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Spitting Image

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For the 1998 book by Jerry Lembecke, see The Spitting Image.
Spitting Image
Spitting Image album cover for "Da Do Run Ron" satirical parody of Ronald Reagan
GenrePolitical satire
Shock value
Voices ofChris Barrie
Harry Enfield
Jon Glover
Louise Gold
Steve Nallon
Kate Robbins
John Sessions
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of series18
No. of episodes132
Production
ProducersPozzitive Television
Spitting Image Productions
Central Independent Television
Running time30 to 60 minutes
Original release
NetworkITV
Release26 February 1984 –
18 February 1996

Spitting Image is a British satirical puppet show that aired on the ITV network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central Independent Television. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one for editing in 1989.

The series featured puppet caricatures of celebrities famous in the 1980s and 1990s. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, American president Ronald Reagan, and the British Royal Family were the most prominent targets.

History

Development

Martin Lambie-Nairn proposed a satirical television show featuring puppets to Peter Fluck and Roger Law, two illustrators and sculptors who worked mostly for print. The puppets, caricaturing public figures, were designed by Fluck and Law. They were assisted by caricaturists including David Stoten, Pablo Bach, Steve Bendelack and Tim Watts. Musical parodies were by Philip Pope (former member of Who Dares Wins and The Hee Bee Gee Bees) and later Steve Brown (who appeared as bandleader Glen Ponder in Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge.

Beginnings

Fluck and Law had no television experience, but had for several years constructed plasticine caricatures to illustrate articles in the Sunday Times Magazine. They brought in comedy writer and National Lampoon editor Tony Hendra, whom they had met while working in the United States. Hendra brought in John Lloyd, producer of Not The Nine O'Clock News. They were joined by Jon Blair, a documentary producer. They then hired Muppet puppeteer Louise Gold. Development was funded by Clive Sinclair. At the start, in 1984 and 1985, the show was not doing well and was nearly cancelled. Several politicians found their characterisations offensive, although in subsequent interviews many were glad of the attention.[citation needed] Rob Grant and Doug Naylor were brought in as head writers to save the show. By 1986, under their supervision, Spitting Image had become popular, producing a Number 1 hit but the pair left to create Red Dwarf for BBC2.

The show had a short-running dispute with the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) in 1985 over use of subliminal images.

Production

Shows were recorded at Central's studios in Nottingham with last minute additions being recorded at the Limehouse Studios at Canary Wharf, London. It was at these latter facilities that Spitting Image Productions were based.

Evolution

When Thatcher resigned in November 1990, her successor was John Major. This marked a shift in the show's style with the writers moving from the Punch and Judy style to more subtle and atmospheric sketches, notably a series in which an awkward John and Norma Major ate peas for dinner. The producers dressed Major, skin and all, in shades of grey. They invented an affair between him and Virginia Bottomley. It emerged later that Major had indeed had an affair, but with Edwina Currie (who the writers had considered using).

The show added animated sketches from 1989 and again from 1994 (with short, animated segments before 1989). Most notable was a studio audience for the 1992 Election Special, a format which was revisited for two episodes in late 1993. A spoof Question Time took questions from the audience. The 1992 show was fronted by a puppet Robin Day, a puppet Jeremy Paxman filling the role in the episodes broadcast on 14 November 1993 and 12 December 1993. The 1992 Election Special was the first time Spitting Image had been performed to a studio audience.

(Note: the first episode of Spitting Image, in 1984, aired with a laugh track, apparently at the insistence of Central Television. This episode was shown to a preview audience before transmission.)[1]

Decline

The writers, Mark Burton, John O'Farrell, Pete Sinclair and Stuart Silver quit the show in 1993 and in 1995, and with viewing figures in decline, production was cancelled. The final series was in January and February 1996. The final episode featured "The Last Prophecies of Spitting Image" in which Labour moved into Number 10.

