Here’s a question for you. Exactly how many opening title sequences did Drop the Dead Donkey have? I suspect the answer is: more than you think.
After all, to answer the question properly, we can’t just go by the broadcast material. In 2005, the DVD release of the first series contained the unbroadcast pilot, shot a couple of weeks before the series made it to air. These titles had the same visuals as Series 1 of the show as broadcast, but an entirely different theme tune, by Philip Pope:
I remember the utter shock of seeing – well, hearing – those titles for the first time. Truth be told, after that initial shock wore off, I don’t mind them that much. But teletype noises not withstanding, it really feels more like a chat show theme than a news theme. Drop the Dead Donkey is probably unique as a comedy which ended up working better without a theme from Pope.
Come Series 1 proper, and we have exactly the same visuals, but with a far more fitting theme tune by Matthew Scott. This was first broadcast in “A New Dawn”, on the 9th August 1990.1
These titles lasted right throughout Series 1 and 2. Notably, they weren’t reshot when Susannah Doyle joined as Joy in the second series. Perhaps that was for the best; it gave her a chance to slowly find her way into being part of the main cast.
Come Series 3, and Haydn Gwynne as Alex has left the series, and Ingrid Lacey arrives as Helen. This time they certainly couldn’t get away with ignoring such a major cast change, and a brand new title sequence was required. The following version was first seen in “Sally’s Accountant”, broadcast on the 14th January 1993.2
This version of the opening titles lasts right through the rest of Series 3 and 4; the only time it’s not used is for the first episode of the fourth series, “The Undiscovered Country”, which starts with a beautifully shot location scene at a funeral.3
Come Series 5, and despite the lack of cast changes, we get a brand new title sequence yet again. This was first seen in “Inside the Asylum”, broadcast on the 1st October 1996.
This is probably my favourite of all the title sequences; what it loses in giving you a full wide shot of the newsroom, it gains in sheer dynamism. The opening staging with the stopwatch is particularly well-executed. And for the first time, it tells a proper little story with the journey of the tape.4
This title sequence was used for the rest of those final two series, with two exceptions. The first episode of Series 6, “The Newsmakers” – broadcast on the 28th October 1998 – was the most format-breaking show Drop the Dead Donkey ever did: a docusoap about Globelink News. Such an episode demands a brand new in-universe title sequence, and the show delivers magnificently:
The fake widescreen effect – also seen throughout the episode itself – might be my favourite touch of all. And note how those titles brilliantly use part of the “proper” title sequence as part of the background, slowed down and tinted a deep blue.
The other episode not to use the final set of titles is the very last episode of all, “The Final Chapter”, which simply uses a tasteful caption on a black background. Well, Globelink is in its death throes, after all. A busy newsroom hardly suits a company which is about to be shut down. As ever, Drop the Dead Donkey cared about such things, when so many shows don’t.5
And that’s your lot… except, it isn’t. Because I blatantly lied in the above chronology. That Series 3 title sequence I used? That was for the second episode of that series. The first episode, “In Place of Alex”6, actually has a unique title sequence, never used anywhere else in the show’s run.
Why? Because not only has Helen not been introduced yet… but the entire episode is about which of the candidates is going to become Assistant Editor. Why give the game away and have Helen striding across the newsroom in the titles, when you’re trying to tease which of the following reprobates will get the role?
Peregrine
Dave
Wilkinson
Smudger
Lindsey
Helen
Which means that the following title sequence was only ever broadcast once, on the 7th January 1993. I highly suspect most people never noticed.
Of course, this article wouldn’t be complete without comparing this title sequence to that used for the rest of Series 3:
Despite clearly both being shot in the same session, the team went to the effort of actually dressing the various cast members in different outfits, clearly indicating that the events portrayed here are meant to be on different days. Even if the events which happen are broadly the same.
After all, some days, Joy sticks her finger up at Gus, and other days she tells him to fuck off. What’s the difference?
With thanks to Iain Hepburn. This entire article is based on a tweet he sent me in 2018, if you want to know how long it takes for me to get round to writing things. Also thanks to Tanya Jones, for her usual editorial oversight.
