{"version":"1.0.0","episode":{"title":"From Red Dwarf to The EV Revolution: In Conversation With Robert Llewellyn!","url":"http://getcarcurious.com/episodes/from-red-dwarf-to-the-ev-revolution-in-conversation-with-robert-llewellyn","audioUrl":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/fullychargedshow/Imogen_and_Robert_Podcast.mp3?dest-id=986252","description":"  In this special, and slightly sillier episode of the Everything Electric podcast, Imogen Bhogal turns the tables on our founder, Robert Llewellyn.    As Robert celebrates his 70th birthday, the pair look back on an extraordinary six-decade career spanning bespoke shoemaking, fringe comedy, cult sci-fi fame, and becoming one of the world's leading voices for electric vehicles and clean energy.    They chat about Robert's time on Red Dwarf and the show's enduring legacy as one of the BBC's most-watched programmes (outperforming Top Gear, dare we say it?). There are also fond memories of Scrapheap Challenge, the bizarre Mojave Desert story involving a children's deckchair and a 3,500-foot flight, the hidden psychology behind the Carpool series, and of course, Robert's slightly alarming habit of writing far too many books. Enjoy!    Ghost Camera is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghost-Camera-Robert-Llewellyn/dp/1789651816    Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/edkwTFblDMA   00:00 – Introduction: A different kind of podcast  01:40 – Robert's 70th Birthday & The \"Umarell\" nickname  07:05 – The Geodesic Dome & School Expulsion  10:32 – Life as a Bespoke Shoemaker  13:00 – \"The Joeys\" and discovering the joy of comedy  18:50 – Becoming Kryten: The Red Dwarf years  24:10 – Red Dwarf vs. Blackadder & The BBC  28:30 – Scrapheap Challenge: 5mm aggregate and flying junk  37:20 – The birth of Carpool and \"Suicide Cameras\"  42:20 – Pitching Fully Charged to a confused BBC  46:10 – Ghost Camera: Writing, Optimism, and AI 54:00 – Conclusion: Humour as the \"spoonful of sugar\"      Why not come and join us at our next Everything Electric expo: www.everythingelectric.show    Check out our sister channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/EverythingElectricShow    Support our StopBurningStuff campaign: https://www.patreon.com/STOPBurningStuff  Become an Everything Electric Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fullychargedshow  Become a YouTube member: use JOIN button above  Buy the Fully Charged Guide to Electric Vehicles & Clean Energy : https://buff.ly/2GybGt0  Subscribe for episode alerts and the Everything Electric newsletter: https://fullycharged.show/zap-sign-up/  Visit: https://FullyCharged.Show  Find us on X: https://x.com/Everyth1ngElec  Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/officialeverythingelectric  To partner, exhibit or sponsor at our award-winning expos email: commercial@fullycharged.show   EE WEST (Cheltenham) - 12th & 13th June 2026  EE GREATER LONDON (Twickenham) - 11th & 12th Sept 2026 EE SYDNEY - Sydney Olympic Park - 18th - 20th Sept 2026  "},"annotations":[{"startTime":1044.2,"endTime":1049.66,"type":"car","title":"Audi 200","url":"/cars/audi/200","image":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/1982-1984_Audi_200_%285T%29_Turbo_sedan_%2825245226180%29.jpg","quote":"... much stuff, but you stand on a stage and there's 200 people or 1000 people, or I think the biggest aud...","canonicalId":"car:audi:200","priority":0.5,"source":"hybrid-fuzzy+gpt-5.4-nano","data":{"explanation":"The Audi 200 is a performance-oriented sedan from Audi’s lineup, typically discussed as a more powerful, enthusiast-focused model rather than a mainstream commuter car. It’s significant because it represents an era when Audi offered higher-performance variants with advanced engineering for its time. It may be mentioned in the podcast simply as a specific car example tied to a story or comparison involving “200” people or something similar in the audio context.","simplifiedExplanation":"The Audi 200 is a car model from Audi that’s built as a larger, more performance-focused sedan. It’s not an electric car; it’s powered by a conventional engine. The “200” is part of the model name, not a measure of electric range.","imageAttribution":"TuRbO_J from Adelaide, Australia (CC BY 2.0)"}},{"startTime":2355.7,"endTime":2361.14,"type":"car","title":"Toyota Prius","url":"/cars/toyota/prius","image":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/2018-2023_Toyota_Prius.jpg","quote":"...r than your finger. I put them in the corner of a Prius that I was driving at the time. And you could