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Doug Naylor

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Doug Naylor
BornDouglas Rodger Naylor
(1955-12-31) 31 December 1955 (age 68)
Manchester, Lancashire, England
OccupationDirector, screenwriter and television producer.
Alma materUniversity of Liverpool
Period1982–present
GenreComedy, drama, adventure, science fiction
SpouseLinda Glover
Children2

Douglas Rodger Naylor[1] (born 31 December 1955) is an English comedy writer, science fiction writer, director and television producer.

Life and career

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Naylor was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England, and studied at Chetham's School of Music and the University of Liverpool. In the mid-1980s, Naylor created and wrote two comedy sketch shows for BBC Radio 4 entitled Cliché and Son of Cliché, as well as two sitcoms, Wrinkles and Wally Who? for the same station. These shows were scripted by Naylor along with another writer, Rob Grant. This writing partnership was successful, with Grant and Naylor going on to co-write and produce numerous British radio and television series throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including programmes such as The Cannon and Ball Show, A Kick Up The Eighties, Three of A Kind, Comic Relief, Spitting Image and they wrote the singles, "Father Christmas is on the Dole", which charted in 1986 and "The Chicken Song" which was No. 1 in the charts for three weeks (1986). They created the sitcomThe 10 Percenters, which was awarded "Best ITV Sitcom" at the 1996 British Comedy Awards for the second series after Grant had left the partnership.

The collaborations between Grant and Naylor have often used the pseudonym Grant Naylor. Together, they wrote the British science fiction comedy television series Red Dwarf under this name. Their earlier radio sketch shows formed the basis for the show; Chris Barrie starred in both of these, as well as Red Dwarf.

In 1994, an episode of Red Dwarf from the sixth series, "Gunmen of the Apocalypse", won an International Emmy Award in the Popular Arts category, and in the same year the series was also awarded 'Best BBC Comedy Series' at the British Comedy Awards. The series attracted its highest ratings, of over eight million viewers, during the eighth series in 1999.

Some time between the airing of the sixth series of Red Dwarf in 1993, and the writing of the seventh series in 1996, Grant ended his partnership with Naylor after revealing he was tired of it and that he intended to quit and pursue other projects.[citation needed] The pair announced their professional split and cited creative and professional differences, along with Grant's desire to move into new areas.

With this split, it appeared as though Red Dwarf was finished; other obstacles included the fact that Chris Barrie was tied up starring in The Brittas Empire and the other star of Red Dwarf, Craig Charles, was in prison awaiting trial. However, when Charles was acquitted and Barrie became available for a few episodes, a seventh series finally went ahead. Naylor went on to write the seventh and eighth series of Red Dwarf mostly on his own (70% of the series, by his own estimate), although some episodes were co-written with Paul Alexander and Kim Fuller, and one episode co-written with one of the cast members, Robert Llewellyn.

Naylor is the author of the Red Dwarf novel Last Human (1995). He also wrote Primordial Soup (1993), Son of Soup (1996) and Red Dwarf VII: The Official Book (1999).

In 2007, Naylor and Grant Naylor Productions were primarily focused on the production of the DVD releases of Red Dwarf and the postulated movie. In 2008, it was announced by Grant Naylor Productions that Red Dwarf would return to television in the form of four half-hour specials for the UKTV Network channel Dave. The episodes were broadcast over the Easter weekend of 2009, and comprising a three-part special (20 minutes each), Back to Earth, and a behind-the-scenes making of special. Naylor wrote the scripts for the three new episodes and also directed them. Back to Earth received record ratings for the Dave channel.

In 2011, Dave commissioned Naylor to write and direct a new six episode series of Red Dwarf, later entitled Red Dwarf XI.[2] The series won the Royal Television Society's award for Best Special Effects, presented in 2013.

Naylor formed Three Feet Productions[3] in October 2017 with his son Richard and wrote and directed a one-off comedy for BBC One, entitled Over To Bill, starring Hugh Dennis, Neil Morrissey, Tracy Ann Oberman and Helen George and produced by Richard Naylor.

In 2015–2016, Naylor wrote and directed 12 more episodes of Red Dwarf for Dave. Red Dwarf XI was broadcast from September 2016 onwards, and Red Dwarf XII from September 2017. Both series were a Baby Cow Productions commission, with Richard Naylor and Kerry Waddell as producers.

In 2020, Red Dwarf: The Promised Land, a 90 minute TV special, was again written and directed by Naylor for Dave and was a Baby Cow production, with Richard Naylor as producer. Naylor has now written or co-written all 74 episodes of Red Dwarf and was executive producer on 51 episodes.[4]

Personal life

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Naylor is married with two sons, one of whom (Richard) is a television writer and producer, the other a doctor. Naylor has a prosthetic leg due to a road accident when he was seven years old, hence the naming of his and Richard's production company Three Feet Productions.[citation needed][5]

Writing credits

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Production Notes Broadcaster
Carrott's Lib
  • 15 episodes (1982–83)
 BBC1
Pushing Up Daisies
  • Unknown episodes (1984)
 Channel 4
Spitting Image
  • 16 episodes (co-written with Rob Grant, 1985–86)
 ITV
Comic Relief
  • "Spitting Image's Royal Address" (co-written with Rob Grant, Ian Hislop, Nick Newman and Geoffrey Perkins, 1986)
 BBC1
Spitting Image: Down and Out in the White House
  • Television film (co-written with Rob Grant, 1986)
 ITV
Spitting Image: The Ronnie and Nancy Show
  • Short film (co-written with Rob Grant, 1987)
 ITV
Spitting Image: The 1987 Movie Awards
  • Television film (co-written with Rob Grant, 1987)
 ITV
Red Dwarf
  • 74 episodes
  • Series I–VI co-written with Rob Grant, (1988–93)
  • Series VII & VIII writer or co-writer, (1997–99)
  • Series IX–XII writer, (2009–17)
  • Red Dwarf: The Promised Land 90 Minute Special, writer (2020)
 BBC2 (1988–99)
Dave (2009–20)
Red Dwarf USA
  • Unaired pilot (co-written with Rob Grant, 1992)
 NBC
Carlton Playhouse
  • "The 10%ers" (Pilot; co-written with Rob Grant, 1993)
 ITV
The 10 Percenters ITV
Red Dwarf Night BBC2
Comedy Playhouse BBC1

Bibliography

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References

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  1. ^ "Births England and Wales 1837–2006". Findmypast.com. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
  2. ^ "New Series of Red Dwarf Confirmed". Reddwarf.co.uk. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
  3. ^ DN Management
  4. ^ DN Management
  5. ^ "Behind the Scenes | Complete Guide". Red Dwarf. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 24 April 2009.
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