The End: Supporting Characters
Todhunter, Frank
Episode(s): The End (A1)
Species: Human
Played by: Robert Bathurst
Captain Hollister’s right-hand-man on board Red Dwarf. His rank is unspecified, but his duties included following up complaints, invigilating exams, putting people into stasis and cutting cakes. According to Rimmer, he was breastfed chilled champagne and Gazpacho soup. He was killed in the radiation leak.
Robert Bathurst: Born 1958 in Ghana. Robert rose to fame in 1997 when he first played David Marsden in Cold Feet. Before that, he had mainly played bit parts, in programmes such as The Lenny Henry Show and as Prince Harry in the unaired pilot of The Black Adder. Recently, he has starred in acclaimed dramas such as Goodbye Mr Steadman and White Teeth, and the children’s sit-com My Dad’s The Prime Minister.
Trivia: Apparantly, there is a long out takes reel of Todhunter’s stasis speech, but Robert Bathurst refused to allow it to be used on Smeg Outs and the Series I DVD.
Chen
Episode(s): The End (A1), Balance of Power (A3), Back in the Red (Part One) (H1)
Species: Human
Played by: Paul Bradley
Originally from Ireland, Chen is one of Lister’s frequent drinking partners. He works in the kitchen, and he’s always drunk. It was Chen who came up with the song about naming men who have slept with Kochanski. He was killed in the radiation leak, but resurrected by the nanobots.
Paul Bradley: Born 28th May 1955. Paul is probably most famous for playing Nigel Bates in Eastenders from 1992 to 1998. He has also appeared in a multitude of sit-coms, including The Young Ones, Bottom, Murder Most Horrid and My Family. Paul has also visited Rwanda, to make a film for Comic Relief about the AIDS epidemic there.
Selby
Episode(s): The End (A1), Balance of Power (A3), Back in the Red (Part One) (H1)
Species: Human
Played by: David Gillespie
Another of Lister’s friends and drinking buddies. His job on board Red Dwarf is unknown, but we are assured that he is always drunk. He often mocks Lister and the others, and as such is threatened with being forced to eat a coconut whole. He was killed in the radiation leak, but resurrected by the nanobots.
David Gillespie: Along with his Paul Bradley (Chen), he is famous for his role in Eastenders, as Duncan Boyd between 1987 and 1989. He also starred as Detective Inspector Beach in the spoof documentary Operation Good Guys, and as Gulliver in the drama series Bedtime.
Hollister, Frank
Episode(s): The End (A1), Me⊃ (A6), Stasis Leak (B4), Back in the Red (Part One) (H1), Back in the Red (Part Two) (H2), Back in the Red (Part Three) (H3), Cassandra (H4), Pete (Part One) (H6), Pete (Part Two) (H7), Only the Good... (H8)
Species: Human
Played by: Mac McDonald
The captain of Red Dwarf, although by rights he should really be the doughnut boy. Allegedly voted Mr. Fat Bastard 2044, Hollister has a wife called Martha (who apparently looks like a character from Planet of the Apes), a spiritual councillor called Talia and piles. He originally died, whilst giving Rimmer a bollocking, in the radiation leak, but was resurrected by the nanobots, albeit a few stone heavier. Before the leak, he was known to attend fancy dress parties as large chickens, and dish out punishment detail like there was no tomorrow, a trait which continued into his second life, as he imprisoned the entire crew of Starbug for a crime that only two of them committed. Another favourite punishment of his is to send people to The Hole, a dank converted air vent, and when driven into madness by a dinosaur licking him, he sent himself there. His suffering at the hands of Lister and Rimmer extends to being given a virility-enhancing drug, being hit on the head by a flying skutter and having his clothes and hair eaten by a programmable virus.
Mac McDonald: When Mac first came to England, he dressed as a human jukebox and busked on the streets of London. He has moved on since then, and has played parts in many sci-fi and fantasy films, including Aliens, Superman IV, Hardware and The Fifth Element. He has also played a generic American in a good many comedy shows, such as The New Statesman, French and Saunders, Jeeves and Wooster, The Imaginatively Titled Punt and Dennis Show and My Family.
Trivia: Mac McDonald is alleged to have put on weight between takes.
McIntyre, George
Episode(s): The End (A1)
Species: Hologram
Played by: Robert McCulley
A Welsh flight co-ordinator on Red Dwarf, who died in unspecified circumstances (although in Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, it is stated that he commits suicide). After his death, he was resurrected as a hologram, and gave a speech at his ‘welcome back’ reception. He also wrote his own eulogy, but it was unused. He did however request See Ya Later Alligator to be played in his honour.
Robert McCulley: Before his appearance in Red Dwarf, the only role that Robert played that we could find details of is as Johnny Clay in Foreign Bodies, a 1987 sit-com pilot. Since then, he had a bit part in a 1993 TV drama called The Life and Death of Phillip Knight, and he guest-starred in The Bill in 1999.
Trivia: According to Craig Charles, Robert McCulley got so nervous before his scene that he started shaking. This is odd, as the scene was not recorded in front of a studio audience, which is often the cause of stage fright. Perhaps this nervousness is the reason why Robert’s career has been, well, crap.
In the pilot script, McIntyre was going to be Australian, to reflect the international nature of the crew, but the actor’s Welsh accent was preferred. Also, the song played at McIntyre’s funeral was originally going to be Heaven Is Ten Zillion Light Years Away by Stevie Wonder.
