Return of the Red Dwarf space cats

Smegging hell, we're back!" is how Lister, the scruffy last human in the universe (whose best clothes have only two curry stains down the front), might have greeted the recent news that Red Dwarf is thrusting back on to our screens after a 10-year break in the far reaches of TV's outer space. Four new episodes of the cult sci-fi comedy, which starred Craig Charles as Dave Lister aboard the titular spaceship, will be screened on the digital channel Dave next year.

The show's fans, as legion as they are obsessive, have greeted the announcement with glee. Reactions on Ganymede & Titan, one of dozens of online Red Dwarf fan sites, range from the ecstatic ("I found out I'm going to be a dad this week... this is far more exciting!" – Bountyhunter) to the unprintable. It is a measure of the success of the show, whose eight series and 52 episodes aired on BBC2 from 1988 to 1999, that fans have stayed loyal. Small wonder that the bosses at Dave (part-owned by BBC Worldwide via the digital network UKTV) are also rubbing their hands.

"The level of excitement has been huge and we're very confident there'll still be a big audience for it," says Lisa Perrin, director of commissioning for entertainment at UKTV. Perrin will hope the show repeats the success of Doctor Who, which made a barnstorming return to the small screen after an even longer hiatus.

The signs for Dave and Red Dwarf are good; the show attracted its highest ratings – more than eight million viewers – in its final series. Since then, repeats and big-selling DVD box-sets have given rise to a new generation of "Smegheads", as the keenest fans like to be called ("smeg", which derives from smegma, a product of bad hygiene in men, is an expletive used in the show – no doubt to the dismay of the luxury fridge makers of the same name).

Like many cult TV shows, Red Dwarf was not an instant hit. Audience figures fell steadily after the 1988 pilot. Perhaps viewers were bemused; Red Dwarf, set on a six-mile-long mining spaceship, seemed like nothing that had come before. Episode one opens after a radiation leak has killed everyone on board except lowly technician Dave Lister, who was in suspended animation at the time.

Lister is joined in his mission to return home (despite having to wait three million years for the radiation to die down) by ship's computer Holly, who resurrects Lister's bunkmate and superior, Rimmer, as a hologram to keep Lister sane, and Cat, the last member of a race of humanoid felines that evolved from Lister's cat, which was locked in the hold during the radiation leak. In season two, they are joined by the sanitation mechanoid Kryten, who has been rescued from a stricken vessel.

But once viewers became used to the unlikely plot and quirky characters, Red Dwarf became a huge hit. Crucially for Dave, it is also an enduring one. In 2007, the series was voted best sci-fi show of all time by readers of Radio Times. But who are these fanatics who know every episode inside out and flock to annual Red Dwarf conventions, called Dimension Jumps? And why haven't they grown out of their obsession?

"It's hard to say why Red Dwarf has such enduring appeal," says Leah Holmes at SFX, the UK's biggest sci-fi magazine, who discovered Red Dwarf by watching repeats as a teenager. "I think the key is the writing, which was extremely clever. There was this brilliant spark between [writers] Rob Grant and Doug Naylor that brought real soul to the show and created a fantastic dynamic between the characters."

Robert Llewellyn, who'll reprise his role as Kryten, was also surprised by Red Dwarf's success. "Quite why it has such staying power is beyond me," he says. "It's got a lot of poo gags in it, which are always popular, but they only last for two minutes. There's got to be something else, and Red Dwarf has that – something underneath that touches a chord. It's about the loneliness and futility of human existence and a lot of jokes are built around that philosophical futility. And it's funny. The nearest I can get to the experience of the show is reading the scripts when they arrive and I used to laugh myself sick."

Red Dwarf cannily balanced the two genres – comedy and science fiction – whose fans are known to be most enthusiastic. The combination has attracted a unique audience who do not always fit the stereotype of the costumed sci-fi nerd. "The first time I went to a sci-fi convention, I noticed how dour and serious a lot of Star Trek fans are," Llewellyn says. "It was always a relief to meet a 'Dwarfie' because although some were bonkers they were always laughing and never took themselves seriously. I also expected them to be uniformly men, but there were more women than men."

