Red Dwarf is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 franchise

Media franchise

A media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting and trademarks of an original work of media , such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or a video game. Generally, a whole series is made in a particular medium, along with merchandising and endorsements...

 which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 sitcom that aired on BBC Two

BBC Two

BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

 between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following

Cult following

A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...

. It was created by Rob Grant

Rob Grant

Robert Grant is a British comedy writer and television producer, who was born in Salford and studied Psychology at Liverpool University for two years....

 and Doug Naylor

Doug Naylor

Douglas R. Naylor is a British comedy writer, science fiction writer, director and television producer.Naylor was born in Manchester, England and studied at the University of Liverpool. In the mid-1980s, Naylor wrote two regular comedy sketch shows for BBC Radio 4 entitled Cliché and Son of Cliché...

, who also wrote the first six series. The show originated from a recurring sketch, Dave Hollins: Space Cadet

Dave Hollins: Space Cadet

Dave Hollins: Space Cadet was a series of sketches on the BBC Radio 4 series Son of Cliché, produced by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. The main characters were Dave Hollins and the computer Hab...

part of the mid-1980s BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

 comedy show Son of Cliché

Son of Cliché

Son Of Cliché was a comedy sketch show that ran for two series on BBC Radio 4 between 23 August 1983 and 29 December 1984.The sketches were written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and were performed by Chris Barrie, Nick Maloney and Nick Wilton....

, also scripted by Grant and Naylor.