26 – 30 March
Thirty years on – does the format still hold? For those who enjoyed the BAFTA and Emmy-winning Channel 4 series that ran from 1990-98 there will be delight that writers Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin have lost none of their sharpness in this hilarious remake, now adapted for the stage with the original cast.
The old news hounds are back, this time all hired to work for the glitzy new Truth Channel. The lure of large salaries has put the gleam back in the eye of this motley crew, who are still struggling with their various character imperfections while trying to cope in a new age of algorithmically driven news gathering. What could possibly go wrong? It’s the ‘going wrong’ that Hamilton and Jenkin exploit to great effect, with the audience often convulsed with laughter at the put-downs and asides.
As each of the original cast members enters the fray there is prolonged and warm applause from an audience clearly packed with DTDD disciples. First, it’s Jeff Rawle as newly appointed news editor George, who presents something of a kindly, bumbling figure more interested in his late life love interest than in shaping a station. A farcical opening sequence where George struggles with a voice-activated coffee machine acts as an amusing metaphor for an old hand struggling with new tech.
George is followed by Robert Duncan as Gus, the positivity-obsessed CEO who is hiding the identity of the shadowy station owners from the rest of the staff – a man totally in hock to the promptings of a ratings algorithm which he trusts will ‘liberate mankind from the tyranny of thinking’. Then it’s Neil Pearson as (dodgy) Dave Charnley, attempting to put his serial womanising and gambling addiction behind him, finding a new moral universe where quitting is always an alternative to taking dirty money, but only if absolutely necessary.
Victoria Wicks stars as the impossibly self-centred and inept Sally Smedley (a misreading of her teleprompter causing her to refer to the leader of the People’s Republic of China as President ‘Eleven’). Stephen Tomkinson still harbours delusions of journalistic glory as Damien, still armed with his iconic teddy Dimbles; Ingrid Lacey burns with indignation as the taken-for-granted assistant editor Helen before sealing revenge against the uber-ambitious Mairead (Julia Hills). Susannah Doyle plays the newly promoted Joy Merriweather, now a leather-clad, take-no-prisoners head of HR, while Kerena Jagpal is intern weather girl Rita, who proves to be the only one with any moral conviction amongst the lot of them.
As the truth about Truth is outed, the moral dilemmas inject yet more urgency into the staff gossip. Hamilton and Jenkin have obviously hugely enjoyed themselves here with references to the bad guys in plain sight – GB News, Trump, Braverman, Kim Jong Un – being just a few of the darker influences in their sights, while also having great fun at the expense of this last-chance-saloon cluster of ageing, compromised journos.
Peter McKintosh’s slick set, a pristine news studio complete with Truth branding and a screen that features Dan Light’s video clips and social media comments, compliments Derek Bond’s fast-paced direction.
DTDD – The Reawakening is sure to please the converts that come out to see it on its 12-venue tour. But the spark in Hamilton and Jenkin’s witty script should win over new audiences who will enjoy watching malfunctioning humans getting by in a world dominated by unforgiving AI. It’s a dystopia, but a very funny one.
★★★★☆ Simon Bishop, 27 March 2024
Photo credit: Manuel Harlan
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