"Drop the Dead Donkey" (1990) TV series 1990-1998

User Rating:

8.9/10   

Creators:

Andy Hamilton
Guy Jenkin

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Release Date:

9 August 1990 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Political satire about a TV news company.

Plot Keywords:

Imperative In Title | Animal In Title | Television News

Awards:

9 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Neil Pearson	...	Dave Charnley (66 episodes, 1990-1998)
Jeff Rawle	...	George Dent (66 episodes, 1990-1998)
David Swift	...	Henry Davenport (66 episodes, 1990-1998)
Stephen Tompkinson	...	Damien Day (66 episodes, 1990-1998)
Robert Duncan	...	Gus Hedges (65 episodes, 1990-1998)
Victoria Wicks	...	Sally Smedley (65 episodes, 1990-1998)
Susannah Doyle	...	Joy Merryweather (55 episodes, 1991-1998)
Ingrid Lacey	...	Helen Cooper (42 episodes, 1993-1998)
Haydn Gwynne	...	Alex Pates (24 episodes, 1990-1991)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Waterloo Station, Waterloo, London, England, UK

Company:

Hat Trick Productions

Trivia:

The series was originally to be called "Dead Belgians Don't Count", inspired by a deadly train accident in Belgium which received no attention in the British news. This title was deemed too offensive by Channel 4, and they renamed it "Drop the Dead Donkey". A fortuitous decision, as it turned out, since one of the first international stations to buy this series was the VRT, the Flemish public radio and television.

Quotes:

Gus Hedges: Today is tomorrow's tadpole of opportunity.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 30 Greatest Political Comedies (2006) (TV)

An all time classic

As an Irish observer, this comedy has to be one of the high points of 1990's comedy.

While the main talking point of the series initially was it's topicality (being written and filmed in the week before filming so as to include observations and jokes about breaking news stories), later series were far less dependent on the topicality angle and more on funny honest and sharp character development.

It was immeasurably superior both to other office based comedy (viz the overrated IMHO "office") and to the likes of other newsroom comedies viz Murphy Brown. DTDD's humour was sharp acidic and right on the money. No-one was spared it's barbs.

On reruns and DVD releases a brief voice-over identifies the week each particular episode was shown and what the major stories breaking that week were.

More interestingly a lot of what was clearly the target of DTDD's humour (the dumbing down and tabloidisation of news reporting promoted by TV newstations) are even more in evidence today 10-15 years later as witnessed by the likes of FOX News and Sky News I wonder who Sir Royten Merchant was really based on....