Ahead of a new stage revival, the creators and cast of Channel 4’s classic 90s newsroom sitcom remember close encounters with future Bond stars, writing episodes at the last minute and the meaning between that mysterious titleWhen Drop the Dead Donkey debuted on Channel 4 on 9 August 1990, it was something entirely new. Creators Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin used the offices of fictional TV studio GlobeLink News to combine a classic workplace sitcom with hot-off-the-presses topical gags. Over time, the characters became the main attraction: bickering anchors Henry Davenport (David Swift) and Sally Smedley (Victoria Wicks), amoral foreign correspondent Damien Day (Stephen Tompkinson), and Gus Hedges (Robert Duncan), the jargon-spouting emissary of GlobeLink’s rapacious owner Sir Roysten Merchant. Other cast members included Neil Pearson (as office dogsbody Dave Charnley) and, for two seasons, Haydn Gwynne (as adept assistant editor Alex Pates).Drop the Dead Donkey was a consistent hit, peaking at 4-5 million viewers during its eight-year run. It attracted guest stars such as Neil Kinnock and Jon Snow and up-and-coming actors including Andrew Lincoln, Hermione Norris, Gina McKee and Daniel Craig. Now, the entire surviving cast (Swift died in 2016 and Gwynne in 2023) has reunited for a touring stage show, Drop the Dead Donkey: The Reawakening!, which drops the GlobeLink diaspora into a news landscape that makes the 1990s skulduggery seem almost sweet. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-20 11:55:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Fri, 12/08/2011 - 08:40 The recently appointed children's laureate Julia Donaldson has condemned the "Future Libraries" report as a "cost-cutting exercise" containing among its recommendations some likely to lead to a deterioration of the service.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 28/07/2011 - 08:50 Cheshire-based literary consultants Daniel Goldsmith Associates has set up its own publishing imprint, Aston Bay, focusing initially on crime fiction. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A physical bookstore closes, but it's not the fault of ebooks. Presented By: Get Ready for Tomorrow Today with Cisco The way the world consumes and shares data will dramatically change in the next five years. Is your network ready to handle the load? Friend and follow Cisco across the web as... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-07-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 14/07/2011 - 10:06 Revenues at Bertrams have fallen 7.5% on a like for like basis, its parent company Smiths News has said. In a trading statement for the 19 weeks to 9th July, Smiths News said like for like sales had been stronger in its most... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 13/07/2011 - 15:32 Amazon.com has dropped the price of its advertising-heavy Amazon 3G Kindle to $139 (£86.91). Telecoms company AT&T is sponsoring the Kindle with Special Offers, which will include campaigns for customers and sponsored... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books sold through outlets measured by Nielsen BookScan fell 10.2%, to 307.1 million, in the first six months of 2011 ended July 3. The decline comes as no surprise as ebook sales continued to eat into sales of physical books, and the weak economy limited consumer purchases... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 07/07/2011 - 09:02 WH Smiths like-for-like sales have dropped 4%, but the bookseller remains "confident" about its final year results, it said today. In the 18 weeks to 2nd July, WHS total group sales decreased by 1% and like-for-like sales... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Thu, 23/06/2011 - 11:32 Walker Books author Patrick Ness has won this year's CILIP Carnegie Medal for his novel Monsters of Men (Walker Books), using the ceremony today to attack the government's library cuts and to accuse education secretary Michael... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 31/05/2011 - 14:18 Journalist and Pluto Books author Syed Saleem Shahzad has been found dead near Islamabad, after going missing on Sunday (29th May), according to reports just in from the Pakistan media. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 19/05/2011 - 12:58 A P Watt chairman Caradoc King has become the latest agent to attack the 25% royalty rate on ebooks, with agency pricing and piracy also among topics under discussion at today's Westminster Media Forum. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 19/05/2011 - 10:00 The percentage of ebook purchases has dropped back from the high of the post-Christmas period, falling to 2.5% of all book purchases in volume over the four-week period to 20th March. In a presentation at the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 19/05/2011 - 09:15 The percentage of ebook purchases has dropped back from the high of the post-Christmas period, falling to 2.5% of all book purchases in volume over the four-week period to 20th March. In a presentation at the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A $5 million lawsuit against Simon & Schuster over a book by former President Jimmy Carter was dropped by the plaintiffs on Thursday, three months after it was filed. The plaintiffs in the class-action suit had argued that Mr. Carter's "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," about the Arab-Israeli... Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 18/04/2011 - 09:19 Authors including Iain M Banks and Michael Moorcock have written to the BBC's director general Mark Thompson, attacking the treatment of genre fiction in its recent World Book Night coverage. In total 85 authors, across the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 13/04/2011 - 09:26 Sales at wholesaler Bertrams dropped 3% in the last six months, with library sales down 25%. But strong international sales and a "resilient" retail performance in the face of a slowing consumer book market helped arrest the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 07/04/2011 - 09:04 Authors including Philip Pullman have warned the "biodiversity of poetry publishing in England" is in "jeopardy", following Arts Council England's funding cuts to poetry presses Arc, Flambard and Enitharmon. In a letter... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As the April 4 launch of Moving Media+ draws nearer, Bonnier Publishing is perfecting the tablet experience for industry personnel and audiences through comprehensive research that Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-03-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Fri, 18/03/2011 - 10:17 Independent children's publisher Inside Pocket has signed a five-figure four-book deal with Roald Dahl Funny Prize-winner Ursula Jones. Director of Inside Pocket, Sarah Harrop, acquired world rights, including audio and ebook, to the titles from Celia... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 15/03/2011 - 09:19 The American Library Association (ALA) has said HarperCollins US' restrictions on the number of times an ebook can be checked out restricts users' access to information. ALA president Roberta Stevens' claim comes amid new data... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Thu, 10/03/2011 - 09:18 Profits at Hachette Livre fell almost 17% in 2010, a year in which the company's revenues "returned to normal" following the spectacular success of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga in 2009. The French-owned publisher's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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