For Bruce Dessau, comedy writer and author of The Official Red Dwarf Companion, it was a genre marriage made in comedy heaven: "Not only was Red Dwarf superbly written and hugely irreverent, it also proved cynics wrong by demonstrating that you can create a comedy set in geeky sci-fi land and tap into the same fart-fixated adolescent audience that had claimed The Young Ones as their dream sitcom."

As a result, although Red Dwarf remained a cult hit, it attracted a healthy mainstream audience by eschewing many of the fantasy elements that repel viewers from more traditional sci-fi series. Dessau says: "Essentially, Red Dwarf was not groundbreaking at all. It was a sitcom, and like all great sitcoms it was about a classic dysfunctional surrogate family trapped together, only this time they were trapped in outer space rather than in a scrapyard as in Steptoe and Son or a Slough paper merchants as in The Office."

Red Dwarf fans have clamoured for new material ever since the last episode aired in 1999. A proposed movie caused great excitement, and Naylor got as far as writing a script and scouting locations before pulling the plug when he couldn't secure funding. Llewellyn was even fitted for a new Kryten mask and had started rehearsals. "It was so heartbreaking when it fell through," he says.

The years of waiting have added to anticipation of the new episodes, due to be broadcast in spring next year. Llewellyn, UKTV and the Red Dwarf production company Grant Naylor are saying nothing about content. Fan sites are awash with speculation. All that seems to be known is that the first half-hour slot will be a making-of, while the second and third episodes will be a two-part special. The last episode is described only as "a clip show with a serious difference". As far as we know, all the key cast members have signed up.

A few Smegheads are convinced that the new episodes will not live up to the originals. "It would be such a tragedy to do something that was second-rate," Llewellyn says. "Red Dwarf today stands on its own credibility and if we undermine that it will be a huge shame. But Doug [Naylor] is supremely aware of that and is unlikely to blow it."

Llewellyn also reassures those who fear that a modern remake will lose the charm that rickety sets and dodgy costumes gave the originals. "I think, with modern media budgets as they are, it's doubtful how much new technology there will be. I imagine there will still be a lot of wobbly walls."

The new series of 'Red Dwarf' will be screened on Dave next year

SUSPENDED ANIMATION: WHAT THE RED DWARF STARS DID NEXT

Craig Charles (Dave Lister)
The actor joined 'Coronation Street' in 2005 as charming cabbie Lloyd but was suspended from the show in 2006 after the 'Mirror' claimed he'd smoked crack cocaine during a cab journey. He was later cautioned by police for possession of a class A drug, but returned to the soap. In 1994, while 'Red Dwarf' was still in production, he was accused of rape but was cleared at trial the following year.

Chris Barrie (Arnold Rimmer)
Appeared as Angelina Jolie's sidekick Hillary in both 'Tomb Raider' movies and made a cameo in an episode of the ITV crime series 'Midsomer Murders' before becoming a television presenter for the Discovery Channel. He hosted three seasons of the engineering series 'Massive' and writes about classic cars for a motoring magazine.

Danny John-Jules (Cat)
Plays an undercover secret agent who mentors three teenage spies while pretending to be a school janitor in the popular BBC children's television series 'M.I. High'. John-Jules's off-screen life took a dramatic twist earlier this year when he was arrested after allegedly threatening a binman with a knife following an altercation in north-west London, for which he faces trial.

Robert Llewellyn (Kryten)
Presents the Channel 4 series 'Scrapheap Challenge', which sees him looking on as teams of competitors attempt to build everything from powerboats to motorbikes from items found on a scrapheap. He starred alongside his 'Red Dwarf' co-star Danny John-Jules in 'M.I. High', playing an unfortunate British Prime Minister who is cloned.

Hattie Hayridge (Holly)
The comedian has done gigs across the country in recent years. Reviewing her Edinburgh Fringe show in 2007, Julian Hall of 'The Independent' noted her "surprising edge" and "delicious one-liners". She has published her autobiography, appeared in the BBC series 'Jonathan Creek' and penned material for comedians such as Jasper Carrott and Lee Evans.