Blinded by the light - Norman Lovett and me.

As I'm sure you know, Norman is best known for his appearances as Holly in Red Dwarf, although if you saw his stand up in Hull recently you'd be forgiven for wondering if it was actually him in the sci-fi comedy series. Instead, of references to the cult TV show, as you might expect, we were treat to a quiet, dead-pan surreal routine. I'm told that the character Holly was based on him, rather than him being asked to portray the character, so I can kinda understand why he might not want to ramble on about something which he no longer appears in.

He appeared as Holly in the first, second, seventh (as a guest) and eighth series, so what did he do in the time he wasn't being the sarcastic onboard computer of the mining spaceship Red Dwarf? Well, a few of you comedy tv lovers like me will remember him from his own surreal BBC2 sitcom called "I, Lovett" back in 1989, in which he played a character called erm... Norman.
Seven years later, he played Dr. Lovett in the equally short-lived sitcom "Asylum"... at least he'd never forget his name!

He's also made many acting appearances such as the Ghost of Christmas Past in a TV adaptation of A Christmas Carol and Mr Follett in The History of Tom Jones. He's also popped up in the sitcoms Keeping up Appearances, Rab C Nesbitt and The Young Ones on the BBC and he's even been in 'The Bill'....well who hasn't?! As well as acting, Norman does the odd voice over too, infact he could be heard on several adverts for Sugar Puffs in the late 1980s. His line was "Sugar Puffs, you'll go monster mad for the honey"... I should have asked him to do me some voice overs really shouldn't I!?

Upon the announcement of new episodes of Red Dwarf in 2008, Norman said that he wouldn't reprise his role as Holly and was pleased to have been involved in the show when it was funny. He's currently writing his autobiography which will contain information about his time on Red Dwarf.

Related links:

• Norman Lovett's website.