Drop the Dead Donkey

This was my favourite show back in the late 80's and early 90's. I still watch the occasional episode on the original channels' (UK Channel 4) online archive and end up watching 3 or 4 more. Damien's tabloid/sensationalist "journalism", Henry Davenport, the grand old curmudgeon/geriatric ladykiller, Sally, the original faux-celeb, with her lapses into born again evangelical christianity and the pleasures of lorry driver cabs, Gus, well sometimes I would laugh the second when he walked on set, poor, put upon George the luckless hypochondriac and most of all, the psychotic office admin, Joy, who Id love to believe was the inspiration for Ruth in Ozark. Give it a try if you can, especially the awards ceremony episode if you want to get off to a flyer. Genius stuff.

"Drop the Dead Donkey" ran in six series from 1990 to 1996. The bulk of the humour deals with then-topical British news, so the program doesn't really travel well, or last more than a week (a long time in politics). Best of all the episodes released on video was the award-winning "The Christmas Party", which had hardly any up-to-date content.

The central characters are all exaggerated caricatures of office and media stereotypes. Robert Duncan was good as jargon-spouting executive Gus Hedges, and Jeff Rawle as ineffectual editor George Dent. Haydn Gwynne played the cool, competent editor with a messy private life almost too well, so that the lighter Ingrid Lacey didn't have the same impact when she later filled the same role.

Stephen Tompkinson's acting was probably the best although he was mainly used for the slapstick scenes. (Listen for the inimitable voice of Andy Hamilton playing luckless cameraman Jerry, screaming "Damien!!!" as Tompkinson's suicidally reckless reporter leads them into imminent danger, in almost every episode.)

Susannah Doyle was a good "PA from Hell", but Sara Stewart's portrayal of a vapid blonde in the same slot in series 1 was also a delight.

David Swift's portrayal of a vain newsreader must have been uncomfortably close to some real life newsreaders, with his booming delivery, ruined liver, and his obvious "syrup of figs".

The series may have been killed off, but some of its highlights deserve to be remembered for a long time. Well done everybody, Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin in particular.

During my 2 year stay in the UK, I grew addicted to this show. To a newcomer, the satirical bite to this show gave me the "real" feel of how the dry news of the day was perceived by the public. The writing was great and was brought to life by a brilliant cast! I was elated when I found this show was to be shown on Comedy Central in the US, but it took one viewing to realize that without the daily access to the british news, this show was lost here. Too bad! It was extremely funny! BTW, can someone please tell me what happened to that poor chap, Jerry the camera man?

Just started watching this again and forgot how good it was. Set in a television newsroom. Brilliant characters George and Gus especially. Good references to the news at the time. The Christmas party episode especially is brilliant.

Never having traveled abroad, I have no idea what the references to British media were about. Nonetheless, the episodes that ran on Comedy Central were still terrific! Perhaps it was a matter of which episodes out of the six year run were aired over here, but what I saw was an excellent ensemble cast with pithy writing that any "homegrown" sitcom would rightfully give an arm and leg to have.

I wish episodes were available in NTSC DVD form, 'cuz I'd like to see more...! :)