Review of Drop The Dead Donkey The Complete First Series (Two Discs)

Introduction

Drop the Dead Donkey was one of my favourite TV comedies from the 1990s, a topical news sit-com, in which many of the jokes were written just before transmission. It is set in the fictional Globelink News, who are owned by Sir Royston Merchant. Any parallels with the Murdoch empire are surely coincidental aren`t they?

The stars of this first series are:-

Gus Hedges (Robert Duncan) - the management gobbledygook quoting boss, always saying "I`m not here"
George Dent (Jeff Rawle) - the chief editor, always having family and health problems
Dave Charnley (Neil Pearson) - the charmer, the lad, the man about town
Damien Day (Stephen Tompkinson) - the ace reporter in the field who will stop at nothing to get a story, including making one up
Sally Smedley (Victoria Wicks) - the stupid news reader, the butt of all office jokes
Henry Davenport (David Swift) - the seasoned pro news reader, who`s been there, done that, and likes a flutter
Alex Pates (Haydn Gwynne) - George`s deputy, but the one who really knows what`s going on

The episodes are :-

A New Dawn

News of Sir Royston Merchant`s takeover disturbs our team, and Gus arrives to smooth the transition.

Sally`s Arrival

Sally Smedley joins the news team, dumbing down and adding some supposedly much needed glamour.

A Clash of Interests

George wants to run a story about a chemical plant owned by Sir Royston, but can he stand up to Gus who wants to stop the story?

A Blast from the Past

Alex`s ex-husband turns up at the office, and causes trouble.

Old Father Time

A young relative of Henry arrives for work experience in the newsroom, and everyone feels their age.

Special Branch Raid the Newsroom

The lawyers get involved after some secret info finds its way into the newsroom. Dave tapes Sally in a compromising situation, and everyone in the office wants a copy.

The Root of All Evil

Money problems are rife in the office, leading to accusations flying around.

Death, Disaster `n` Damien

A Damien heavy episode, as he gets into trouble for more fake reports, and eggs on an animal rights protest group in order to get footage.

The New Approach

Gus brings in a stress specialist, who manages to increase stress levels all round.

The Big Day

Gus decides that Sally`s ratings-friendly image makes her the ideal candidate to interview the Prime Minister. No one else on the team agrees.

For those of you who don`t have a great memory, each episode starts by explaining the date of first broadcast, and the events of the news that week. These were used in the TV repeat runs of the show.

Video

We get the original 4:3 transfer, as broadcast on Channel 4 all those years ago. It`s not perfect, but it looks pretty much like any other TV transfer from the late 1980s/early 1990s. Colours are ok, and everything looks reasonable throughout. George`s cardigans are suitably dull and drab.

The interviews with Hamilton & Jenkin and the rest of the cast are presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen.

Audio

A DD2.0 stereo soundtrack, which sounds absolutely fine. The sound is clear and crisp and you can hear everything that`s going on. Once again, there`s not much more to say about it - it`s good and it does the job.

Features

A nice little selection of extras, most of which live on disc 2.

On disc 1 we get an introduction to the series from writers Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. They talk about the show, the writing, and the time when it was first broadcast.

On disc 2 we get the most sought after extra, the unaired pilot episode. This also gets an introduction from Andy Hamilton & Guy Jenkin. It was really just a trial for the show, to see how everything fitted together. Some of the jokes appear in later episodes, but it serves as an interesting curiousity rather than a great new episode.

We finish off with interviews with various cast and crew, talking about the show, the background, what it was like to work on, the mis-conceptions behind the title, and how to handle rehearsing when a script has big gaps in it.

Conclusion

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the first series of Drop the Dead Donkey all over again. I remember most of the episodes from first broadcast and subsequent repeats. I remember loads of people watching the show at first broadcast, and we were all talking about it the next day. So yes, there`s plenty of nostalgia involved when watching, but it`s still good in its own right.

It is still very funny, and fans of the show will want to snap this set up. The characters make the show, and the world is still populated with an army of clones of Gus Hedges spouting management gobbledygook at any time. Dave Charnley, the lovable womaniser is a simple but great character, and Sally Smedley makes a great home for all of the office jokes. Henry Davenport could be a stereotype, but is still a great seasoned professional, standing up for those ancient Empire values (e.g. the sponsoring of The Oval cricket ground, still a sore point with many today).

So great characters, great jokes, great storylines, and topical news that is still funny today. A must for fans of the series, and for anyone who has caught recent repeats on Paramount Comedy.