From Supply Pipe 28 to Floor 592

Over the last few years, I’ve posted many pieces on Dirty Feed analysing Red Dwarf‘s sets, including obscure wall panels, a piece of set which survived the first eight series, and… doorways. But this article, first published on Ganymede & Titan in September 2018. was the very beginning of my research into this ridiculous topic.

It’s been significantly revised in a number of places, not least the ending, which has some EXCITING REVELATIONS I’ve never written about before. So if you read it all those years ago and enjoyed it, this version might actually be worth another peek. I always feel old G&T stuff never quite fits in correctly here, even after rewrites; my writing style has just changed too much in the intervening years. But this piece was an “important” step in my love of researching all this nonsense, and feels like it deserves a home here.

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When I say to random people “Hey, what do you remember about the sets of the first two series of Red Dwarf?”, they back away from me and look for the nearest exit. Before they manage to escape, however, they usually mention the bunkroom. They might stammer out an anecdote about a yellow banana adding colour to the set in Series 2. Really cool people might mention how the Drive Room changes between series, or how the Observation Dome is a perfect combination of live set elements and special effects.

Still, all those stories have been told. I want to dig a little deeper, and I don’t care how boring things get in order to do so. With that in mind, I proudly present: a history of three wall sections, used at BBC Manchester in 1987-88.

Enjoy.

S1E3: Balance of Power

RX: 3rd/4th October 1987 • TX: 29th February 1988

For reasons which will become apparent, I’m going to be telling this story in recording order, not broadcast order.¹ And the first time we see the particular walls we’re interested in – though a fuzz of video noise which seems extreme even for an ageing Studio A at Oxford Road in 1987² – is in the second episode recorded of Series 1, as Rimmer stalks the corridors. We’re talking about the grey walls on the right, with the pipes:

Gaze on that for a moment. We’ll be seeing a lot of it.

We also get a brief look at part of either the same wall, or its friendly duplicate, later on in the episode. (More about that duplicate in the next section.) Take a look to the left:

Have you noticed the difference? Can you see the refinement in the funnel ed- wait, sorry.

Still, in “Balance of Power”, it’s difficult to get to grips with exactly what we’re supposed to be looking for. The views are so fleeting, and we don’t get to see all the sections we’re interested in at once. Luckily, this changes with the very next episode recorded.

S1E4: Waiting for God

RX: 10th/11th October 1987 • TX: 7th March 1988

Let’s take a look at the early part of “Waiting for God”, where Cat and Rimmer have one of their trademark awkward encounters, and we finally get a decent look at one of the wall sections:

Later on in the episode, we see it in the same configuration, when Lister is learning all about the fate of the Cat People:

And when we go and see Cat visiting the Priest on the lower decks… whoa ho ho, what’s that I spy in the background?

Finally for this episode, when we cut to Lister making his way through the bowels of the ship – the very next scene, in fact:

That would appear then, to be the same wall sections used three entirely different ways, all in the same episode. Including in two consecutive scenes. Excellent.

It’s worth taking another look at the pictures of Lister travelling down into the bowels of the ship above, as it actually gives us the best look at what we’re dealing with in this article: two longer sections of wall running at the top and along the right side of the set, with a smaller section joining the two in the corner. This is the first time all three parts of the set actually appear on the screen at once. (This will become useful in identifying them in future episodes.)

S1E2: Future Echoes

RX: 17th/18th October 1987 • TX: 22nd February 1988

Just a single use of one of those wall sections in this episode, in exactly the same configuration as seen in the second instance in “Balance of Power”:

S1E5: Confidence & Paranoia

RX: 24th/25th October 1987 • TX: 14th March 1988

Again, just a single use in this episode – the wall outside the medical unit:

S1E6: Me²

RX: 31st October/1st November 1987 • TX: 21st March 1988

So, that cinema set in “Me²”? Yes, a huge chunk of it is made up of these pipe wall sections:

All three of the wall sections are used here: one large section is the wall outside the door of the cinema, and then the other large section and the small section make up the wall inside the cinema. In fact, we seem to be seeing the reverse of these latter two sections compared to every instance previously – if you look closely at the diagonal struts, they’re on the opposite side to usual, with the pipes obscuring them.

Incidentally, if you were wondering whether we see these wall pieces in the cinema in “Balance of Power”, the answer is no:

The two episodes use entirely different sets, which is difficult to notice unless you’re directly comparing them. (Hey, it’s a big ship. We get a third cinema in “Camille”. Presumably the Officer’s Cinema…)

We also get a very brief glimpse of one of the wall sections through the doorway in the Captain’s Office:

S1E1: The End (Remount)

RX: 7th/8th November 1987 • TX: 15th February 1988

So, as we’ve detailed endlessly before, the first episode of Red Dwarf had two weeks of production dedicated to it; the very first week, and then loads of reshoots done in the final week. That first week didn’t use these wall sections at all, and so the original, unbroadcast version of the episode didn’t feature them.³

However, they do appear – briefly – in the final version of “The End”. Here’s the remounted version of Lister and Rimmer’s first encounter with Cat:

And with that, the walls were carefully stored away. I bet at least one rat had a crap on them.

