Image credit: Manuel Harlan
Words by Melissa Blease
Theatre Royal Bath until 30 March
1990: less than 7% of us owned a mobile phone, the UK’s first commercial Internet Service Provider had yet to be launched and 24-hour TV news was a glitchy novelty largely dominated by Ceefax pages (remember those?). But the times they were a-changin’ – and they were a-changin’ fast.
Comedy aficionados Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin saw an opportunity to ride the crest of the waves of those fast-changing tides of change and introduced British TV sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey (DTDD) to Channel 4 audiences, marking the start of a series that would run all the way through to 1998. Set in the offices of fictional TV news company GlobeLink News, each episode was recorded close to transition, with themes around the actual, ‘trending’ news events of the day bringing realism to an archly funny script that also served to chronicle and parody the real-time development of 24-hour TV news channels.
Decades on, DtDD‘s ‘reawakening’ – a live stage version written by the show’s original co-creators and starring most of the TV production’s original cast members including Neil Pearson, Stephen Tompkinson and Robert Duncan – begins with a cheerful school reunion vibe… if, that is, you were in with the ‘In’ crowd that the DtDD crew created back in the day. Contemporary audience members who never saw the original TV show may feel a bit left out of the many in jokes that dominate the re-introduction of familiar key characters, most of whom have to take a pause before delivering their first lines to acknowledge thundering applause just for being there. But why, exactly, are they here, back together again after all these years?
Former GlobeLink News boss Gus has re-employed his former staff team to join him on his mission to bring “the truth” to 24-hour TV, tasking them with getting Truth News off the ground and producing its first broadcasts. The flashy, modern-age newsroom backdrop is all present and correct courtesy of Peter McKintosh’s dazzling set featuring acres of glass, chrome and steel, stunning views across London’s hippest cityscapes and high-tech gadgetry from a voice-activated coffee machine to screens displaying constant, rolling social media commentary setting the scene perfectly.
Of the ensemble cast, Neil Pearson brings realistic maturity to his return to the role of deputy sub-editor Dave, a former compulsive drinker, gambler and womaniser now attempting to prove that he’s a ‘changed man’. Stephen Tompkinson’s Damien is still pretty much the same frustrated field reporter that he ever was, Jeff Rawle still the same loveable-though-slightly-frustrating Station Editor George, and Robert Duncan still as exaggeratedly oleaginous as Truth News CEO as he was as GlobeLink head honcho.
But occasionally, efforts to reinstate DtDD in the contemporary comedy zeitgeist feel slightly laboured: the ‘powerful woman v powerful women’ clashes between Assistant Editor Helen (Ingrid Lacey), vapid news anchor Sally and ambitious reporter (and new character) Mairead (Julia Hills), for example, feel more early 1980s than 21st century in influence. Meanwhile, neither promoting ambitious, deliciously vindictive former PA Joy (Susannah Doyle) to Head of HR for her return to the contemporary spotlight nor adding young intern Rita (Kerena Jagpal) to the mix brings anything more than distracting confusion to an existing group of long-established, strong personalities who have more than proven their worth as a successful comedy coalition.
But minor niggles aside, this amble down memory lane to revisit one of the UK’s most successful sitcoms is more than a mere nostalgia trip. Rejuvenated with a satisfying smattering of right here, right now jibes, quips and memorable one-liners and flaunting production values far higher than the GlobeLink News team could ever have imagined, this ‘revitalisation’ proves that Drop the Dead Donkey isn’t quite old news yet.
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