''Dead Man Weds'' is a six-part comedy series shown on ITV in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

in January and early February 2005, and repeated on ITV2. The series was written by

Dave Spikey Dave Spikey (born David Gordon Bramwell, 6 October 1951) is an English comedian, actor, writer and film producer. He is best known for his stand-up comedy, writing and starring in the British comedy programme ''Phoenix Nights'', presenting ''B ...

, who played the part of Jerry St Clair in ''

Phoenix Nights ''Phoenix Nights'' is a British sitcom about The Phoenix Club, a working men's club in the northern English town of Bolton, Greater Manchester. The show is a spin-off from the "In the Club" episode of the spoof documentary series '' That Pet ...

''. It was produced for ITV by the

Red Production Company Red Production Company is a British independent television production company owned by StudioCanal. Background Red Production Company was formed in 1998 by Nicola Shindler, a television producer who had worked on ''Our Friends in the North'' ...

, and starred Spikey and

Johnny Vegas Michael Joseph Pennington (born 5 September 1970), better known as Johnny Vegas, is an English comedian, actor, writer, and director. He is known for his thick Lancashire accent, husky voice, overweight appearance, angry comedic rants, and us ...

. The series concerns the staff of a fictional

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

, ''The Fogburrow Advertiser'', and the title of the series is a typical example of the paper's front-page headlines; Spikey saw the headline on a newspaper billboard about a man who had died but was resuscitated and then later married. The billboard did not have quote marks around the word dead, which made Spikey laugh and so he developed the sitcom from that headline. In the series, a new editor, Gordon Garden (played by Spikey), is determined to shake up the newspaper. The acting editor, Lewis Donat (played by Vegas), is convinced that he should have been made editor himself, and believes that journalism involves going on a break as soon as he gets in, stealing stories from old newspapers and getting the rest of the news from Joan at the cake shop, Cake That. The series was filmed in several locations, notably Castleton in Derbyshire. The theme music, also used as incidental music and stings throughout the series, is a version of

Jonathan King Jonathan King (born Kenneth George King; 6 December 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He first came to prominence in 1965 when "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", a song that he wrote and sang while still an undergraduate, ...

's composition " It's Good News Week", which was a hit for

Hedgehoppers Anonymous Hedgehoppers Anonymous were a 1960s beat group from the United Kingdom. They formed in November 1963 as The Trendsetters, and became ''The Hedgehoppers'' the following year. Jonathan King took over their record production in 1965, and added ''An ...

in 1965. The production company has announced that the series will not be released on DVD because of problems obtaining copyright clearance for the music used.

References

External links

* *
Red Production website
ITV sitcoms 2000s British sitcoms 2005 British television series debuts 2005 British television series endings Television series by Red Production Company {{UK-tv-prog-stub