Seven months later, Series 2 started recording. But here we reach something highly unusual. Before the 14 days of studio recordings took place, our little wall pieces were shoved on a truck and taken…

Series 2 Location Shoot

…out onto location. Specifically, to the Albert Dock in Liverpool. Take a look at these two shots, from “Stasis Leak”:

There they are, on the left of both pictures. The diagonal crossbar makes it clear: these are definitely the same wall sections.

We can even work out the date these were recorded. Buried deep in the paperwork for “Stasis Leak”, we have:

OB:

5/6.5.88
CP GROGAN – Kochanski

11.5.88
MARK WILLIAMS – Petersen

Mark Williams as Petersen is from the same sequence the screengrabs above come from. So the above material was shot on the 11th May 1988. And doesn’t knowing that make you feel special?

These pipe sections also make a small appearance in “Thanks for the Memory” at the beginning of the final flashback sequence, which was also shot at this location – take a look on the right:

I absolutely love that these wall sections were used on location. It’s such a non-obvious way to go about things, but it’s a really interesting way of tying together the show’s location and studio scenes, even if just subliminally.⁴ It’s perhaps just a bit of a shame they weren’t more prominently placed; as it is, this little fact has gone unnoticed by even hardcore fans for decades.

After this little adventure, it was onto the studio recordings for Series 2. Oddly enough, our little wall pieces weren’t used for the first few weeks, at least on-screen. However, in the fourth week, we get:

S2E1: Kryten

RX: 18th/19th June 1988 • TX: 6th September 1988

One single shot, during Cat’s hero pose:

But if we nip over to the deleted scenes on the Series 2 DVD, we can also find one of the sections in the cut scene of Cat and The Toaster’s duet – in the corridor outside the refectory:

Clearly, the section used here is the smaller one, not one of the two bigger sections: the diagonal struts being that close together gives it away.

S2E6: Parallel Universe

RX: 25th/26th June 1988 • TX: 11th October 1988

What’s that? They show up at the disco?!

Presumably, the set required for this scene was so big they dragged every single set element they could into commission; I would suggest that these wall pieces aren’t the first thing you’d choose to use for a recreational area.

Incidentally, it’s been difficult to tell up to this point because of the lighting, but this episode proves that by this point, the pipes themselves have been painted blue, instead of the grey colour as in Series 1. Everyone talks about stuff like the banana in the bunkroom being added in order to give Series 2 a bit more colour, but this clearly extended to every single part of the set in one way or another.

These walls also have one more use in this episode – behind Lister and Cat during the final pregnancy test scene:

I would be willing to bet virtually nobody would spot the set reuse here… unless you were looking for it. And so these pesky pieces of wall manage to show up in the very final scene of Series 2.

But not the final scene shot. “Parallel Universe” was actually the penultimate episode recorded for Series 2. And the actual final episode perhaps makes the greatest use of these wall sections of all.

S2E5: Queeg

RX: 2nd/3rd July 1988 • TX: 4th October 1988

Ah, Floor 591. By now, you’ve probably worked out where these wall sections are going to show up. And it’s in yet another configuration that we’ve never seen before:

It’s worth comparing this scene with Lister’s trip down to the bowels of the ship in “Waiting for God”: it’s very clear exactly the same three sections are used: two large, one small. You can even see the exact same dirt marks along the top on the right-hand section in both episodes, which has survived between series!

And yet with a lighting change and a few of the elements swapped round, the two sets look entirely different. Excellent stuff.

We then enter Floor 592, which effectively involves rounding the corner into the same set used for Floor 591. Thanks to some clever direction by a certain Mr. Bye, it doesn’t feel at all odd:

For the first and only time, you actually get to see one of the edges of the wall sections here. I’m presuming you’re interested in this fact if you’ve managed to get this far down the article.

Finally… what the bloody hell do we have here?

Our famous little wall sections now make up the background to the corridor with the vending machine. (The struts, as ever, give the game away.) This is brand new; think back to how this corridor looked in Series 1:

All of which means, in Holly’s moment of glory in “Queeg”… that background may look rather familiar to you now.

And that’s your lot. Except… not quite. There’s one final week of production to account for.

S2E4: Stasis Leak (Reshoot)

RX: 9th/10th July 1988 • TX: 27th September 1988

One thing conspicuously missing earlier in this article was any talk about the studio sequences in “Stasis Leak”. But one of our wall sections is briefly seen in the episode, as Lister and Cat interrogate Kochanski’s roommate:

The reason I didn’t talk about it before is: much like Series 1, Series 2 also had a pickup week at the end of production. This is where they shot Tongue Tied for “Parallel Universe, among many other bits and pieces. And one of those bits and pieces is actually the roommate scene above.

