Guy Jenkin gives comic ensembles enough character to keep us watching. His partnership with Andy Hamilton is worth following, particularly when people’s shortcomings supply the comedy; jokes tied to old news are a less reliable attraction.
Fi1m perspective
In Drop the Dead Donkey (1990), the newsroom gives everybody’s shortcomings a chance to become somebody else’s problem. Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton build a good workplace comedy from that arrangement, giving the staff enough definition to remain interesting between jokes about the news. We warmed to this lot because their failings affect the people beside them, rather than merely supplying a position in a debate. The ensemble is the reason we recommend it, with patience required for the topical material.
Jenkin came through radio and sketch writing in the late 1970s, working with Hamilton before their newsroom series. Most of each episode was written in advance, with plots, subplots and relationships established before the last-minute news references went in. That helps explain why the series remains watchable when the headlines have lost their interest. It also sets a limit on our enthusiasm: the ensemble lasts better than material that needs us to remember the news.
His contribution to Life on Mars (2006) was an episode written in 2007. We rate the series highly for its time-travel mystery, which has consequences we can feel, and the compelling pairing of John Simm and Philip Glenister. Its police stories and the arguments between the leads do begin to repeat. An episode credit matters, but the sustained work with Hamilton tells us more about how Jenkin writes.
With Outnumbered (2007), Jenkin and Hamilton moved from the workplace to the family, using semi-improvised dialogue from child actors to make domestic exchanges feel less rehearsed. That gives the children some freedom from having every word supplied by an adult. The pair extended that approach into What We Did on Our Holiday (2014), which they co-wrote and co-directed, though the film’s sitcom rhythms limit how much its more serious moments can move us. Start with Drop the Dead Donkey if good company matters more to the evening than catching every reference.
Biography
Guy Jenkin is a British comedy writer, producer and director. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and is best known for his long collaboration with Andy Hamilton on sitcoms including Drop the Dead Donkey (1990–1998) and Outnumbered (2007–2014).
Jenkin wrote the sixth episode of the second series of Life on Mars (2006). His other credits include writing and directing the 2003 film The Sleeping Dictionary and co-writing the 2014 film What We Did on Our Holiday.