ITV's plans for a new series were scrapped in 2006 after a dispute over Ant & Dec puppets. The puppets were used to host the reviews "Best Ever Spitting Image" against Roger Law's wishes.[2]

Broadcast dates

All episodes and specials were broadcast on Sunday, usually at 10pm.

The programme was also picked up overseas. It aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Sunday nights in the late 1980s. The American network NBC aired several prime-time specials in the same period.

Series

Series Year Dates No. episodes Times
Series 1 1984 26 February - 17 June 12 episodes Mostly 10pm
Series 2 1985 6 January - 24 March 11 episodes Mostly 10pm
Series 3 1986 6 January - 2 Nov 18 episodes Mostly 10pm
Series 4 1987 1 November - 6 December 6 episodes Mostly 10pm
Series 5 1988 6 November - 11 December 6 episodes Mostly 10pm
Series 6 1989 11 June - 9 July 5 episodes Mostly 9.30pm
Series 7 1989 12 November - 17 December 6 episodes Mostly 10.05pm
Series 8 1990 13 May - 24 June 6 episodes Mostly 10.05pm
Series 9 1990 11 November - 16 December 6 episodes Mostly 10.05pm
Series 10 1991 14 April - 19 May 6 episodes Mostly 10.05pm
Series 11 1991 10 November - 15 December 6 episodes Mostly 10.05pm
Series 12 1992 12 April - 17 May 6 episodes Mostly 10.05pm
Series 13 1992 4 October - 8 November 6 episodes 10.05pm
Series 14 1993 16 May - 20 June 6 episodes 10.45pm
Series 15 1993 7 November - 12 December 6 episodes 10pm
Series 16 1994 1 May - 5 June 6 episodes 10pm
Series 17 1994 6 November - 18 December 7 episodes 10pm
Series 18 1996 14 January - 18 February 6 episodes Mostly 11.15pm

Specials

Title Year Date Times Duration
Down And Out In The White House 1986 14 September 9.45pm 45 minutes
The Spitting Image 1987 Movie Awards 1987 Saturday 4 April 10.45pm 30 minutes
Election Special 1987 Thursday 11 June 10pm 45 minutes
A Non-Denominational Spitting Image Holiday Special 1987 27 December 10pm 30 minutes
The Ronnie And Nancy Show 1988 17 April 9.30pm 30 minutes
Bumbledown - The Life and Times of Ronald Reagan 1988 Saturday 29 October 10.15pm 45 minutes
The Sound Of Maggie 1989 Saturday 6 May 10.10pm 45 minutes
Election Special 1992 Wednesday 8 April 10.40pm 30 minutes
The Spitting Image Pantomime 1993 26 December 10pm 30 minutes
Ye Olde Spitting Image 1995 1 January 10.45pm 30 minutes

Legacy and repeats

From October 1996 to January 1998, Spitting Image Series 1-11 were on UK GOLD, repeated on UK GOLD from January to September 1998 but shown three times per week. Edited episodes from Series 1-3 and 7 were on Granada Plus from 2001-2003.

Most of the puppets were sold online at an auction hosted by Sotheby's, including a puppet of Osama Bin Laden never used in the series.

On 25 June 2006, ITV transmitted Best Ever Spitting Image. Speculation that a new series would follow was dismissed.[3]

In February 2008, Comedy Central Extra started showing regular repeats of Spitting Image from 9pm on Tuesday evenings, with a whole weekend's worth of evenings devoted to the first two series.

From 2001 to 2004 the ITV series 2DTV had a similar style, but using computer animation instead of puppets.

Characters

Politicians

Many British politicians were parodied. By far the most prominent was Margaret Thatcher, portrayed as a bullying tyrant and cross-dresser (she wore suits, used the urinals and was portrayed as a cigar-chomper). The Thatcher puppet had dislike of anything French (agreeing with Hitler about 'teaching those Frenchies where to go' and throwing an apple out the window because it was French).