How do we know? Because in the paperwork for “Stasis Leak”, we get the following clues. Firstly, the mythical “Show 7” is explicitly labelled as “Pick Ups”:

SHOW 7: PICK UPS
Sat: HR43460 – M/HR43459 – B/HR43461 – I
Edited insert: HR42750
Sun: HR43466/7 – Masters/HR43465 & 8 – Backings

Secondly, we get the following information about the recasting of the scene:

LYNDA LEE-LEWIS – Kochanski’s Room mate (not used in final TX)
SOPHIE DOCHERTY – Kochanski’s room mate (10.7.88)

So, the scene was originally shot during the “Stasis Leak” record with Lynda Lee-Lewis playing the roommate, and then was reshot during the pickup week with Sophie Docherty. Who knows why? It seems a fairly inconsequential scene to bother reshooting.⁵

And that’s the conclusion of this little saga; a slightly odd reshoot. The following year, Red Dwarf acquired a brand new Production Designer, and most of the sets for Series 1 and 2 disappeared into the ether. We were never to see the above pipe wall sections again.

Well, in Red Dwarf, anyway.

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These days, it’s difficult to imagine BBC television having a daily discussion programme about television. The weekly-ish Newswatch and Points of View are about your lot. But between 1986 and 1990, for two thirds of the year at any rate, a daily discussion programme about TV is exactly what BBC1 broadcast each weekday morning. Called Open Air, clips from it are an absolute goldmine to people who love this era of telly.

For instance, on the 23rd February 1988, the day after “Future Echoes” ended, Chris Barrie, Craig Charles and Paul Jackson popped along to the Open Air studios to talk about the show:

I could write 5000 more words about the above video alone. But I’ll try to control myself. It’s where the show was made which is really of interest to us today. Because the answer is: New Broadcasting House in Oxford Road, Manchester. Where Red Dwarf itself was recorded for its first three series.⁶ Which means they have access to some rather familiar-looking sets.

So when Open Air decided to have an episode dedicated to science fiction, what do you think they dragged out of storage?

Bloody hell.⁷

Our first point of order: can we figure out exactly when the above edition of Open Air was broadcast? In fact, this is fairly easy. At 9:26, the show talks about the network premiere of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock being that evening on BBC1. A quick bit of research on Genome indicates that this must have been the 1st May 1989.

Next, some dates. The last time that bit of set was used in Red Dwarf was on the final pick-up day of Series 2, the 10th July 1988. The first day of studio recordings for the third series of Red Dwarf was the pre-record day for “Marooned”, on the 4th September 1989. This latter date is four months after this episode of Open Air was broadcast. And, of course, Series III of Red Dwarf was where Paul Montague was replaced with Mel Bibby as production designer, and the show got a whole new look, and entirely different load of standing sets.

In other words: presumably, the pipe wall sections were hanging around BBC Manchester for a whole year after Series 2, in case they were needed for Series III. At some point, Mel Bibby came on board, did a stock take of which bits of the sets he wanted to use and which he didn’t, and then…

…well presumably, they were chucked into a big old skip somewhere in Manchester, at some point between May and September of 1989. But I’ve learnt enough toiling in this dark, unpleasant area of production detail by now to assume nothing. So if you’ve spotted these damn things hanging around anywhere else – but especially after May 1989 – let me know.

I think that might be possibly the most ridiculous call-to-action anybody has ever written.

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1. It’s worth admitting at this point that there is no doubt the odd timeline error in this piece. Red Dwarf was a horrifically difficult show to make, and there was always reshoots and fudging going on during production. I’ve done my very best to account for the reshoots we know about, but there will no doubt be ones we don’t, and will never know. Nonetheless, doing this list in production order to the best of my ability helps us get closer to the truth, if probably not 100% there. ↩

2. Seriously, it really is abominable. One of the worst shots in terms of picture quality in the whole of Red Dwarf. Even given the generation loss issues of editing analogue tape, why the hell is it so bad? What source was it lifted from? ↩

3. As proved by The Original Assembly on the Bodysnatcher DVD release. ↩

4. It’s also a trick the series does elsewhere; the dinner sequence in “Better Than Life” takes a partial set, and puts it on location. For more on this, see this article on Red Dwarf sets showing up in Chucklevision. ↩

5. Certainly, I would be wary of assuming that the production simply wasn’t happy with the original actress. That might be the case, but given how complicated “Stasis Leak” is, maybe Craig and Danny were simply in the wrong costume, and the original actress wasn’t available for the reshoot. It could be anything. ↩

6. More specifically, Red Dwarf was in Studio A – the main network production studio – and Open Air was in Studio B, which it shared with regional news programme North West Tonight. Amusingly enough, something very similar happens today; the studio used for North West Tonight these days is the same one Breakfast is in every morning! ↩

7. Incidentally, somebody told me about this clip back in 2021 – or possibly earlier – and I can’t for the life of me remember who, so I can’t thank them. Many apologies. If it was you, let me know. ↩

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originally on G&T, red dwarf, red dwarf sets