Rob Grant pens The Quanderhorn Xperimentations

Red Dwarf co-creator Rob Grant is writing a new sci-fi comedy.

He  is working on  The Quanderhorn Xperimentations with Andrew Marshall, whose writing credits include 2point4 Children and The Burkiss Way

The new show, for Radio 4, is set in 1952, where reality has become trapped in a time loop by Professor Darius Quanderhorn’s bizarre Xperimentations 

The broadcaster says: ‘His rag-tag team face threats and terrors beyond human understanding on a daily basis, together with their own neuroses. Martian invasions, giant space lasers, shape-shifting troglodytes and living feral underwear are all part of a day’s work for the Quanderteam.’

That team comprises Dr. Gemini Janussen, who ‘has clockwork-driven emotions’; Guuuurk the Magnificent, a Martian hostage who fancies himself a gentleman cad; Troy, the professor’s ‘son’, who is part human, part insect, all idiot; and Brian Nylon, who has completely forgotten everything, including the fact that he is the unit’s test pilot. 

The BBC adds: ‘As the Professor ploughs ahead with his dangerous and sinister creations, oblivious to the consequences, his arch-nemesis, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, has begun to resent the public adulation of this reckless genius and would like to shut down his operation for good. But dare he do that, and risk unleashing the terrible secret lurking in Quanderhorn’s cellar?’

Grant, pictured, created Red Dwarf with his former writing partner Doug Naylor, but left  the show after the sixth series in 1995, citing creative differences. Since then he has written two television series, The Strangerers and Dark Ages, and four novels.

In  a statement, he and Marshall said: ‘For far too long, the facts about Professor Quanderhorn have been kept from the public. We felt it was high time to expose them. The facts, not the public. They can expose themselves.’

The Quanderhorn Xperimentations is one of two sci-fi comedies announced by Radio 4’s commissioning editor for comedy, Sioned Wiliam tonight, the other being the return of The Hitchhikers’ Guide To The Galaxy.

Both shows will be the subject of panels at London Comic Con later this month.

The  series is expected to be broadcast on Radio 4 in spring next  year

Published: 12 Oct 2017