Alongside Thatcher were her Cabinet, which included:

John Major was portrayed as a dull, boring grey character who enjoyed a meal of peas with his wife Norma and was constantly mocked by Humphrey, the Downing Street cat. Before Thatcher's resignation, Major had been portrayed as robotic with a spinning antenna on his head (it was explained in a sketch that Thatcher used it to control Major, standing behind Thatcher in the crowd of sycophantic cabinet members, eager to repeat whatever the Thatcher puppet screeched).

On the other side were:

  • Neil Kinnock, the 'Welsh Windbag', talking for hours about anything other than policies.
  • Roy Hattersley, spitting with every word thanks to his lisp (on 'Best Ever Spitting Image', Hattersley praised his puppet for 'putting the spit into Spitting Image').
  • Michael Foot, aged and senile, ending sentences with "Yes! Argh!".
  • Tony Benn, a rampant socialist with eyes that never looked in the same direction.
  • Ken Livingstone, whose living room was filled with salamanders and snakes.
  • Denis Healey, with giant eyebrows, always helping Kinnock to look a fool.
  • Gerald Kaufman, portrayed as a Hannibal Lecter-style maniac.

Arthur Scargill, who was a member of the Labour Party until 1997, appeared as head of the National Union of Mineworkers, and was portrayed as a big-nosed egotist ignorant about mining.

In 1994, a puppet Tony Blair made his appearance. He was originally a public school boy, wearing grey shorts, blazer and cap. His catchphrase was "I'M THE LEADER" in reference to his attempt to lead the Labour Party. When Blair did become Labour leader, the puppet changed and he was portrayed with his grin replaced with an even bigger smile if he said something of importance. The deputy leader, John Prescott, was portrayed as a fat bumbling assistant, along with a squeaky voiced Robin Cook, and an enormous glasses-wearing Jack Straw.

The SDP-Liberal Alliance was portrayed by the election-losing, populist, arrogant and undecided David Owen, with whining, bedwetting David Steel in his pocket. They were soon replaced by Paddy Ashdown, whose "equidistance" from the larger parties was satirised by his frequent appearance at the side of the screen during unrelated sketches, saying: "I am neither in this sketch nor not in it, but somewhere in-between". This running gag was used when Ashdown's extramarital affair was revealed, and his puppet commented that "I didn't touch her on the left leg, or the right leg, but somewhere in-between."

Royal Family

The Queen wore a CND badge, always seemed slightly mad and picked clothes from rubbish bins, The Duke of Edinburgh was a blunderbuss-toting Greek-obsessed buffoon in naval uniform, The Prince of Wales was a pseudo-hippie then a taxi driver in later episodes, and the Princess of Wales was a publicity-hungry Sloane Ranger. There was also playboy Prince Andrew, Duke of York, horsey Princess Royal, petulant teenager Prince Edward, tipsy Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, truffle-snuffling "Fergie" (The Duchess of York), and senile Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who was generally seen with a bottle of Gordon's Gin, a copy of the Racing Post and a Beryl Reid voice; this was a running joke from a sketch in which the Royal Family's desire to conceal her Birmingham accent was the reason she was very seldom heard speaking on television.

International politicians

Spitting Image lampooned US President Ronald Reagan as a bumbling, nuke-obsessed fool. Next to his bed were red buttons labelled 'Nuke' and 'Nurse'. His wife Nancy was the butt of cosmetic surgery jokes. Other international caricatures included the womanising banjo-playing Pope John Paul II, who spoke with a Texan accent.

Sport

England manager Bobby Robson was a senile worrier nicknamed 'Rubbisho'. Player Paul Gascoigne appeared, frequently crying - a parody of the World Cup semi-final against West Germany in which he famously cried after being booked, which would have ruled him out of the final had England won the game. Ian Botham was a violent drug addict, while Mike Gatting spoke with a high voice. Lester Piggott had to be subtitled. Boxing characters included Frank Bruno with his trademark laugh and catchphrase "where's 'Arry?", and Chris Eubank, with his lisp. Steve Davis was boring, upset because he had no nickname, but thought himself interesting.

