‘I attacked Daniel Craig with a toasting fork’: inside the wild creation of Drop the Dead Donkey

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 ]
News tagged with: #stage revival #writing episodes #guy jenkin #main attraction #jargon-spouting emissary #consistent hit #eight-year run #neil kinnock #jon snow #hermione norris #gina mckee #daniel craig #news landscape #1990s skulduggery #pearson

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Attacks On The Nation’s Libraries Are About Class As Much As Censorship

If the more than 100 bills in state legislatures aiming to ban books fail, lawmakers want to cut library budgets — which could mean cuts to resources for America's most vulnerable. Continue reading at HuffPost

[ HuffPost | 2023-04-28 09:45:11 UTC ]
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Google’s cookie replacement—inside a publisher’s test of the new ID

Online publisher Graham Media adopted new ID system to restore some of the value lost during the cookie purge. Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2023-04-26 09:00:00 UTC ]
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Dead Ink wins Republic of Consciousness prize with Missouri Williams’s ‘astonishing’ debut

The award, championing small presses with fewer than five staff, was won by The Doloriad – an audaciously original novel set in a post-apocalyptic dystopiaDead Ink Books has won the Republic of Consciousness prize for small presses for Missouri Williams’s “astonishing” debut novel The Doloriad.... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-26 08:35:38 UTC ]
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Lachlan Murdoch drops defamation proceedings against independent Australian publisher Crikey

Move comes days after Fox reached a $US787.5m settlement with the voting equipment company Dominion in a separate defamation lawsuitFollow our Australia news live blog for the latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastLachlan Murdoch has dropped his... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-21 02:28:29 UTC ]
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At London Book Fair Tuesday: Copyright Under Attack

Threats to copyright protections, publishing leaders at London Book Fair will say today, are as broadly international as the Internet. The post At London Book Fair Tuesday: Copyright Under Attack appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-04-18 04:30:37 UTC ]
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Michael Denneny, Editor of 'And the Band Played On,' Dead at 80

A champion of LGBTQ stories as both editor and author, Denneny died on April 12. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-04-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Libraries are under attack—and so are library workers

Libraries are increasingly being targeted by local and state legislators and protestors trying to ban books and block LGBTQ content. How is that affecting the people who work in them? Scratch nearly any kind of story—political, social, economic, cultural, and so on—and you’ll find a labor... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2023-04-14 03:00:00 UTC ]
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Rick Wolff, Highly Regarded Business Book Editor, Dead at 71

Rick Wolff, who published dozens of bestselling books as a business editor for Warner Books, Hachette Book Group, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, died April 10. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-04-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Cover reveal: See the cover for Daniel Mason’s North Woods.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason’s North Woods, “a sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those who inhabit it across the centuries,” which will be published by Random House in September.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-11 14:00:21 UTC ]
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‘It was utterly wild’: the story of a 1970s erotic magazine for women

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[ The Guardian | 2023-04-03 18:24:51 UTC ]
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Mostly Dead, Slightly Alive: Exploring the Princess Bride Cookbook

The Princess Bride official cookbook helped me embrace the wonder of experimenting and just plain having fun in the kitchen. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-03-30 10:33:00 UTC ]
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Gabrielle Zevin takes us inside her video game-inspired, juggernaut bestseller

Bestselling novelist Gabrielle Zevin joins the L.A. Times Book Club April 22 to discuss 'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow' at the Festival of Books. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-03-29 14:00:34 UTC ]
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Apple's AirPods Pro drop back to $200, plus the rest of the week's best tech deals

It's Friday, which means it's time for another roundup of notable discounts on good tech. Among the highlights, Apple's AirPods Pro are back down to $200, tying the best price we've seen for the iPhone-friendly noise-cancelling earphones. Amazon has dropped the Kindle Paperwhite down to $100,... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-03-24 15:43:59 UTC ]
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ATTACK ON TITAN Publisher Kodansha Launching Manga App

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[ Book Riot | 2023-03-22 20:54:21 UTC ]
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'Attack on Titan' publisher Kodansha is launching its own Manga app

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[ Engadget | 2023-03-21 14:00:32 UTC ]
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Mel Shapiro of Book Sales Dead at 90

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-03-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Pat Schroeder, Former AAP CEO, Dead at 82

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-03-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The National | Health-care fees, Transit woes, Inside Pearson airport

March 10, 2023 | Ottawa warns charging patients for medically necessary services could cost provinces. Plus, an inside look at Canada’s busiest airport. Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2023-03-11 02:00:00 UTC ]
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Indigo Recovering from Ransomware Attack

A month after a ransomware attack shut down the bookseller's website and crippled its internal computer systems, the book chain's stores are again accepting all forms of payment and its online store has been restored and is fully functional. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-03-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The Morning After: Scientists confirm a fifth layer inside the Earth's core

Tear down the middle school geology posters: We have an update. A team at Australian National University (ANU) has found evidence of a new fifth layer to the planet, an iron-nickel alloy ball in the inner core. The scientists found the hidden core by studying seismic waves that travel up to five... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-02-27 12:15:33 UTC ]
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