dri...","canonicalId":"car:toyota:prius","priority":0.7,"source":"hybrid-fuzzy+gpt-5.4-nano","data":{"explanation":"The Toyota Prius is a hybrid electric car known for combining a gasoline engine with an electric motor to improve fuel efficiency. It often comes up in discussions about early mainstream electrification because it helped make hybrid technology widely accessible. In a podcast about electric vehicles, it may be referenced as a stepping stone toward today’s plug-in and fully electric options.","simplifiedExplanation":"The Toyota Prius is a car that uses both gasoline and electricity. It has a battery and an electric motor, but you don’t usually plug it in like a fully electric car. It’s designed to use less fuel than a typical gas-only car.","imageAttribution":"TTTNIS (CC0)"}},{"startTime":2676.2,"endTime":2684.2,"type":"term","title":"milk floats","url":"/glossary/milk-floats","quote":"They said, what do you mean milk floats? Or do you mean disability vehicles? You know, they just did not know what it was.","canonicalId":"term:milk-floats","priority":0.55,"confidence":0.9,"source":"hybrid-fuzzy+gpt-5.4-nano","data":{"explanation":"“Milk floats” were small, low-speed electric delivery vehicles used in the UK for local milk distribution. They’re a historical example of early electric vehicles before modern EVs became mainstream.","simplifiedExplanation":"“Milk floats” were old-school electric delivery vans used to bring milk around neighborhoods. They’re an example of early EVs that existed long before today’s electric cars."}},{"startTime":2688.8,"endTime":2712.7,"type":"term","title":"solar panels","url":"/glossary/solar-panel","quote":"and we convert it to run on electricity and batteries and put solar panels on the roof ... we do it in a solar powered van","canonicalId":"term:solar-panels","priority":0.6,"confidence":0.85,"source":"hybrid-fuzzy+gpt-5.4-nano","data":{"explanation":"Solar panels convert sunlight into electricity. The host’s concept is a solar-powered van, which highlights how EV charging and energy supply could be supplemented with on-vehicle generation.","simplifiedExplanation":"Solar panels are devices that turn sunlight into electricity. The idea here is to put them on the van so it can generate some of its own power."}},{"startTime":2688.8,"endTime":2693.4,"type":"term","title":"electricity and batteries","url":"/glossary/electricity-and-batteries","quote":"we get a catering van and we convert it to run on electricity and batteries","canonicalId":"term:electricity-and-batteries","priority":0.45,"confidence":0.7,"source":"hybrid-fuzzy+gpt-5.4-nano","data":{"explanation":"Modern EVs store electrical energy in batteries and use it to power an electric drive system. The segment frames a conversion concept: taking a non-EV vehicle and changing it to run on electricity with battery storage.","simplifiedExplanation":"EVs use batteries to store electricity, then use that stored power to move the car. The host is talking about converting a vehicle so it runs on battery electricity."}},{"startTime":2708.6,"endTime":2716.9,"type":"concept","title":"solar powered van","url":"/glossary/solar-powered-van","quote":"But we do it in a solar powered van, which would have been impossible then.","canonicalId":"concept:solar-powered-van","priority":0.5,"confidence":0.75,"source":"hybrid-fuzzy+gpt-5.4-nano","data":{"explanation":"A “solar powered van” implies the vehicle can generate electricity from onboard solar panels to support its energy needs. In EV discussions, this is often about supplementing charging or reducing reliance on the grid, even though real-world output depends heavily on sunlight and energy demand.","simplifiedExplanation":"A “solar powered van” means the van has solar panels that make electricity. The goal is to use that electricity to help power the van instead of relying only on charging from outside."}},{"startTime":2731.4,"endTime":2742.6,"type":"concept","title":"two electric vehicles that you could get very small amount","quote":"Back in 2009, 2010, extremely pioneering because they were like two electric vehicles that you could get very small amount.","canonicalId":"concept:two-electric-vehicles-that-you-could-get-very-small-amount","priority":0.4,"confidence":0.55,"source":"hybrid-fuzzy+gpt-5.4-nano","data":{"explanation":"The host is describing the early-2000s/early-2010s EV market reality: very limited availability and low production volumes. That scarcity made EVs feel experimental and “pioneering” compared with today’s broader lineup."