Celebrities

News reporters were also depicted. Alastair Burnet was sycophantic towards the Royal Family and with a nose that inflated. Sandy Gall was effeminate, always worrying what coat he would wear. John Cole was incomprehensible and had to be dragged off-screen when he talked too long. Nicholas Witchell was always turning up during a strike to work rather than report. Kate Adie was a thrill-seeker, BBC Head of Bravery. Jeremy Paxman appeared as uninterested and self-loving.

Frank Bough was portrayed as stoned, while Selina Scott was thick. Terry Wogan was all-Irish ("top o' the ratings to y'!"), and Bernard Manning an obese racist. Bruce Forsyth, who spoke every sentence as though it was a catchphrase. Film critic Barry Norman was not a fan of his puppet, because it had a wart on its forehead. Paul Daniels did not mind jokes about his toupée but took offence to a sketch depicting him nuzzling his assistant Debbie McGee's breasts.

A Mick Jagger character seemed perpetually high, and Keith Richards so old and haggard that he thought he was dead. Ringo Starr was a drunkard, and Paul McCartney was always releasing albums and films that flopped. Madonna changed her hair and clothes with every episode, and Michael Jackson's skin turned lighter. Dustin Hoffman spoke nasally and was parodied for his method acting. John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier were lamenting their friends, even their own death. Sylvester Stallone was all-brawn but no-brain, and Arnold Schwarzenegger muscle-bound but insecure about the size of his genitals.

Rubber News

Main article: Rubber News

Rubber News was a recurring short news feature screened as one of the sketches during the programme. Rubber News first appeared on episode 7 of series 1, which aired on 13 May 1984.

The songs

The first single from Spitting Image, released in 1984, was a rework of the Crystals' Da Do Ron Ron. The Spitting Image version, Da Do Run Ron, was a spoof election campaign song for Ronald Reagan, featuring Nancy Reagan listing reasons why "you gotta re-elect him", with lyrics like "Yeah! He can really act, Yeah! He lowered income tax, Yeah! He hates the Warsaw Pact". The cover of the single featured Reagan as a biker with Nancy riding pillion.

The B-side of this single was another rework of an existing song, namely Just A Girl Who Can't Say No from the musical Oklahoma. The Spitting Image team's version was entitled Just A Prince Who Can't Say No and poked fun at the sexual indiscretions of The Prince Andrew.[6]

In 1986, the Spitting Image puppets had a number one hit in the UK charts with "The Chicken Song", parodying "Agadoo" by Black Lace – one of several parodies to have featured in the programme, mimicking moronic holiday songs with an annoyingly unforgettable tune and completely nonsensical lyrics. The Chicken Song hit number 1 in the charts for 3 weeks from 17 May 1986 – 3 June 1986 and VH1 US named it as one of the worst number 1 nominations.

The other songs released by Spitting Image were "I've Never Met a Nice South African" (which was on the B-Side of "The Chicken Song" and was a savage indictment of the apartheid-ridden country), "We're Scared Of Bob" and "Hello You Must Be Going" (on the 12" release of The Chicken Song), "Santa Claus Is On The Dole" (backed with "The Atheist Tabernacle Choir"), "The Christmas Singles" and "Cry Gazza Cry". "The Chicken Song" was by far the most successful of all of their music and not-so-subtle references were made to it in subsequent sketches in the show itself. In 1986, a compilation LP "Spit In Your Ear" was produced, featuring some of their sketches over time along with a few of their songs, followed in 1990 by "20 Great Golden Gobs", a songs-only collection from the 1986-1990 series.

In 1986, the Spitting Image team experienced some "real" musical success when they created the video for "Land of Confusion" by Genesis, a song which implied that Thatcher and Reagan were about to bring the world to a nuclear war. Phil Collins saw a disfigured version of himself on the show and contacted the show's producers with the idea to produce the video. The video was depicted as a nightmare Reagan was having, which left him completely immersed in sweat from worrying.

