The co-creator of Red Dwarf has died suddenly aged 70.

His work was an influence on my own writing; I’ve not taken my science fiction too seriously as a result and I even made an “ocean grey or battleship grey” reference in Lava Moon.

I am sure he loved having a gazpacho soup joke turn up in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – knowing that the show he was parodying considered him worth homaging.

You will be deeply missed. Rest in Peace.