the ship’s computer, Holly.
Maintaining a loyal fan base, twelve series of the show have aired, including one miniseries, in addition to a feature-length special, The Promised Land.
In 1994, the show was awarded an international Emmy, the show finding a new audience when it was revived on Dave, until UKTV decided to abandon scripted comedy last year, which put paid, for now to a further special.
The series has spun off into four novels, published from 1989 to 1996: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, Better Than Life (written by Grant and Naylor as “Grant Naylor”), and Last Human, written by Doug, and Backwards, written by Rob. A new novel, the first in thirty years, Titan, is set to be published by Gollancz in July.
Two pilot episodes of an American version of the show were produced, but never aired. Other spinoffs include The Red Dwarf Smegazine, published from 1992 to 1994, and Red Dwarf – The Roleplaying Game, launched in 2093 by Deep7. (Although long out of print, with the license expired since 2007, the game continues to circulate via Ebay and used booksellers, and there is a dedicated fan base online).
A dispute over Red Dwarf rights between Rob and Doug delayed new projects based on the series, but these were resolved in 2023. The next official Red Dwarf convention is in July.
Rob’s solo TV work included the pre-medieval comedy series Dark Ages for ITV, starring Phil Jupitas and Alistair McGowan, and the alien invasion comedy The Strangerers for SKY.
In addition to his Red Dwarf books, he also wrote three novels: Colony, Incompetence and Fat, which were all international bestsellers.
Rob’s status as co-creator of Red Dwarf will probably be the achievement for which he will be best remembered, despite creative disagreements between him and Doug Naylor along the way that in part delayed new stories. Fans will no doubt, then, mark the release of a new prequel novel, Red Dwarf: Titan written with Andrew Marshall in July with both sadness and celebration for his work.
Robert Grant (September 1955 – 25th February 2026)
• Red Dwarf Official Site: reddwarfofficial.com
• Comedy, Chaos – and Cowboys! The Red Dwarf Companion by Joe Nazzaro (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
Released in 2024, Comedy, Chaos and Cowboys! tells the real story of Red Dwarf, from last-minute changes to deleted scenes, as well as more than a few R-rated outtakes. There are also extensive interviews with principal cast and crew members, guest stars and a day-by-day filming diary.
Tributes to Rob
Commenting on Rob’s passing on Facebook, Doug Naylor said “I’m deeply saddened to hear of Rob Grant’s passing yesterday. It’s hard to take in the loss of someone who was such a significant part of my life for so many years.
“I first met Rob when we were nine years old. We went to Chetham’s School of Music and later Liverpool University. We grew up making each other laugh long before there was an audience, and eventually found ourselves building something that neither of us could have imagined when we were schoolboys.
“Spitting Image and later Red Dwarf went on to become two of the most loved comedy series in Britain. I’ll always treasure those years of writing together and laughing so hard it hurt.
“Creative partnerships are intense, driven by passion, conviction and strong personalities. But at the heart of ours was a shared love of comedy and a desire to make people laugh and we did, on a scale neither of us could have predicted.
“My thoughts are with Rob’s wife Kath, and all his family and friends. I will always be grateful for my time working with Rob and what we created together. RIP Smeghead!”
Craig Charles, who plays Lister, posted on X: “Earlier today I was informed of the passing of Rob Grant. I am in total shock.He was one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. A visionary. My heart goes out to his family and friends. The impact he and Doug had on the course of my life is immeasurable RIP ROB.”
Also sharing the sad news, Robert Llwellyn, who plays Kryten noted on BlueSky, “Rob was a very funny man with a talent for stinging reposts.”
On the Official Red Dwarf Facebook Page, moderators paid tribute to the writer, noting: “We are devastated to learn of Rob’s passing and send love to his family and friends. He will always live on through his amazing creativity, storytelling and humour. Travel well, Sir.”
Actor Cameron Yarde wrote: “RIP Rob Grant. Co-creator of Red Dwarf with Doug Naylor, wrote for Spitting Image with Doug in its early years including The Chicken Song and wrote on the excellent Carrott’s Lib. That’s not just a career, that’s a legacy.”
Coming Soon, Red Dwarf: Titan
Red Dwarf: Titan is due to be released by Gollancz on 16th July 2026.
