Drop the Dead Donkey
Drop the Dead Donkey was a situation comedy that ran on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1998. It was set in the offices of "Globelink News", a fictional TV news company. It tried to match news events in the programme with what was in the news at that time. It was created by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkins.
The series started with the acquisition of Globelink by fictional media mogul Sir Royston Merchant.
The major characters in the series were:
- George Dent (Jeff Rawle), the chief editor. A nervous wreck who is never able to argue with Gus, even when he knows he's in the right. Suffers from a number of anxiety disorders, but doesn't like to complain about it. Earlier scripts made much of his denial that his wife was having an affair. Following their divorce, the focus of his references to his homelife switched to his daughter, a terrifying juvenile delinquent.
- Alex Pates (Haydn Gwynne), George's second-in-command. The token normal person, she left to join the BBC.
- Helen Cooper (Ingrid Lacey), who replaced Alex as assistant editor from the third series onwards. A single mother, she was briefly an object of desire for George, until she explained she was a lesbian. Dedicated to bringing people proper news, she often clashes with Gus, while George offers moral support from the outer office.
- Henry Davenport (David Swift), one of the news anchors. A veteran reporter, he is deeply conteptuous of Gus, Sally and everything about "modern news values".
- Sally Smedley (Victoria Wicks), the other news anchor, handpicked by Sir Royston and noted for her snobbishness and vapidity.
- Gus Hedges (Robert Duncan), the unctuous yes man to Sir Royston Merchant. A management stereotype, similar to Dilbert's Pointy-Haired Boss, he transformed GlobeLink from a serious news network to a ratings-chasing tabloid channel. He precedes most of his comments with phrases like "Now, I'm not here..." or "I'd never intefere with editorial policy, but..."
- Damien Day (Stephen Tompkinson), the field reporter who tries to make his stories as sensational as possible. When filming a firing-squad execution in a South American dictatorship, asked the officer for a retake so it would look better. Mildly sociopathic.
- Gerry, Damien's (unseen) cameraman. Damien's reports would usually end with something unpleasant happening to Gerry, while Damien yelled at him to keep filming. He appears in one episode, at the station's Christmas party, but is covered in bandages.
- Dave Charnley (Neil Pearson), the deputy sub-editor and general dogsbody. A compulsive womaniser and gambler. Gets on very well with Henry, owning to these shared interests, and Damien, owing to his willingness to bet on outrageously tasteless things.
- Joy Merryweather (Susannah Doyle), the terrifyingly outspoken PA. Utterly cynical, and prone to threatening violence. She gets away with this owing to being very good at her job, and the fact that even Gus is afraid of her. Her main role in the series is to offer sarcastic commentry on anything anyone does, and predict disaster, usually accurately.
Unusually for a sitcom, the show was topical, and was usually written and filmed in the week before broadcast. Typically the last scene, or a voiceover for the ending credits was filmed either the day before or sometimes on the day of broadcast. The most frantic rewrite occured when, on the day of filming, Robert Maxwell drowned.
The humour, like that in a real newsroom, was often very black, as the writers did not shy away from sensitive subjects. A typical line (from Henry): "The 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland. What a bloody stupid phrase. Do they think these people are dying of stress?"
The series ended with GlobeLink being closed down. This contradicted the already thouroughly contradicted novel Drop The Dead Donkey 2000 by Hamilton and Alistair Beaton (1994) ISBN 0316912360, which had predicted its destruction at the turn of the millennium.
