History Series / DropTheDeadDonkey

* TieInNovel: ''Drop the Dead Donkey 2000'', which was released in 1994 and which depicts [=NewsLink=] in the Year 2000. Notably, the novel would later be contradicted by the TV Series, which has the place closing in 1998.

** Alex rather than Helen is the assistant editor in series 1 and 2, and Joy is absent from series 1 and a relatively minor character as opposed to part of the main cast in series 2 on.

* In one episode the men are called sexist for hiring a stripper at a party, but the girls see nothing wrong in (as Joy puts it) "hurling sexist abuse" as they watch the Chippendales.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The series was always pretty dark, but the sixth and final series in 1998 dials it UpToEleven, with the closure of Globelink hanging over the series. The DownerEnding that some of the characters get doesn't help matters either.

* MedleyExit: In the final episode, to Jimmy Ruffin's "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?".

* CrapsackWorld
* CreatorCameo: The voice of Jerry the cameraman is writer Andy Hamilton. Also in the final episode, one of the removal men carrying out the furniture from the Globelink office is Guy Jenkin, the other writer.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The series was always pretty dark, but the sixth and final series in 1998 dials it UpToEleven, with the closure of GlobeLink hanging over the series. The DownerEnding that some of the characters get doesn't help matters either.

* TheGhost: Sir Royston Merchant, the owner of Globelink News ([[spoiler:until the end of the last episode, when he finally makes an appearance]]), and Gerry, Damien's unlucky cameraman.

* HiddenHeartOfGold: Very possibly ''also'' Joy, considering the episode with her brother, and when she stands up for Helen [[spoiler:by beating Damien up after he ruins Helen's dinner party and causes her to break up with her girlfriend]], but -- ''really'' hidden.

* DangerTakesABackSeat: Globelink News decide to make a crimewatch program, and Gus Hedges assures the police liaison officer that it's not going to increase the public's fear of crime for cheap ratings. Cue the title sequence showing a couple moving fearfully through a darkened street, while an ominous voiceover accompanied by creepy music tells how crime is lurking everywhere, waiting to strike... The music stops as the couple make it to their car, lock the doors and sigh with relief, only for a blood-stained man wielding a huge knife to rise up from the backseat.

* DoubleStandard: In "Lady Merchant", Gus is blackmailed into nearly sleeping with his employer's wife as she threatens to have him dismissed if he doesn't. The entire scenario is played for laughs, centering around Gus's inexperience with women, but Gus himself seems terrified of so much as touching Lady Merchant and even thanks her when she decides to not have sex with him after all. If the genders were reversed, the episode would certainly not be played as a comedy - especially as Lady Merchant is attracted to Gus because of his perceived virginity.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Alex instead of Helen is the assistant editor in series 1 and 2, and Joy is absent from series 1 and a relatively minor character as opposed to part of the main cast in series 2.
** Joy is also merely cynical and surly in series 2, as opposed to her vindictive, aggressive and borderline sociopathic characterisation from series 3 onwards
* EmpathyDollShot: {{Invoked|Trope}}Damien carries a teddybear named Dimbles[[note]]named for famous BBC news broadcaster Richard Dimbleby[[/note]] around with him for disaster stories. [[CrossesTheLineTwice And also a blood-stained plimsoll and a Raggedy Ann doll]].

* EmpathyDollShot: Damien carries a teddybear named Dimbles around with him for disaster stories. [[CrossesTheLineTwice And a blood-stained plimsoll]].

* RedShirtReporter: Damien Day likes to [[ExploitedTrope exploit]] this - the problem is, [[{{Parody}} he usually creates the dangerous situations he's in himself]], [[ExploitedTrope to improve viewing figures]].

''Drop the Dead Donkey'' was a 1990s British TV comedy set in the newsroom of Globelink news, recently acquired by megalomaniacal billionaire Sir Royston Merchant. Aside from attacking politicians across the political spectrum, the show centred on the war of egos between newsreaders, the inability of editors to avoid the tabloidisation of their programme and the wickedly black banter and office terrorism between the rest of the staff.

* NobodyOver50IsGay: Averted when Helen's mother admits her past.

* CreatorCameo: The voice of Jerry the cameraman is writer Andy Hamilton.

->'''Gus Hedges:''' Morning, hotshots. Are we cooking with napalm? You bet.

->'''Gus Hedges:''' There is just something I'd like to pop into your percolator, see if it comes out brown.

->'''Gus Hedges:''' Yes, well, publicity-wise, this is a rather regrettable gonads-in-the-guillotine situation.

** Sally, season 2, "Drunk Minister": "I do seem to be getting all the depressing items to announce again...in the last two weeks I have announced to the nation--three air crashes, two rail crashes, six serious fires, two motorway pile-ups...three famines... ''and a live interview with John Gummer!''"[[note]]In the Thatcher years, which abounded in creepy, heartless, self-caricaturing and generally abominable Tory politicians, John Gummer excelled in odiousness. Not only was he a right-wing Tory, he dressed his narrow-minded bigotry up in religious unctuousness, coming over like the sort of priest you'd steer your children away from. In an attempt to rehabilitate UsefulNotes/McDonalds from concern over its sourcing of ingredients, he marched ''his own children'' to the local outlet in his constituency and force-fed them burgers, announcing that if it was safe enough for his kids it was safe enough for ''everyone's''. He was never charged with child abuse...[[/note]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Henry loses his job as a newsreader, but finds a job as a late-night radio host, a job suited to his outspoken nature, and actually quite enjoys it, with a similarly-happy Dave working as his assistant. Helen is unable to find another job in the news industry so reluctantly works for her girlfriend's delivery company. It's implied she actually doesn't mind it too much, plus she delivers to her friends Henry and Dave's radio station. Sally is increasingly unable to find work due to becoming middle aged and losing most of her looks, the only reason she was popular in the first place, and resorts to marrying an incredibly rich but abusive old man, who she reveals has a weak heart and expects him to die soon so she inherits his wealth due to him being childless. Lastly Joy becomes a successful, famous and soon-to-be-rich artist, albeit a somewhat reluctant one due to her disdain for her art and art in general, only to find that she was being conned by the man who discovered her art and she was going out with who was pretty much one of the only people she'd ever felt comfortable around, resulting in her tying him up and exhibiting him naked at her new art exhibition as revenge.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Henry loses his job as a newsreader, but finds a job as a late-night radio host, a job suited to his outspoken nature, and actually quite enjoys it, with a similarly-happy Dave working as his assistant. Helen is unable to find another job in the news industry so reluctantly works for her girlfriend's delivery company. It's implied she actually doesn't mind it too much, plus she delivers to her friends Henry and Dave's radio station. Sally is increasingly unable to find work due to becoming middle aged and losing most of her looks, the only reason she was popular in the first place, and resorts to marrying an incredibly rich but abusive old man, who she reveals has a weak heart and expects him to die soon so she inherits his wealth due to him being childless. ]]

* YetAnotherBabyPanda: An alternative name for the TV news practice of "dropping the dead donkey". Often forced into the show by Gus so the program doesn't have any room for stories that criticize the conservative party or Globelink's owner, Sir Royston.