May 2001
E4
Produced by Donna’s own company Airhead/Money Productions, Donna In Need saw her take to the streets of the UK to try and drum up some donations for local charities, with only autographs and stickers to give in return.
Loaded Magazine described Donna In Need as “self-piss-taking”, although harsher critics have objected to the fact that it has Donna’s name in the title and revolves solely around her celebrity status.
The series ran for just five episodes of half an hour each and was based on the premise of what Donna could get simply for being famous.
Memorable moments include Donna:
- trying (and failing) to hunt down John Malkovich
- convincing Newcastle City Council to dedicate a bin to her as a local hero
- bartering with a house full of students to try and blag a cardboard cutout from them
- auctioning off a lunch date on the radio – the buyer, an elderly man, paid quite a lot in the end. Donna insisted on having the dinner date off-camera, and ended up swapping numbers with him.
On The Crew:
Sean Taylor is an experienced sound supervisor and recordist with an impressive string of credits to his name. Donna In Need was just one of his projects in the early 2000s; in 2003, he also worked on The Murder Game (as did camera man Andy Clifford, who worked with Donna on 2001’s 50 Ways to Tease Your Lover).