The end of the 1987 election featured a young boy, dressed as a city banker, singing "Tomorrow Belongs To Me", a parody of the film Cabaret, when a member of the Hitler Youth starts singing the same song. In a season 5 episode, Labour leader Neil Kinnock is portrayed singing a self-parody to the tune "My eyes are fully open" from Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore, supported by members of his shadow cabinet.[7]

In one instance Sting was persuaded to sing a re-worded version of "Every Breath You Take", titled "Every Bomb You Make", to accompany a video showing the Spitting Image puppets of world leaders and political figures of the day, usually with the figure matching the altered lyrics "Every wall you build, Every one you've killed, Every grave you've filled, all the blood you've spilled, I'll be watching you." The video ended with the grim reaper appearing in front of a sunset. This version was due to be resurrected by Sting at the Live8 concert, and the parody lyrics were cleared with their writers Quentin Reynolds and James Glen, but plans were abandoned at the last minute.

Other musical parodies featured Michael Jackson, Kylie Minogue, The Monkees, Pulp, Brett Anderson of Suede, Pet Shop Boys, Elvis Presley , Oasis, ZZ Top, Prince and Barbra Streisand.

Video and DVD releases

The programme was first released on video in 1986 in a series of three collections, each a compilation of material from the first two series: Spit - With Polish!, A Floppy Mass Of Blubber & Rubber Thingies. All carried a 15 certificate and were reissued in 1988, also as a box set. 1989 saw the release by Central Video of two complete specials, Bumbledown: The Life & Times Of Ronald Reagan and The Sound Of Maggie. Next was a video containing a collection of the music videos from the programme, titled "The Klassik Music Video Vol 1", released in 1991 by Central Video under The Video Collection Ltd (VCI or 2entertain); there was never a Volume 2.

"Is Nothing Sacred?" was released in 1992 by Surprise Video, compiling material from 1990-1991. The free booklet was written by Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. Havin' It Off: The Bonker's Guide was released in 1993. In 1996 FA to Fairplay was released on VHS, later reissued on DVD in 2005. Made specially for video, it provided an alternative look at the 1996 European football championship held in England.

The Ronald Reagan song "Da Do Ron Ron" featured in a straight to video release called Rockin' Ronnie (1986), an otherwise unrelated compilation of movie clips released by ATI Video.

The first eight series including An 11-disc set (containing the first 7 series broadcast 1984-89) have been released by Network, so far.[8] DVD releases do not included any of the specials made. Series 9 is due to be the next release in 2012.

DVD release dates

DVD Discs Year Ep. # Release Date
Region 2
Complete Series 1 2 1984 12 28 January 2008
Complete Series 2 2 1985 11 28 July 2008
Complete Series 3 3 1986 18 29 September 2008
Complete Series 4 1 1987 6 3 November 2008
Complete Series 5 1 1988 6 23 March 2009
Complete Series 6 1 1989 5 11 May 2009
Complete Series 7 1 1989 6 17 August 2009
Complete Series 8 1 1990 6 19 October 2009
Complete Series 1–7 11 1984–1989 64 2 November 2009

Staff

Spitting Image launched the careers of and featured many then-unknown British comedians and actors, most notably Hugh Dennis, Steve Coogan and Harry Enfield.[9]

Creators

Voices

The voices were provided by British impressionists including:

Performers

The puppets were operated by popular British performers, including:

Writers


Producers

Directors

Production assistants

Archive researchers

Costumes

Similar shows elsewhere

Argentina

A political satire programme called Kanal K was aired by Canal 13 during the early 1990s. The show was (theoretically) cancelled after a serious row with the Catholic Church over Kanal K's puppet of Pope John Paul II saying "va fangulo" (meaning "fuck you" in Italian). Unofficial rumors say that Kanal K was cancelled on behalf of former President Carlos Saúl Menem because the programme depicted him in a derisive manner. However, this version was never officially confirmed. Besides, the former president is known as a person with an ample sense of humour.

