Rick and Morty season 4 UK release date: what time it’s on E4 tonight, and how many episodes are in the new series Everyone’s favourite alcoholic, nihilistic, genius jerk is almost back on our screens. Oh, and he’ll probably bring Morty too.

The tales of mad scientist Rick Sanchez and his hapless grandson Morty have become a true TV phenomenon – changing our perception of pickles forever and challenging the way we think about Szechuan sauce.

Over the course of the first three seasons, the duo have hopped between planets and parallel universes on a wild, inter-dimensional bender, meeting bizarre characters and causing all sorts of trouble.

With the smartest man/pickle in the universe set to return later this year, here’s everything you need to know about the new season.

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How did the last season end?

After a long battle with the President of the United States of America over a selfie, Morty closed the show’s third season by asking Rick to either let his family be or leave them alone.

Beth decided to stop worrying about whether she was the real deal or the “replacement Beth” designed by Rick to allow his real daughter to abandon her family and fulfil her genius potential.

She and Jerry get back together, much to Rick’s disappointment, and the series ended with the family re-united around the dinner table.

After adventuring across the multiverse, upending the galactic order and consigning their original home planet to ruin, the Smiths had arrived back exactly where they began.

When is the new season released?

While the third season of the show arrived on Netflix, the exclusive UK rights to the fourth have been bought by Channel 4.

Season 4 began in the US on Sunday 10 November, with an episode titled ‘Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat’.

While UK viewers were initially going to have to wait until 2020 to catch a glimpse of Rick’s latest adventures, the demand has been so huge that the show’s air date has been bumped up to Wednesday 20 November, when it will appear on E4 at 10pm.

Joe Matar from Den of Geek described it as “the most breakneck, bats***, violent premiere yet,” while Collider said if the Season 4 premiere is any indication, “we’re in for a helluva ride this season, even if it’s a short one” so it sounds like the new season will be worth the now-considerably-shorter wait.

After they air on Channel 4, repeats of the new episodes will then run on E4 and they’ll also be available on the channel’s digital service, All 4.

How many episodes will there be?

While previous seasons were either ten or eleven episodes long, it has been confirmed that only five new episodes will be arriving this winter.

“Half the season you deserve, all the season we can handle,” the show’s Twitter account boasted.

However, co-creator Justin Roiland had previously confirmed that the new season would be ten episodes long. The five episodes arriving in Janurary will make up the first half of season four, with the second installment likley to arrive sometime later in the year.

Rick & Morty’s former home, Netflix has previously employed this strategy with other animated shows such as Disenchantment and the upcoming season of BoJack Horseman.

Who will be starring in it?

All the regular cast will return for the new season – co-creator Justin Roiland (Rick and Morty), Chris Parnell (Jerry), Spencer Grammar (Summer) and Sarah Chalke (Beth).

Past seasons have also recruited a number of high-profile actors to make guest appearances, including Patton Oswalt, Christina Hendricks, Nathan Fillion, Christian Slater and John Oliver.

That trend is set to continue with the new season – Thor:Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, Billions star Paul Giamatti, Jurassic Park OG Sam Neil and Hollywood legend Kathleen Turner have all been confirmed on the cast.