Nine years on, the Boys from the Dwarf are back … in Weatherfield. Here's an exclusive first look at the new series

It's cold outside … but the Boys from the Dwarf have finally found somewhere with some kind of atmosphere. Nine years on from the frustrating final episode, here's our first glimpse of the all-new Red Dwarf. We've got a clip of the new three-part story Back to Earth, due to air over Easter on Dave. And it's Earth, Dave, and exactly as we know it, actually.

The new episodes take the Boys back to a modern-day Earth. Partially to provide some Galactica-style closure to the saga, but mainly because, with the sets long since torn down and the meagre budget of a digital channel, it was the only way they could do it.

This much we know: Kochanski has died (that noise was a million fanboys whooping). Rimmer has aged (a double downer, since holograms aren't meant to). And since Lister left a bath running for nine years, Holly is water-logged and still drying out (so apparently no Norman Lovett or Hattie Hayridge).

And somehow, they'd found themselves in Weatherfield. That's Starbug zipping through Coronation Street (did you spot Dev's kebab shop and Peter Barlow's bookies?) So chances are, Lister's going to meet some intergalactic genetic double in the form of cabbie Lloyd Mullaney. What can be going on here? A reality warp? Some kind of fiction actualiser? An ill-advised bout of fourth-wall breaking?

Time travel's somehow involved, and Rimmer knows all about the X Factor. Why so bitter? Could a failed pop career be one of his manifold broken dreams in some other reality? Could Rimmer really be a descendant of Leon Jackson? There's just a few weeks until we find out.

Back to Earth is on Friday 10 April 2009 at 9pm on Dave.