Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Susannah Doyle, Robert Duncan, Ingrid Lacey, Neil Pearson, Jeff Rawle, Stephen Tompkinson, Victoria Wicks, Julia Hills, Kerana Jagpal, Claire Louise Amias, Adam Morris, Riya Rajeev.
They argue that you cannot recreate magic, that nothing is truly timeless, and in comedy that is especially true, the lighting that was captured does not stay in the bottle because attitudes to what makes people laugh alters so drastically that it the pressure inside the glass can do nothing but break, and all that remains is a puff, a glimmer of the electrifying pulse that once was seeping out into a world whose view has shifted and the approach of farce is pushed aside in favour of a new regime designed to no make people guffaw and snort wildly but be downcast and dull.
Drop The Dead Donkey was surely without argument one of the greatest television comedies of all time, its situation of a relic, a ship only afloat in the world of news because the station, Globelink News, was a byword for the kind of hacks that could dish out the dirt but collapse under the weight of their own insecurity at the same time; it was the kind of place you wanted to be employed, but only as long as you held at no hope of being taken seriously as a journalist.
More than thirty years on since the long running series made its debut on screens, its creators, Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, have proved indisputably that lightning cannot only be caught twice, but that the initial one that for others turned to vapour and dust, is not only reignited with ferocity, it causes a storm so intense that the audience is guaranteed to feel every burn with relish as the characters return in Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening.
The sadness of two long standing members having been lost to the obituary column was acknowledged, the sense of immortal time embraced, for in news all that changes is the face of the presenter, war remains, government scandals continually do the rounds, celebrities come and go with increasing frequency, and in it all the sense of morality and camaraderie is lost as back stabbing and the struggle to cling on to professional dignity is overwhelmed by the need to laugh loudly and be unembarrassed in doing so.
Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening reveals the fates of characters so beloved by the nation, that the new station that has been set up to deliver the breaking headlines and the latest information, as well as offering unprecedented libel and slander opportunities to anyone who gets in their way; the sense of farce as Dave Charnley, the relish of revenge in the eyes of Joy Merryweather, the confusion of George Dent, the inner fury of Helen Cooper all combine under the might of relentless inopportune Psychobabble of Gus Hedges, insane paranoia of Sally Smedley and the grasping hand of sensationalism of Damien Day, is quite frankly perfect, brilliantly conceived, and delivered with a style so pleasurable that it leaves the audience permanently grinning as they leave the theatre.
A fantastic conceit, Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening is theatrical comedy at its very best.Ian D. Hall