Saturday, May 11

Tag: Ingrid Lacey

Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening – Leeds Grand Theatre
Yorkshire & Humber

Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening – Leeds Grand Theatre

It is scarcely believable, but once upon a time British TV viewers had the choice of only four terrestrial channels, and Drop The Dead Donkey was an early hit for Channel 4. It was set in the dysfunctional newsroom of satellite channel Globelink, and its unique selling point was it was recorded just before broadcast so writers Andy Hamilton and Andy Jenkin could slip in some topical gags amongst the mayhem. For anyone like me who has worked in a TV newsroom it was an unsettlingly accurate portrayal of the damaged flotsam and jetsam who wash up there, with egos running rampant as monstrous presenters smile away onscreen before turning their ire onto the troops. That meant I was a massive fan at the time when you had to be sat in front of your gogglebox to catch your favourite program...
Drop the Dead Donkey: The Reawakening – The Lowry
North West

Drop the Dead Donkey: The Reawakening – The Lowry

The 90s were famous for a lot of things such as Britpop, Cool Brittania and the Teletubbies and casting an acerbic eye on the news at that time was an award-winning sitcom ready to take a satirical swipe at the great and the good of the day. Recorded close to transmission the gags were bang up to date and like Spitting Image and Have I Got News For You, it was must see TV for satire junkies. Aside from its topicality the show had a great bunch of misfit characters who were, like in any great sitcom, trapped together, in this case in a news station. It had a bumbling editor, George (Jeff Rawle), a womanising gambling addict, Dave (Neil Pearson), the attention seeking Damien (Stephen Tompkinson), perfectionist Helen (Ingrid Lacey) and the sociopathic Joy (Susannah Doyle). It was a workpl...