Earlier this year, Rob Grant himself explained that “It’s Lister and Rimmer before the accident on shore leave on Titan. It’s set one universe to the side, so we can have familiar characters but we can do different things with them, because the difficulty was writing something that was going to be original and fresh and using the same characters without breaking the canon.
“So it was quite an intricate bit of work that actually took us about a year and a half longer than we were hoping!”
He added that the story will see Lister and Rimmer “get a message from the far future warning them that all realities are going to collapse unless they do something about it.”
“Since working with Rob and Andy on the novelisation of their fantastic radio series The Quanderhorn Xperimentations, I’ve been hoping they would come up with another project, but never dreamed it would be a fully-fledged Red Dwarf novel,” said editor Maurice Gipps. “It was a thrill to work with them on all of these iconic characters, and there are some real surprises in store.
“You don’t need to know Red Dwarf for this book to make you laugh – but if you do, you’ll spot some familiar faces.”
Here’s the official book notes. Titan is available to preorder now from all good bookshops | ISBN: 978-1399636094 | AmazonUK Affiliate Link | uk bookshop.org Affiliate Link
Before the beginning…
The mining ship Red Dwarf is in orbit around Saturnian moon Titan, and the bulk of the crew is heading down for their shore leave plans: A strangely reluctant hen party; a relaxing cheaty golfing break; a terminally-boring cultural Odessey; a marathon drinking and fighting binge; a stomach-challenging culinary beanfeast and an invigoratingly violent tour of Shore Patrol…
Menial chicken soup machine repairmen Dave Lister and Arnold Rimmer have slightly less noble ambitions.
Rimmer is in search of some illicit exam-cheating tech, to land a much-lusted-for promotion, and Lister plans to acquire a cat to smuggle back on board as part of a nefarious scheme to return to Earth. Mainly they just want to get as far away from each other as possible. However, their objectives are scuppered when they receive a cryptic message… from the future.
The two feuding crewmen are catapulted into a breakneck race to save not only this, but every other Reality. Along the way, they’ll find themselves united again, for the first time, with some new, but somehow old friends, as they embark on a labyrinthian quest through the seediest, most dangerous underbelly of humankind’s furthest outpost, where lurk bizarre off-worldly dangers and one mysterious hidden nemesis with an obscure, yet clearly lethal agenda.
So strap yourself into your Holly Hop Drive, and set your bazookoids to “thrill” – the Dwarfers are taking on TITAN.
“Don’t tell my mother I died with my arm up a gorilla’s bottom.”
“But sir – it will be on the death certificate.”
Rob Grant was born in Salford. Determined not to let them hold him back he (after a protracted period doing any old thing), with Doug Naylor, he went on to co-create, write, produce and occasionally direct the international smash the astonishingly successful TV series Red Dwarf.
He also co-authored two of the best-selling Red Dwarf novels and wrote a third (Backwards) solo. He also authored Colony, Incompetence, and Fat. All of his novels have been translated into a bizarre series of Eastern European languages. On radio, he co-created and wrote the multi-award-winning Son of Cliché. Amongst many TV projects, he helmed the writing team at Spitting Image, and created and wrote The Strangerers for Sky and Dark Ages for ITV.
Andrew Marshall wrote The Burkiss Way with David Renwick and Hordes of the Things with John Lloyd for Radio 4. Andrew and David went onto write End of Part One, Whoops Apocalypse (and the movie version), Hot Metal for ITV, the movie Wilt, and also Alexei Sayle’s Stuff with Alexei for BBC Two.
Andrew then went on to write, and later produce all eight series of prime-time comedy 2point4Children for BBC Two for ten years, interspersed with Dad and Health and Efficiency for the same channel. He also adapted some episodes of Agatha Christie’s Poirot and created, wrote and executive produced the hour long fantasy series Strange for Saturday night BBC One. During the course of all this, his work won, amongst other baubles, a Broadcasting and Press Guild Award, an International Emmy, a Sony Radio Award, a BAFTA, and was twice the UK’s entry in the Golden Rose Comedy festival.
Together Rob and Andrew co-created/wrote/produced and starred in The Nether Regions for the BBC, co-created and produced two seasons of The Quanderhorn Xperimentations for BBC radio, and co-wrote the Quanderhorn novel, also published by Gollancz.
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Books, British Comics, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Other Worlds, Television
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