Spitting Image to take on Trump as rebooted programme for USA
HIT SATIRICAL TV series
is to take on US president Donald Trump in a rebooted version of the show, co-creator Roger Law has revealed.
The artist was approached by US network NBC, which has since been in talks with production company Avalon, Law said.
The American spin-off is expected to be penned by US writers, although current plans will see it filmed in the UK, where the puppets will also be made.
Law has already created a puppet of President Trump for the potential show-makers, which is to go on display at Norwich’s Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts as part of a retrospective of the artist’s work.
He said he did not want to reboot the series in the UK but was tempted by the US approach “because of Trump”.
He told the Press Association: “Quite what you do I’m not sure because he satirises his self ... They seem to be quite serious, we’ve had a puppet made.”
He added: “I am a reformed old gentleman but I get very angry about things. It’s puppets, not people so you can get away with murder. You could have a pussygrabbing sketch for Christ’s sake.”
Asked if he thought the US leader and prolific Twitter user would post a critique about his puppet parody, Law said: “That’ll get a few more viewers ... He spends six hours a day watching television so of course he’ll watch it.”
Law created in the 1980s alongside Peter Fluck and the show ran for 13 years, parodying figures from Margaret Thatcher to Arthur Scargill.
The exhibition will feature an array of Law’s work, including some of the puppets as well as his work as a ceramic artist, which has seen him establish himself in Jingdezhen, one of China’s most famous porcelain centres.
He described walking through the retrospective as “like drowning”, adding: “All these images you’ve done in the past come back to haunt you.”
will run from November 18 until April 3, 2018 at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in the University of East Anglia, Norwich.