Greats of Science Fiction

Naylor, Grant

Grant Naylor was the collective pen name used by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor for their collective work, most notably the Red Dwarf TV series (Comedy SciFi).

The collaboration began in the mid-1980s when the duo co-wrote BBC Radio 4 programmes such as Cliché and its sequel Son Of Cliché, and television programmes such as Spitting Image, The 10 Percenters, and various Jasper Carrott projects. The pair are also credited with writing the lyrics to "The Chicken Song" (see YouTube clip, warning extremely irritating) and a number of other musical parodies for the British satirical television show, Spitting Image.

Without question though, the pair are most well known for the creation of the cult TV series, Red Dwarf.

Following series VI in the mid-nineties, Grant left the collaboration leaving Doug Naylor to write subsequent series without him.

Grant Naylor is responsible for two Red Dwarf novels, Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, and Better Than Life, the latter of which is largely based upon the episode of the same name. The novels serve as a back story to the characters, and expand the Red Dwarf universe to what is shown on the small screen.

Within the confines of the TV series and novels, Grant Naylor created many interesting and unique concepts, such as Silicon Heaven whereby a belief chip is planted into many machines in an effort to keep them in line, GELFs, or Genetically Engineered LifeForms – no Dwarfer will ever forget Pete Tranter’s sister - (not to mention the BEGGs, or Biologically Engineered Garbage Gobblers) and Felis Sapiens, a humanoid species that evolved from Dave Lister’s Cat, Frankenstein, over the course of three million years.

Grant’s departure from the pairing left them with a quandary in that they still owed Penguin Publishing two Red Dwarf novels, so they each decided to write a sequel to Better Than Life. Naylor wrote Last Human which focused more on scientific elements that had been missing from the previous novels whereas Grant wrote Backwards, a novel more in keeping with the previous two that borrowed extensively from the already established series.

Since Red Dwarf, Rob Grant has written two television series, The Strangerers and Dark Ages, and four solo novels, his most recent being Fat, a satirical look at how obesity is looked upon by society and the media. Aside from his written works, he has recently taken up the mic on the stand-up comedy circuit with his wryly observed take on life.

Doug Naylor is married with two sons, one of whom (Richard) was the co-producer of Red Dwarf X. Naylor also has a prosthetic leg due to a road accident when he was a young boy.

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Written by Angus Ecrivain