Craig Charles makes a stubborn refusal to concede funny before the joke arrives. His work with Chris Barrie in Red Dwarf is worth returning to, with the caveat that the programme is less consistent than their partnership.
Fi1m perspective
Dave Lister and Rimmer argue as though they have already had this conversation and found it unsatisfactory on every previous occasion. In Red Dwarf (1988), Craig Charles and Chris Barrie make the reluctance to give ground funny before either gets to the punchline. Charles gives Lister enough warmth that the irritation does not make him tiresome company. We laughed because neither seems able to let a provocation pass, however well he knows the man delivering it. Their mutual annoyance feels lived in, and that makes the stranger material easier to care about.
Lister was Charles’s first television acting role, and he returned to him across twelve series and the 2020 special. It is a character built from exaggerated aspects of Charles himself: the Liverpudlian slob with a fondness for curry and drink. His appearance as an interviewer in Ghostwatch (1992) offers another point of entry, but Lister remains the obvious place to start. A role sustained for so long can make the rest of an actor’s work difficult to see, and Charles has acknowledged the typecasting.
The useful comparison is Lloyd Mullaney, the taxi driver Charles played in Coronation Street from 2005 to 2015. He brought his own Northern soul and funk interests into Lloyd, giving another long-running character recognisable bits of himself. We would not mistake that familiarity for a lack of work; choosing which personal habits will make a character worth spending time with is part of the job.
The limit of our enthusiasm is the programme around him. Red Dwarf is uneven, and a reliable comic partnership cannot make every stretch equally worth revisiting. Its strongest exchanges work because neither actor treats the other as someone merely waiting to deliver a line; each gives the impression of listening and being unable to leave the reply unsaid. Start there, provided an evening of petty grievances sounds like a rest from your own.
Biography
Craig Charles is a British actor, presenter, comedian and DJ. He is best known for playing Dave Lister in the science-fiction comedy series Red Dwarf, which began in 1988 and has continued across multiple series and specials.
Charles began his career as a performance poet before moving into acting and presenting. He has appeared in Ghostwatch (1992) and played Lloyd Mullaney in the soap opera Coronation Street from 2005 to 2015. He has also presented Robot Wars and narrated Takeshi's Castle, and since 2002 has hosted The Craig Charles Funk and Soul Show on BBC Radio 6 Music.
