I am an American who has never seen an episode of Drop The Dead Donkey. Can someone please explain the title?
" Benny, you silly great fat article"
Its an old term meaning something like drop the old boring story and run with the new and exciting one.
A bit like hold the front page....swap the front page maybe?
'You know, it ain't altogether wise, sneaking up on a man when he's handling his weapon'
thanks :)
" Benny, you silly great fat article"
Actually, I think Darwin has it wrong. The way it was explained to me (and the term was used in the US as well) is that there is always that story that they hold on to until the end of the news broadcast to string the viewers along. In this case, it kind of has the double meaning of being the punchline as well (I think).
By the way, despite some of the comments on this board, the first season (and possibly the second) aired on American TV years ago. I can't remember for sure, but I know I saw it and wondered what happened to it. I seem to remember surprisingly, that it wasn't on PBS, but on a channel like Bravo or A&E when they showed oddball programming. Until IMDB came along, I didn't realize there were so many additional seasons. I would suspect that the humor was so topical that most of it flew by most American viewers' heads (including my own). I didn't get half of the jokes until I lived in England for a few years.
Now that the DVD's are available, I plan on buying them to watch on my multi-region player.
I just bought the first 3 series of Drop The Dead Donkey. I have alot of catching up to do.
" Benny, you silly great fat article"
I assume you bought the UK versions? Where'd you buy them from? I was surfing around to see if there were going to be any US versions, although I doubt it, since it wasn't as popular here as some other UK series were.
shareI bought them off of Amazon Uk. They are region 2 but I do have a region 2 dvd player. I don't know what I would do without one considering all my favorite shows are british shows and I am American.
" Benny, you silly great fat article"
I was just curious as to whether you'd found R1/US versions. I have a region-free player as well. While there are plenty of American shows I like, it's nice to have the flexibility. I was dying to own 'Dancing to the Music of Time,' which finally came out in a R1 version, but I've had it for years. Plus most of the British shows that were available in the UK and here at the same time cost twice as much here (mostly Acorn Media's fault). This Region thing for DVD's is one of the worst perfidies perpetrated on media/electronics today. It's absurd that they limit things this way.
I don't think all of the DTDD seasons are out yet, are they? I found a US retailer of foreign DVD's that is selling seasons 1-3.
Edit: Oops. Looks like all 6 seasons are out at Amazon UK.
I didn't find any region 1 dvds for Drop The Dead Donkey. Also, I only wanted the first three series of DTDD because I only wanted the shows with Stephen Tompkinson in them. It is interesting to see him play a not so good guy after watching him play likeable Father Peter in Ballykissangel and Trevor Purvis in Grafters.
" Benny, you silly great fat article"
All series of DTDD are available on 4od. Check out http://www.channel4.com/4od/index.html
shareI have series 4-6 on DVD, Stephen Tompkinson is in those too...
shareI wish I could recall exactly where I heard this (perhaps during a PBS airing with one of the producers), but, someone said the original show title was meant to be "Dead Belgians Don't Count" and it was just a kind of throwaway remark that one of the newsreaders might shout out just before going live to air. In other words, it's a kind of nonsensical non sequitur (both the original and the less politically incorrect DtDD title) that has since grown into a semi-legend with fake testimonials about the etymology.
Drop the Dead Donkey! Just a made up title that was meant to provoke mild shock and draw our curiosity.
Yep, according to the interviews with Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin on the DVDs, the title is entirely made-up, it's something they imagined that might be shouted out in a tense moment in a newsroom - as if there was a news item about a dead donkey that suddenly had to be cut from the running order. Since the show became popular, apparently, countless TV news bods have jumped in to claim that it's a real term, or even that they originated it, but it's bollocks.
They did want to call the show Dead Belgians Don't Count, but apparently the producers vetoed that on the grounds that it would offend Belgians who might want to syndicate the show or buy the format. It's obliquely referenced in one episode where they're discussing whether to run an item about a coach crash in Belgium or a train crash in India, and Alex cynically runs through the pecking order of how many corpses are needed to make an item relevant to a British audience: two thousand dead Indians, two hundred dead Belgians, two dead British, or one dead royal Corgi... (or words to that effect).
Oh, yes, if a pig comes by Castle Dracula on a Tuesday, playing a banjo…