Televised on Channel Four between 1990 and 98, Drop The Dead Donkey was a satirical and topical sitcom set in the offices of GlobeLink News, a fictional TV news broadcaster. Thirty years later, the team has been brought back together in a brand-new play, which visits Birmingham theatre The Alexandra this month. What’s On spoke to Jeff Rawle, who plays George Dent, the station’s ill-fated editor, to find out more...

You’ve been on the road since January. What’s the audience response been like?
It’s been fantastic. We started out at Richmond and we sold every seat in the house, every show, and that’s continued to be the case... We’ve had about six or seven weeks on the road now, and the response has been amazing. I have to say I didn’t expect it to be quite so brilliant - there seems to have been an awful lot of love for the show, and people have booked tickets in advance not knowing quite what they were going to come and see. We get the impression that everyone’s really liking it, and we’re just thrilled to be able to get back together again.

The play, like the TV programme, is written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. How did it feel, seeing the new script?
It was amazing. I think everyone had a certain amount of trepidation, thinking ‘How can this possibly work?’ Everyone was thrilled when it really did, and it was also extremely funny. To be rejoined with that wit... we’d kind of got used to it. I looked at a couple of episodes the other night. I haven’t seen them since 1990, when we first started the show - I was 40 years old, and I’m now 73. I’ve always been very fond of the show, of course, but I thought everyone’s performances were brilliant... Now we’re back together again, it’s great to climb back on board. When we had the first read-through, it was really quite moving because we hadn’t seen each other for a great deal of time. Once we got that read-through done, they went away and worked on it a bit more, and a bit more… So over a period of a year - and I think it shows - they spent a lot of time and care on the script, and we reap the rewards of that every night.

Do you think modern politics or society has changed the way it’s been written?
It does seem to me, maybe because I’m older, that the world’s got more bonkers. It’s the same format: we have a plotline, but within that there are moments where we know there’ll be new topical material, and these are updated continually. The problem is that you have to learn it really quickly. These often fall to Neil Pearson - I don’t know why, but he seems to get the topicals. We have a meeting in a toilet at one point during the show, and I think ‘Oh god, what’s he going to say next?…’ That’s really quite exciting - you never know what’s going to be in it. The audience seem to love that - they realise that since that news story has only just broken, they’re getting the benefit of a gag that’s only just been made up half an hour ago, about something that happened half an hour ago. I think that’s a unique selling point. The people who knew the TV show will not go away disappointed. They get dealt quite a raft of new topical humour, which could only have been written on that day. You get that injection of fun, within the main plotline.

When Drop The Dead Donkey ended, GlobeLink was disbanded. Has it been resurrected, or is the team working somewhere completely new?
We’re working somewhere completely new. It’s the launch of a new news station, so we’re all rather suspicious about why we’ve been recruited - especially some of us who are in our older age… There’s a question-mark hanging, about why they’re employing us and why they’re paying us so much money. That’s where the story starts.

It’s 30 years since the TV programme started. What’s changed about news broadcasting during that time?
GlobeLink News was a pretty cockamamie, crazy place to work. Sir Royston Merchant owned the station… In 1990, the idea that someone owns a news station and they’re chasing ratings seemed barmy. Now, when you look at the new stations that are cropping up, you can see that that’s absolutely what they’re doing. You’d have thought it impossible, back in 1990, that anyone would be so brazen as to go down that route. The news should be the news, and it should be about fact finding, journalism, truth and balanced reporting. That has, to a certain extent, gone out the window.

Are you enjoying playing George again?
Yeah, it’s been great. I’ve always loved playing that character. He was so sad, and he always had such terrible luck. It’s so sweet. They’ve written that his life’s turned around and he’s got everything to play for - or so he thinks! That’s where the play starts. It isn’t long before it unravels, like one of his cardigans…

He’s a bit of a hypochondriac. How’s his health nowadays?
George’s health is actually good; he’s holding up well - but he does give a good rundown of problems he’s had in the past. We get quite a lot of graphic medical information…

You grew up in Birmingham. What’s it like revisiting the city?
I was born in Birmingham, in Handsworth Wood. I went to Cherry Orchard Primary School there, and then I went onto King Edward’s Aston grammar school. I left Birmingham when I was about 14, to Sheffield. My dad worked for GEC, and he moved up north. My mum used to go to the Alexandra Theatre every week. I’ve done plays at the Alex and the Birmingham Rep - I’ve always liked going back. It’s always very tempting to go and see the old house and wander around - but of course it’s completely different from when I was a kid. I hardly recognise any of it, but it’s always nice to return.

Do you add in any regional references when travelling around the country with Drop The Dead Donkey?
Yes - we don’t put too many in because it begins to sound a bit like a pantomime if you’re not careful, but we do. Especially if there’s something that’s happened up the road - that’s always very tempting to put in. I think everyone will get the feeling that it’s a freshly made show, for one night only. No two shows are alike - that’s probably true for any show, but with this especially you do feel like you’re getting something unique.

Drop The Dead Donkey: The Reawakening shows at The Alexandra, Birmingham, from Tuesday 16 to Saturday 20 April

By Jessica Clixby