It’s worth noting that the episode titles weren’t present on-screen on original broadcast, nor are they present on Channel 4 on-demand either. They were added specifically for the DVD release, due to some odd BBFC rule which I’ve never quite managed to get to the bottom of, as it seems self-evidently ludicrous.
Seeing as the on-demand episodes are streamed at half the frame rate that they should be, robbing the show of all immediacy, I’ll take the episodes with the added titles on the DVD, and it’s those versions I use in this article. ↩
Some episodes of Series 3 don’t leave the main DROP THE DEAD DONKEY title on-screen for quite long enough to make removing the episode title at the same time work, and so the added title lingers on the screen in an irritating fashion. They really did try to match those added episode titles up with the rest of the title sequence, so to be fair, I expect they also found it infuriating when they realised the timing problem. ↩
Sorry Gus, “burial scenario”. ↩
God bless Liddy Oldroyd, who I really must write more about one day. One of the finest sitcom directors ever. ↩
Both “The Newsmakers” and “The Final Chapter” are the only episodes of Drop the Dead Donkey to have an on-screen episode title on broadcast. ↩
This episode title is a clear reference to In Place of Strife, a famous 1969 white paper on trade unions proposed by Barbara Castle. ↩
19 comments
Kris Carter on 14 February 2025 @ 11am
This is lovely. I knew the titles had changed, but the care and effort that goes into it is just top notch. And the later titles especially just tell you EVERYTHING about these characters in no time at all, it’s genius. Damien’s ambition, George’s dithering, Dave’s a gambler and a chancer, Helen taking charge, Joy’s explosive temper, Gus’s meddling, Henry’s charm and superiority and Sally’s vanity. Plus you get a feel for the setting perfectly and it’s FUNNY. It’s absolutely brilliant.
Stephen on 14 February 2025 @ 11am
Fascinating as ever.
I enjoyed the touring version of Drop The Dead Donkey last year. I won’t spoil the identity of the owner of the new news station that had reunited the original characters. Projected photos of Haydn Gwynne and David Swift took their applause with the cast at the end.
Andy on 14 February 2025 @ 12pm
Notice also that the order of Andy Hamilton & Guy Jenkin’s names changes between each sequence. Did they try to ensure they had equal billing by swapping the order?
Leigh Graham on 14 February 2025 @ 12pm
Without actually reviewing them, the Pilot theme tune sounds (to me) like the “Wogan” chat show theme, combined with the Denis Norden era theme for “It’ll be Alright on the Night”. It’s not bad, just different!
Billy Smart on 14 February 2025 @ 1pm
A lot of preparation and direction certainly went into those sequences, which reward weekly (or videotaped repeat) viewing – few viewers could register all of the details in one sitting. I would be interested to read more about Liddy Oldroyd – I was looking her up the other day after (a particularly grumpy) Alexei Sayle was dismissive of her direction of ‘Paris’ in his podcast.
Smylers on 14 February 2025 @ 1pm
Interesting that the Helen-less episode at the start of series 3 got a special Helen-less title sequence when the Sally-less episode at the start of series 1 didn’t. (Episode 2 is called “Sally’s Arrival”.) On a recentish rewatch, it felt odd to have Sally in the titles before she existed.
I suppose they gambled that few viewers would notice when broadcast — being a new show, all the characters in the titles are unfamiliar; viewers don’t yet know their names, or even which of them have names — and if the budget only ran to a single title sequence, it makes more sense to have episode 1 with an anachronistic Sally than for her to be missing all series. And the production team presumably had enough else to be worrying about before the first ever episode (like finding some better music!), so it’s completely understandable, and reasonable, for all of series 1 to have the same title sequence. Clearly 2 series later, circumstances were different.
John J. Hoare on 14 February 2025 @ 3pm
Andy: I meant to do a proper footnote about the swapping round of Hamilton and Jenkins’ names, and then… forgot. So for the record, here’s how all that shakes out across all six series:
Series 1: First six episodes: Hamilton/Jenkin. Last four episodes: Jenkin/Hamilton.
Series 2: First six episodes: Hamilton/Jenkin. Last seven episodes: Jenkin/Hamilton.
