A hit Channel 4 sitcom is set to make a comeback, 24 years after it last appeared on screens.
Drop the Dead Donkey is returning with some of its original cast, but this time it won't be on TV.
The popular show will instead be taken onto the stage as Stephen Tompkinson will bring back his sensationalist reporter Damien Day alongside the rest of the cast.
The political satire programme followed television news company Globe Link and its team of workers such as anchors Henry and Sally, reporter Damien, editor Dave, execs George and Helen, assistant Joy and manager Gus Hedges.
It ran from 1990 till 1998 and made stars out of its cast including Neil Pearson, 64, who played a womanising sub-editor.
The stage adaptation will see the same characters trying to take on the ever changing news environment.
They will battle with artificial intelligence as well as the challenges of 24-hour rolling news.
Actor Stephen said: “What excites me the most is being back with the cast — we’ve known each other for 30-odd years and this is a whole new adventure.”
Co-creator Andy Hamilton added: “They, understandably, are going to find it hard to adapt.”
The script for the stage version will be tweaked at the last minute to keep the jokes as topical as possible.
It will tour the UK from January 2024.
The news comes just weeks after Stephen Tompkinson was found not guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm on a drunk man outside his home in May 2021.
He was accused of punching a man who suffered a double skull fracture when his head hit the pavement.
The DCI Banks actor was found not guilty of GBH but has since detailed the traumatic toll the trial took on him whilst appearing on Lorraine.
Recalling the night, the actor said: "It was about five o'clock on a Sunday morning at the end of May, beautiful day and these two chaps turned up one just dressed in his underpants and socks and his friend who was also very dishevelled...they were the definition of drunk and disorderly.
"Several other people in the street had heard the commotion.
"They were in a heck of a state, it turns out the chap was four times over the drink drive limit and so I called the police. I was worried this bottle [of alcohol] was going to break in the area where the seven year old in the house plays on the skateboard and on a bike.
"They didn't seem to be horrible in any way...So I just thought if I asked them to move on and show them that I called the police. But, then they turned a bit nasty and turned on me.
"And I stopped one of them with my open palm from advancing any further because of the state he was in, he took a tumble and fell about eight feet away from me in that direction, smacking the back of his head and got a very serious brain injury, which, no joking matter that had to be investigated."
The actor added he felt the incident could have been "investigated a lot sooner and dealt with there and then rather than wait two years".
In a cruel turn of events, Stephen and his family suffered a tragic loss just weeks after the incident when his partner Jess Johnson lost her mum and her step-dad in a deadly traffic collision.
He said: "Frankly, my problems [faded in comparison] six weeks later when Jess’ parents [were involved in a deadly collision]."
Stephen explained Jess' parents were sitting in stationary traffic when a lorry who, it was later discovered, was "sexting on his phone on an adult dating hookup site" didn't see the traffic had stopped "ploughed into them at 56 miles an hour killing them instantly and the driver in front".
