Drop The Dead Donkey to return as a stage show

Featuring the original cast of Channel 4's newsroom comedy

Drop The Dead Donkey is returning as a stage play – 24 years after it last aired.

Original cast members will be returning with a new script from the show’s creators Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin with a show that will tour the UK next year.

Speaking to the Always Be Comedy podcast, Hamilton said: ‘I think I am allowed to say that it’s about to be announced that we are doing a Drop The Dead Donkey stage show – from January next year.

‘It’s that same collection of characters all played by the same actors. But being parachuted into the world of AI (artificial intelligence) and 24-hour rolling news. So it’s really exciting.’

Those actors are

Susannah Doyle as the inappropriately named Joy Merryweather, the cynical, surly and downright aggressive personal assistant;
Robert Duncan as Gus Hedges, the chief executive of Globelink news, forever spouting vacuous and convoluted management jargon
Ingrid Lacey as Helen Cooper, the efficient and capable assistant editor in contrast to the rest of the cast (she replaced the character of Alex Pates, as played by Haydn Gwynne, in the first two series)
Neil Pearson as Dave Charnley, the dogsbody sub-editor , compulsive womaniser and inveterate gambler
Jeff Rawle as nervous, ineffective editor George Dent.
Stephen Tompkinson as star reporter Damien Day, who gets sensational footage – entirely unethically
Victoria Wicks as the snobbish, dim newsreader Sally Smedley.

Missing is David Swift – who played Henry Davenport, the grouchy, grizzled journalism veteran who begrudgingly anchored the bulletins – as he died, aged 85, in 2016.

Drop The Dead Donkey

The original show ran on Channel 4 for six series from 1990 to 1998, winning the best comedy Bafta in 1994.

News of the revival – to be entitled Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening! – comes after Tompkinson endured a high-profile court case in which he was found not guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm on a drunken man he confronted outside his home.

Although dates of the tour have yet to be announced, Hamilton added: ‘They are going to tour Britain. I think the furthest north they’re going is Newcastle. And down to Plymouth. They’ll do a week in each town. It’s a big old thing!"

He was speaking with Always Be Comedy’s James Gill ahead of his own UK stand-up tour.

All the original episodes of Drop The Dead Donkey are available to stream from Channel 4.

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Published: 30 May 2023