Petersen, Olaf
Episode(s): The End (A1), Balance of Power (A3), Stasis Leak (B4)
Species: Human
Played by: Mark Williams
Lister’s best friend and drinking partner, with perhaps the biggest alcohol tolerance this side of Pluto. He is a Danish catering officer, with arms covered in tattoos with messages such as ‘Candy’ and ‘Denmark Forever’. One of these arms was once ‘accidentally’ given to Rimmer, and it attacked him by slapping him and thwacking him in the balls. Petersen’s best chat-up line was ‘My name is Olaf Petersen. I am very good in bed’, but this technique once failed when Lister returned from three million years into the future and gave him a big kiss. Petersen was killed along with the rest of the crew in the radiation leak, and was resurrected by the nanobots. He wasn’t around to welcome Lister back, as he was drunk. He did however find Lister’s guitar in Starbug’s wreckage and forward it to him, minus the strings.
Mark Williams: Mark’s career started like so many others with guest appearances in comedy shows, which included Alexei Sayle’s Stuff, KYTV and Bottom, along with a memorable advert for Prudential. However, he shot to fame in The Fast Show, with catchphrases such as ‘You ain’t seen me, right?’ and ‘I’ll get my coat’, which soon became everyday language. Since then, Mark has moved into films, including 101 Dalmatians, The Borrowers, Shakespeare In Love, Anita and Me and the latest two Harry Potter films. He also starred in the Rob Grant-penned sit-com The Strangerers. He supports Aston Villa, and as such is Ian’s favourite ever guest star.
Trivia: In The End, Petersen’s name is spelt Peterson, but this is corrected in both of his subsequent appearances and in the novels.
Kochanski, Kristine Z (I)
Episode(s): The End (A1), Balance of Power (A3), Stasis Leak (B4), Psirens (F1)
Species: Human/Hologram/Illusion
Played by: C.P. Grogan
Kochanski is a Scottish navigation officer, and Lister’s love interest in the early days on board Red Dwarf. They dated for three weeks (see: trivia), before Lister was dumped in favour of a chef called Tim. Since then, Lister has been determined to somehow win her back, and he eventually did, in the form of an alternate version of Kochanski from a parallel universe. As for this Kochanski, he tried to get her back a number of times. He took the Chef’s Exam so that he would out-rank Rimmer, and could force him into giving him Kochanski’s hologram. He did get to see her, but Rimmer had cleverly put his brain into Kochanski’s body. In the end, Lister failed the exam, but he did think of another way of getting Kochanski’s hologram: by shutting off all un-necessary systems and generating an extra hologram. He managed to find Kochanski’s projection box, but unfortunately a copy of Rimmer’s disk was inside it. After this setback, they met again after Lister had found a photo of Kochanski’s wedding and a method of going back in time. Kochanski and Lister did get married, although it was not our Lister, but a future version of him from five years into the future. Years later, the crew encountered Kochanski again, but she was an illusion produced by psirens. In the illusion, the alleged Kochanski says she left Red Dwarf before the accident and gave birth to Jim and Bexley, using Lister’s frozen sperm. Sadly though, she did die in the radiation leak, and does not appear to have been recreated by the nanobots.
C.P. Grogan: Known to everyone as Clare (Patricia) Grogan, but forced to use a different name for television acting for Equity reasons. She was born on 17th March 1962 in Scotland, and was one of the biggest stars of the early eighties. She had huge success as the lead singer of Altered Images, and starred in the cult film Gregory’s Girl in 1981. Following up her immense early success was always going to be difficult, and Clare found that fame left as quickly as it arrived. She did however put in a memorable performance as a controversial singer in Father Ted, and appeared as a private detective in Eastenders between 1997 and 1998.
Trivia: Kochanski has been at the centre of a good many continuity errors in her time. In Series I, it is clear that Lister and Kochanski never dated, but by DNA in Series IV it had been decided that they did go out with each other, and in Psirens the time period of three weeks is given. In reality, Rob and Doug thought it would be unlikely that Lister was so hung up over a woman he didn’t date, so they decided to change the facts. Also, in Confidence & Paranoia, the name on the projection box is ‘Kochanski, C.Z.’, which goes against the spelling ‘Kristine’, which is used in the scripts, novels, spin-offs and pretty much everywhere else. The alternate version of Kochanski also causes a few headaches. In Back in the Red (Part One), Thornton recognises her as Kochanski, when he would really have no idea who she is, seeing as she looks nothing like the Kochanski from his dimension. Also, why didn’t the nanobots recreate Clare Grogan’s Kochanski?
The part of Kochanski was originally given to Alexandra Pigg, a Liverpudlian actress who starred in Brookside for eleven years. However, the technician’s strike that delayed the filming of Series I for a year meant that Alexandra was unavailable for filming, and Clare Grogan replaced her.
During the filming of Stasis Leak, Clare Grogan was only avaliable for location filming, which was at the Midland Hotel in Manchester. However, the final scene of the episode, in which all the versions of the crew converge in the same room, was filmed in the studio, and Clare couldn't be there. In order to replace Clare, Dona DiStefano, the assistant floor manager, was brought into the scene wearing a large hat. (Incidentally, the story that Clare was sent home early during the filming of the episode is a myth, and this version makes much more sense.)