Comedy’s return good news for the audience
THIRTY years on and it’s a love-in between fans of the original TV series and the new stage version of Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening.
In the 1990s the multi-award winning Channel 4 TV series featuring Globelink News enthralled audiences with its combination of on-the-spot satire and dysfunctional news team members.
Now almost the whole team is reunited in this production cowritten by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, authors of the original sitcom. They have pulled it off superbly, updating the old team dynamics with modern sensibilities and adding modern newsroom technology.
The show starts with screened excerpts from the original TV series featuring ace reporter Damien and Dimples the teddy bear that he carried with him to place at scenes of terrible bloodshed.
It moves on to reintroduce the team to each other and to the audience which responds with whoops and cheers as each member reappears.
These are the same muchloved characters, now carrying backstories three decades long that are revealed as the play unfolds, and grudges that have survived the years.
Among them are Damien (Stephen Tompkinson) now in a wheelchair, Dave (Neil Pearson) former boozer, gambler and womaniser who is two-thirds reformed, news anchor Sally Smedley (Victoria Wicks) her ego as large as ever, and Gus (Robert Duncan) still out of touch and out of control.
This time, though, the team is reunited not in Globelink but in Truth News, a mysterious modern outfit run by unknown owners and controlled by alarming algorithms.
It’s a marvellous satire on fake news and clickbait, along with sharp political satire, car-crash interviews and AI-engendered reports, and staff inclusivity – or “gender fluids” as Gus call them.
There’s even a voice-controlled coffee machine, a hilarious new addition to the comedy, based on a prop supervisor’s research trip to ITN studios to bring the set up to date.
This stage production, directed by Derek Bond, is as mad and funny as ever. This is especially true for die-hard fans of the original TV series, but the humour is just as apparent to an audience seeing it for the first time. It’s a great piece of theatre and a joy to watch.
Along with the satire there’s also a hard-hitting message as the team eventually discovers who is behind the show, and why.
Damien says: “Once you start messing with the truth you get this . . .”
It also features Susannah Doyle as Joy, Ingrid Lacey as Helen, Jeff Rawle as George, Julia Hills as Mairead and Kerena Jagpal as the diversity employee.
Tribute is paid in the final credits to the two deceased team members – deputy editor Alex (Haydn Gwynne), and veteran news anchor Henry Davenport (David Swift).
■ Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening appears at the Theatre Royal Bath until Saturday March 30. Call 01225 448844k or visit www.theatreroyal.org.uk