Drop the Dead Donkey: The Reawakening
SEVEN of the original cast of TV comedy series Drop the Dead Donkey revive their characters 26 years after the series’ final screening in 1998. With a script written by original creators Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, which moves the action forward to the present day, the magnificent seven, plus two, play those much-loved characters having aged naturally from the 1990s.
Brought together for the mysterious owners by lapdog Gus Hedges, played by Robert Duncan, to open a new TV News channel, Truth, the ex-colleagues assume their original roles. This time an even more dangerous boss than in the TV series, is hidden in the background, a mystery even to Gus, but finally not to infiltrated spy Mairead played by Julia Hills.
In-between bickering about who should be the senior oncamera presenter, Victoria Wicks as the upmarket Sally Smedley and Stephen Tompkinson as Damien Day ace field reporter, now wheelchair bound, would-be man of action, hit many a newsworthy character right where it hurts.
Jeff Rawle is as indecisive and confused as ever as the moralistic editor, George Dent, not helped by Ingrid Lacey, just as hyper-efficient as deputy editor and chief news gatherer Helen Cooper, still short tempered with her inefficient co-workers. Even more confused than George is the newcomer, weather person Kerena Jagpal, who just cannot come to terms with the office infighting.
Sniping at all in sundry from the security of the background is the inappropriately named Joy Merryweather played by Susannah Doyle, just waiting for the appropriate moment to abandon the sinking ship. Equally observant, in a much more sympathetic manner is Neil Pearson’s beautifully crafted Dave Charnley. He may have given up womanising and gambling but Dave has many other new problems to face.
Just how pleased the audience were to see the return of this group of finely tuned comic characters can be judged by the fact that each in turn, when they made their first appearance, was greeted by a rousing round of applause.
The laughs flowed freely in Act 1, during which we had a guest appearance on video of Sir Trevor McDonald, with the storyline becoming more serious in the second act, until we reach a point when it looked as if the writers were struggling to find a way to end things on a high note. Despite that this was an evening for fans of Drop the Dead Donkey to enjoy a reunion with treasured old friends.