Yesterday’s news was hilarious
Sitcom Drop The Dead Donkey was making the headlines with viewers 30 years ago
THE TV studios of a bustling newsroom proved the perfect setting for Drop The Dead Donkey. Parts of the 30-minute comedy were even filmed at the last moment so breaking news could be incorporated into the script to make it as topical as possible and the format proved an immediate success.
Created by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, the show launched on Channel 4 on August 9, 1990, and followed the daily life of the staff at GlobeLink News.
There was nice-but-ineffectual editor George Dent (Jeff Rawle), ambitious journalist Damien Day (Stephen Tomkinson), gambler Dave Charnley (Neil Pearson), rising news star Sally Smedley (Victoria Wicks) and her rival veteran newsreader Henry Davenport (David Swift).
Damien would do anything for the sake of a good story including carrying a teddy bear around to place in the centre of disaster sites for the camera and dressing in drag at a White House reception hoping US president Bill Clinton would make a pass at him.
Betting man David Charnley never missed an opportunity: “New sweepstake. Best suggestion for next member of Clinton’s family to be offered a government job. So far, we’ve got Chelsea Clinton as head of joint chiefs of staff and Socks the cat as head of the space program.”
Media mogul Sir Roysten Merchant was the owner of the TV news channel with Gus Hedges (Robert Duncan) his right-hand man on the ground.
Gus believed he was inspiring the workforce with sayings like, “We’ve got to downsize our sloppiness overload” and “Could we interlock brain spaces in my work area?”.
When things went pear-shape he responded with “publicity-wise this is a rather regrettable gonad in the guillotine situation.”
The award-winning comedy saw guest appearances by Jon Snow, Labour leader Neil Kinnock and TV presenter Dale Winton as themselves. Meera Syal also featured in one episode as a barmaid.
Drop The Dead Donkey ran for 66 episodes over six series and famously featured an early appearance by future 007 star Daniel Craig as the earring-wearing tearaway boyfriend Fixx who was going out with George’s delinquent daughter Deborah.
Future EastEnder star Patsy Palmer also played one of the gang members who was hanging out with Fixx when mild-mannered George paid a visit to tell him to back off and leave his daughter alone.