Shakespeare meets Sherlock in a real comedy of errors

As he publishes his brilliant literary detective debut, Drop The Dead Donkey co-creator Guy Jenkin reflects on the obstacles facing comedy writers, taking on serious issues like cancer... and being Outnumbered by Gavin and Stacey in the Christmas ratings

- By James Rampton

WE OFTEN hear of comedy writers worrying about self-censorship so they don't upset the so-called "wokerati" yet Guy Jenkin doesn't see it that way.

The key issue, he believes, is we're simply not making enough comedy anymore.

And he should know as the man behind some of TV's most memorable sitcoms, from groundbreaking satire Not the Nine O'Clock News to the dry wit of the Brockman family in Outnumbered. He is also the co-creator of smash-hit Nineties comedy Drop the Dead Donkey about a dysfunctional TV newsroom.

And 30 years on, it's still leaving audiences in stitches thanks to a recent stage revival - with original cast members Robert Duncan as jargon-spouting chief executive Gus Hedges, Neil Pearson as womanising sub-editor Dave Charnley and Stephen Tompkinson as amoral reporter Damien Day.

"We got a lot of comedy mileage from how some of the original characters hadn't changed or adapted. They were horrifically unwoke on occasion, but only in the way that some people from that generation are," smiles Guy about the series he co-wrote with long-time collaborator Andy Hamilton.

"Those characters would be like that because several of them are not very good at looking into their own souls.

He believes a near-the-knuckle series such as Drop the Dead Donkey could still be produced today. "It reflected that time. Andy and I always try to reflect the time we're writing about."

As to the likes of John Cleese and Jerry Seinfeld who think wokeism has killed off comedy, the writer, 69, says: "People always say you can't write comedy now because everything has to be woke, but you can. Probably the whole woke world will, in the end, be a great starting point for a comedy.

"The real problem is that people aren't making enough comedy. It's nothing to do with it being woke or not; it's to do with it not being commissioned enough."