GURNING RUBBER
How Spitting Image’s grotesque Latex stars formed the best kind of puppet government
THE Queen Mother was often seen slugging from a gin bottle and following the horse racing in satirical puppet TV show Spitting Image. John Major was a bland grey puppet who loved eating peas and would say: “I hate to be a bore and everything ...” while Margaret Thatcher was famously featured wearing a man’s suit and treating her cabinet with contempt.
Liberal leader David Steel was pictured living in politician David Owen’s pocket while American president Ronald Reagan was sent on a hunt to find his own brain.
The series was created by Roger Law and Peter Fluck and they merrily mocked both celebrities and politicians. It ran for 18 series between 1984 and 1996 and was watched by 15 million viewers in its heyday.
Spitting Image returned to screens last month for the first time in 24 years when it launched on the streaming service BritBox.
A second series for autumn 2021 has now been confirmed.
Roger Law returned to head up the show’s creative team, with The Simpsons’ Jeff Westbrook serving as showrunner. Roger joked: “Steady employment at last!”
The show was a launch pad for many future household names with Harry Enfield providing the voice of Margaret Thatcher’s husband Denis (Northern comic Steve Nallon played the Iron Lady herself).
Red Dwarf’s Chris Barrie put words into the mouth of Labour leader Neil Kinnock, while both Steve Coogan and Jon Culshaw voiced John Major.
The popularity of the show saw collaborations with musicians, including Phil Collins and memorably Sting, who performed a new version of The Police hit Every Breath Your Take called Every Bomb You Make.
The show’s own holiday novelty track The Chicken Song spent three weeks at the top of the UK singles charts in 1986, featuring the suitably anarchic chorus: “Hold a chicken in the air, stick a deckchair up your nose. Buy a jumbo jet and then bury all your clothes.”