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Boris is stirring up wickedness and Trump’s started a new reign of terror as Spitting Image puts the hilarity into Halloween
ubble bubble, someone’s in trouble – and it looks like Michael Gove. The Secretary of State for Levelling Up is up to his ears in a devilish brew as Sajid Javid stirs the cauldron watched by witches Boris Johnson and his Home Secretary Priti Patel.
Meanwhile, in front of a gravestone bearing the inscription RIP Independence Referendum, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is lurking in a graveyard and brandishing the devil’s pitchfork at a disturbing green amalgam of film character Shrek and Alex Salmond, the former First Minister.
Across the Pond, US President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump have been turned into The Joker and Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town from the film The Nightmare Before Christmas, complete with pumpkin lanterns and a pile of sweets – but would you go to them for your trick-or-treat fun?
There’ll certainly be lots of laughs in the Halloween special of Spitting Image on ITV tonight. To be as current as possible, the show is worked on up to the last minute, but barring final changes the main event will be a Halloween party thrown by pop star Elton John.
Unfortunately it turns into a disaster when one of Elton’s guests – who include singer Adele, Harry and Meghan, chat show host James Corden, Oscarwinning actress Olivia Colman and chart-topper Ed Sheeran – meets a sticky end.
‘The party turns into a dark, macabre event – a murder mystery,’ says impressionist and comedian Matt Forde, the voice of Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Labour leader Keir Starmer. ‘Who could possibly be the killer?’
We can expect to see some unlikely celebrities trick-or-treating on the nation’s doorsteps in tonight’s show – as well as a spooky seance or two and even some demonic possession!
Over in Washington, ex-president Donald Trump returns to haunt his successor Joe Biden, amid real-life rumours he plans to run again for the presidency in 2024. ‘He’s the candidate who won’t go away,’ says Matt. ‘Which
makes Trump a political zombie, the man they couldn’t kill off – so he’s a character perfect for Halloween.’
Matt says the show itself, which began on ITV in 1984 and was revived after a lengthy absence from our screens in 2020, also lends itself perfectly to an annual event in which gory masks and frightening costumes are key components.
‘The puppets, from day one of the show, have been grotesque re-creations of real people, so Spitting Image has always had that air of Halloween about it. Look at how macabre the faces are – they even look like Halloween masks! So it’s appropriate we should mark the occasion itself with a very special episode.’
Spitting Image: Halloween Special, tonight, 9.30pm, ITV.