If you’ve ever had a favourite TV show where you dreamed of the cast reuniting 30 years on to bring a version of it to the stage, then you will know how thousands of Drop The Dead Donkey fans are feeling. Originally titled Dead Belgians Don’t Count, the still oddly titled show written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin won BAFTA and EMMY awards during its time on air in the 1990s with its quirky contrasting characters and fast-paced, insightful, sarcastic and very clever humour. An off-the-wall political satire, it was known for always being relevant and completely up to date with what was going on in Britain and the world at large, even to the day before being aired on TV.
With this in mind, the scene is already set high with expectations when the familiar theme music is played as the introduction. Each of the team arrives to join the brand new TV station Truth News, each of them shocked to find another of their old team mates there. These flawed characters are exactly as they were, yet they also tell us through the show what they have been up to in the intervening 30 years, all hilarious and very believable. So much of the comedy is actually due to the characters and how they interact with each other.
Jeff Rawle is George: the hapless and clumsy cardigan-wearing editor who nobody really listens to; Neil Pearson is Dave: serial womaniser and (now reformed) gambler; Stephen Tompkinson is Damian, the roving reporter whose personality borders on psychopathy, taking his toys to disaster zones so that they can be filmed as an example of tragic human loss within carnage.
They are brought together by Gus, played by Robert Duncan as the upper class completely-out-of-touch man in charge of the station. He is someone whose idea of inclusivity is spouting buzzwords and phrases which he frequently gets wrong with hilarious results: “full of gender fluids” being one example.
Sally Smedley, played by Victoria Wicks – who bizarrely looks exactly the same as 30 years ago – is the stupid TV news anchor with the monster ego who is slightly more right wing than a dictator. The sarcastic, one-liner dropping Joy (who is always anything but), is played by Susannah Doyle who is now is bizarrely in charge of human resources. Ingrid Lacey as Helen is the most ordinary out of everyone, acting as a pivot to the other characters around.
The writing is as ever packed full of laughter upon laughter, with these utterly superb actors so on point that sometimes you barely have time to recover. The political satire is sharp and yet never offends, even to modern ears. There are some brilliant one liners with deadpan delivery and superb comic timing, such as “AI is going to liberate mankind from the tyranny of thinking”; and as ever, the show is current and up to date, commenting on exactly what is going on in the news at the moment. As in the original TV show, this has a super cameo from someone playing themselves (spoilers!) which is as hysterically funny as it is unexpected.
This is a new fun story with the characters we love making pithy and sometimes poignant remarks about the world we live in. Our political satire is currently limited to TV panel shows, but Drop The Dead Donkey was always a welcome commentary, poking relevant fun at everybody on all sides: something the theatre show continues. “Once you start messing with the truth, you get this…” is probably the hardest hit in the show. Although couched in humour, it talks about fake news and the easy manipulation of facts and photographs. After all, one of its own show segments was once reported as ‘real news’.
This is an amazing feat of writing – to be faithful to the original yet to create something fresh and true to now that stands alone and apart from anything else currently playing. Plus the characters are so instantly well-formed and recognisable and played by actors so good at what they do it’s a joy to watch them. This should appeal both to original fans of the TV show and to those who have never heard of it but enjoy a really good, really bonkers yet clever political satire.
Theatre Royal Brighton, Tuesday 5th March 2024
Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening! runs until Saturday 9th March 2024
Photos by Manuel Harlan