Australia
Azerbaijan
  • Kuklalar was a short-life week-end show on Lider TV, similar to Russian NTV's Kukly. Only Azerbaijan opposition leaders and celebrities' puppets were presented in the program. Puppets-making and filming were both made in Kukly's base in Moscow, while script, voicing, and editing were made in Baku.
Bulgaria
  • Talking Heads (TV7)
Brazil
Canada (Quebec)
  • Et Dieu créa… Laflaque[1]
Catalonia
Chile

During the 1990s, an imitation of the Spitting Image show, called Los Toppins, was aired on the television network Megavision. More successful, although oriented to a younger audience was the 31 Minutos show, which aired on TVN.

Colombia
Czech Republic
France
Finland
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
India
Israel
Italy
Japan
  • Spitting Image Japan (Fuji Television) - aired in the program Raster Tunnels 94 in 1994 and followed the same format as Spitting Image but satirised Japanese politicians instead.
Malta
  • Teletubi (One TV) A puopet show that poked fun at local politicians and celebrities. Was banned but the puppets still make the odd appearance on TV.
Mexico
New Zealand
  • Public Eye - aired in the 1980s and followed the same format as Spitting Image but satirised NZ politicians instead. Facelift (tv show)
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Serbia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland

In the United States

See also: List of British TV shows remade for the American market

In an attempt to crack the American market, there were some attempts to produce a US version of the show. A 45-minute 'made for market' show by the original Spitting Image team, entitled Spitting Image: Down And Out In The White House was produced in 1986 by Central for the NBC network.

Introduced by David Frost, it departed from the sketch-based format in favour of an overall storyline involving the upcoming (at that time) Presidential election. The plot involved a conspiracy to replace Ronald Reagan with a double (actually actor Dustin Hoffman in disguise). This plan was hatched by the Famous Corporation, a cabal of the ultra-rich headed by Johnny Carson's foil Ed McMahon (in the show, Carson was his ineffectual left-hand man) who met in a secret cavern hollowed out behind the façade of Mount Rushmore. Eventually, their plot foiled, the famous corporation activated their escape pod - Abraham Lincoln's nose - and left Earth for another planet, but (in a homage to the beginning of the Star Wars movies) were destroyed during a collision with 'a nonsensical prologue in gigantic lettering'.

The show was not very successful with its target audience, possibly because its humour was still very British and it was so irreverent about Ronald Reagan at a time when he was enormously popular with the American public. It did, however, receive great praise from critics and it was followed by several more television specials: The Ronnie & Nancy Show (also satirising the Reagans), The 1987 Movie Awards (sending up the Academy Awards), Bumbledown: The Life and Times of Ronald Reagan (a quasi-documentary about the President), and The Sound of Maggie (a musical based very loosely on West Side Story).

The Canadian puppeteers Sid and Marty Krofft later had a degree of success with a vaguely satirical show called D.C. Follies which ran from 1987 to 1989, was clearly inspired by Spitting Image, but was far less acerbic in its humour.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://broken-tv.blogspot.com/2009/11/latex-lampoonery-spitting-image.html
  2. ^ http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a39486/ant-and-dec-stunt-ends-spitting-image-return.html
  3. ^ "Entertainment | Spitting Image back in spotlight". BBC. BBC News. 2006-02-20. Retrieved 2009-03-16.
  4. ^ Comedy Connections: Spitting Image
  5. ^ Best Ever Spitting Image
  6. ^ Da Do Run Ron on http://www.qsulis.demon.co.uk/Website_Louise_Gold/
  7. ^ "Neil Kinnock in Spitting Image - Series 5", 1988, YouTube, uploaded 26 March 2009, accessed 16 January 2012
  8. ^ "Spitting Image: The Complete Series 1". Network DVD. Retrieved 2007-12-07.
  9. ^ "Impressions are back in fashion: The great pretenders". guardian.co.uk. 30 September 2003.
  • Chester, Lewis. Tooth & Claw - The Inside Story of Spitting Image, Faber and Faber, 1986 ISBN 0-571-14557-4
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