Red Dwarf: Every Series Ranked From Worst To Best

"They're dead, Dave." This is how it all began in 'The End'. A senile computer called Holly informing the barely human Dave Lister, that he was now the last human alive. It was a thing of beauty, and felt like a call-back - and a worthy successor - to the excellent TV adaptation of Douglas Adams' A Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

Yes, it feels more dated today, but the first series is still the perfect genre-bending introduction to the original crew of Red Dwarf (minus Kryten). With low budgets, each episode played out like 30-minute stage productions. They offered disturbing, early insights into the fragile psychosis of the two lead characters (well, Rimmer mostly).

And with 'Future Echoes', only the second episode of the show, it proved that Grant and Naylor had no issues in creating stories which would be complex and heavily reliant on sci-fi elements. This was late eighties British television here, yet here we had a show willing to throw out traditional ideas and offer something wholly new and creative on our screens. And more importantly, something funny too.