h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"The truth, sadly, is that the writers made it up. It's just something stupid that they imagined might be shouted out in the tense few minutes before a news broadcast."

What he's not explaining, however, is that "dead donkey" would have been immediately recogniseable in the late 80s as a reference to contemporary tabloid campaigns against ritual animal killings in Spain, noteably Blackie the donkey and a goat due to be thrown from a church tower. The irony lies, of course, in the unfortunate use of the word "drop" in striking the story from the running list.

As a former journalist I've always loved this series - the staff were eerily familiar from the newsrooms I'd worked in and the satire was always spot on. My teenage sons are now watching the re-runs with relish - and learning a lot of recent history!