}},{"startTime":2752.5,"endTime":2770.6,"type":"concept","title":"hydrogen vs battery-electric shift","quote":"I don't, I wouldn't have believed them. I said they'll all be hydrogen. Because that's what\n[2756.3s] everyone was telling me. It'll only be hydrogen. All the buses and all the digger, everything will\n[2760.2s] be hydrogen. Yeah. And I didn't know it sounded plausible to me and it was much better than burning\n[2764.7s] diesel and petrol.","canonicalId":"concept:hydrogen-vs-battery-electric-shift","priority":0.45,"confidence":0.8,"source":"hybrid-fuzzy+gpt-5.4-nano","data":{"explanation":"The speaker contrasts hydrogen fuel-cell expectations with the eventual rise of battery-electric vehicles (EVs). This is a real industry fork: hydrogen aims to store energy in a fuel that’s converted to electricity in a vehicle, while battery-electric cars store energy directly in onboard batteries.","simplifiedExplanation":"The speaker is talking about a big debate early on: should cars run on hydrogen, or on batteries? Hydrogen uses a fuel to make electricity inside the car, while battery-electric cars store electricity in a battery."}},{"startTime":2775.16,"endTime":2779.0,"type":"car","title":"Nissan Leaf","url":"/cars/nissan/leaf","image":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/2018_Nissan_Leaf_SV%2C_front_12.31.19.jpg","quote":"So when the Nissan\n[2775.2s] Leaf was launched, when the Renault Zoe was launched, you go, this is, and I went to the\n[2779.0s] Renault factory in outside Paris, I went, then taking this seriously, you know, this is a","canonicalId":"car:nissan:leaf","priority":0.55,"source":"hybrid-fuzzy+gpt-5.4-nano","data":{"explanation":"The Nissan Leaf is an early mainstream mass-market electric vehicle (EV) that helped prove EVs could be practical for everyday driving. In the context of this conversation, its launch is used as a marker for when EV technology started feeling real rather than speculative.","simplifiedExplanation":"The Nissan Leaf was one of the first widely sold electric cars. Here, it’s mentioned as a moment when EVs stopped being “maybe someday” and started becoming real products.","imageAttribution":"Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0"}},{"startTime":2775.16,"endTime":2779.0,"type":"car","title":"Renault Zoe","url":"/cars/renault/zoe","image":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/2019_Renault_ZOE_Dynamique_Front.jpg","quote":"So when the Nissan\n[2775.2s] Leaf was launched, when the Renault Zoe was launched, you go, this is, and I went to the\n[2779.0s] Renault factory in outside Paris, I went, then taking this seriously, you know, this is a","canonicalId":"car:renault:zoe","priority":0.55,"source":"hybrid-fuzzy+gpt-5.4-nano","data":{"explanation":"The Renault Zoe is a popular European battery-electric car known for being one of the more accessible EVs in its early years. The host uses its launch alongside the Nissan Leaf to illustrate a turning point toward serious EV adoption.","simplifiedExplanation":"The Renault Zoe is an electric car that became well-known in Europe. In this discussion, it’s used as another example of EVs arriving as real, purchasable vehicles.","imageAttribution":"Vauxford (CC BY-SA 4.0)"}},{"startTime":2785.2,"endTime":2806.9,"type":"car","title":"BYD car","image":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/2010_BYD_F0%2C_rear_8.5.18.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original","quote":"But way before, I remember seeing a BYD car at Geneva Motor Show\n[2792.3s] in 2009 and going, oh, they're not very good at cars. That's me, that's me, my insightful little\n[2803.1s] company. No, this company is never going to, that's not going to make no one's going to buy those.","canonicalId":"car:byd:car","priority":0.35,"confidence":0.7,"source":"hybrid-fuzzy+gpt-5.4-nano","data":{"explanation":"BYD is a Chinese automaker that became a major EV and battery player, and the speaker references seeing a BYD car at the Geneva Motor Show. The point is about early perceptions versus eventual scale—BYD later sold millions of cars, contradicting the speaker’s initial skepticism.","simplifiedExplanation":"BYD is a company that makes cars, especially electric ones. The speaker is saying they didn’t think BYD cars would catch on, but BYD ended up selling a huge number of cars.","imageAttribution":"Kevauto (CC BY-SA 4.0)"}}],"speakers":[{"id":"s1","name":"The Fully Charged Show","role":"host"}],"transcripts":[{"url":"http://getcarcurious.com/episodes/from-red-dwarf-to-the-ev-revolution-in-conversation-with-robert-llewellyn/transcript.vtt","type":"text/vtt"}]}