Series 3: First eight episodes: swaps equally every episode between Hamilton/Jenkin and Jenkin/Hamilton. Last three episodes: Hamilton/Jenkin.
Series 4: It gets complicated here because five episodes are by other writers. But essentially, for the other episodes, it swaps between Jenkin/Hamilton and Jenkin/Hamilton… except that means four episodes are Hamilton/Jenkin, and only three are Jenkin/Hamilton.
Series 5: Again, half the series is by other writers, and it swaps between Hamilton/Jenkin and Jenkin/Hamilton. This time, they get three episodes each, though.
Series 6: It swaps between Hamilton/Jenkin and Jenkin/Hamilton. Four for the former, and three for the latter.
The end result of which is: Hamilton gets a total of 30 episodes where he’s credited first, and Jenkin only gets 24. How much of that is just how the cards fell, and how much of that is careful contract negotiation, I shall leave for others to judge.
There is a similar story of swapping names when it comes to Created By and Producer credits, but I’m not working all that out, do you think I’m mad?
FabianD83 on 14 February 2025 @ 6pm
Also entirely missing from the Series 1 opening titles, as well as Episode 1: Sally’s predecessor of (apparently) 15 years, Susan! Sacked offscreen shortly after her one and only scene in Episode 2, and consigned to the whispered utterances of history.
Rob Keeley on 14 February 2025 @ 7pm
You never cease to amaze me, John! I always thought there were just two title sequences, pre- and post-Helen. It’s odd that I only recognise bits of both – I think my mind merged them into one. Never noticed the one-off from the start of series 3 either.
The pilot theme was stunningly inappropriate and surely can only have been a placeholder?
The final theme was quite clearly scored to the original titles, beat for beat and note for note. It doesn’t fit any of the later titles quite as well.
Did you see the stage revival, John? It was UTTERLY BRILLIANT, and miles better than any TV ‘comedy’ on now.
Zoomy on 15 February 2025 @ 7am
This is very cool as always! I never watched DTDD much, but I find I’m familiar with the series 5 opening, and vaguely remember the series 3 one, so I obviously came into the series late in the day. Watching the original series 1 version now, all I can see is the guy who stands behind Dave and glances at the camera… :)
Andrew Wiseman on 15 February 2025 @ 8am
Wasn’t the first episode also Gus-less?
Rob Keeley on 15 February 2025 @ 8am
Gus arrived in episode 1 and Sally in episode 2. :)
John J. Hoare on 15 February 2025 @ 5pm
Actually, yes, I saw the DTDD stage show last year. It was very good indeed, so lovely to see them all again. I just hope it’s been recorded for eventual release somewhere. In an ideal world, Channel 4 would have done it…
Simon Coward on 16 February 2025 @ 10am
One further comment re the credits and their order: another difference is that in Series 2, although the writer credits swap, the producer credits remain Hamilton / Jenkin whereas for Series 3, where Jenkin is listed first as writer he’s also listed first as producer.
John J. Hoare on 16 February 2025 @ 11am
It is fascinating. It does seem that, at least by some standard, Hamilton was seen as the senior one at some point. This becomes less pronounced as the series goes on, I think.
Simon Coward on 16 February 2025 @ 12pm
For the first series, Hamilton was Producer while Jenkin was only Associate Producer. So at least on that side of things, if not the on writing, there was a clear distinction to begin with. As you say, it does become much less pronounced as time goes by.
John J. Hoare on 16 February 2025 @ 12pm
Ah, yes, I’d entirely forgotten about that!
It’s odd, you never really think about them in that way now.
Luke on 16 February 2025 @ 2pm
I remember when Sky News had an intro that was just a (pre-recorded, and so contrived) pan around their then-new newsroom. It was so (inadvertently?) reminiscent of the Drop the Dead Donkey titles that I remember someone (actually pretty certain it was you, John) saying they ought to dub the DTDD theme over it.
John J. Hoare on 16 February 2025 @ 3pm
I think it must have been! I actually tried to find a decent quality version of that opening to embed in this article, but all the clips I could find were such bad quality that I didn’t bother.
It was this one, though, from 2005: