The cult classic 1980s British TV show that almost starred Alan Rickman: “How can this fail?”
Alan Rickman was a very fine actor, but ‘hilarious’ is probably not the first adjective that springs to mind when remembering him. Bearded, maybe. Grumpy and wand-wielding, possibly. But not really ‘funny’.
However, had things gone in a different direction, he might well have been remembered in one of the most loved comedy series of the late 20th Century.
Back in 1987, Rickman was a classically trained, long-standing member of the Royal Shakespeare Company who had worked extensively onstage around Britain for more than ten years, and had just landed a Tony Award nomination for his work in that year’s adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Little did he know it, but within a year, he would become globally famous as the German psychopath Hans Gruber, going head to head with Bruce Willis in Die Hard.
Meanwhile, co-writers Doug Naylor and Rob Grant, who were working on the TV impressions show Spitting Image, were putting together a new sci-fi comedy show to pitch to the BBC set in space featuring a slob of a ship’s technician, an annoying robot, a hologram and a part-cat, part-human. Called Red Dwarf, they were excited about their idea but hadn’t yet decided who they would approach to star in it.
They took it to BBC producers John Lloyd, who was well known thanks to Blackadder, and Paul Jackson, who were impressed by the script, but would only get involved under certain conditions, with Lloyd warning against casting anyone who had previously been at Oxbridge, or, like many TV comedians, had once been in Cambridge Footlights.
Naylor told The Guardian, “We thought: ‘How can this fail?’ But the BBC rejected it three times. Alan Rickman and Alfred Molina liked the script, so we considered casting them as (the ship’s hologram) Rimmer and (Dave) Lister.”
“Rickman wanted to be Lister because he thought playing Rimmer would be too easy. In the end, Craig Charles and Chris Barrie just seemed a better double act.”
Doug Naylor
Despite Rickman’s background in theatre, he also reportedly didn’t fancy the fact that the show would be recorded in front of a studio audience, and thus we were deprived of the future Severus Snape calling Kryten the mechanoid butler a ‘smeghead’. It seems the pair definitely made the right choice, though, because Red Dwarf became one of the most-watched cult shows on TV, running in different guises for some 32 years.
Rickman, meanwhile, headed to Hollywood to make his big-screen debut in one of the most defining action movies of all time. The first of five Die Hard movies, the 1988 original launched Bruce Willis’ A-list career, and Rickman’s performance as Gruber is one of the all-time best baddies in film. It was nominated for four Oscars and put Rickman on the map worldwide, although he very nearly didn’t make the film because it was so opposite to his usual work.
Thanks to his Hans Gruber, Rickman was then cast as another major league bad guy in Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood in 1991, with the British actor as the Sheriff of Nottingham. Again, it was a box office sensation, bringing in $400million and earning Rickman a Bafta for ‘Best Actor in a Supporting Role’.
