Posted in: TV | Tagged: boris johnson, Britbox, dominic cummings, donald trump, dwayne johnson, elton john, greta thunberg, kevin hart, kier starmer, lewis hamilton, prince andrew, prince harry, queen, spitting image

All Spitting Image S01E01 Puppets From The Queen to Joe Biden to Greta

The new Spitting Image series has just landed on the Britbox streaming service (free 7 day trial, so if you sign up now you should be able to get two episodes before it starts costing you). As ever, it's a mixed bag when it comes to writing bit – as ever – the torrent of puppets are fantastic and a joy to be seen on the screen. Here's a look at all the figures that get rubbered-up in the new series, twenty-five years since the previous one. Some you have seen in promotional imagery – some you have not.

And how about a montage?

Spitting Image was created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn and first broadcast in February 1984, over 18 series aired on the ITV network. The series was nominated and won numerous awards, including ten BAFTA Television Awards, and two Emmy Awards in 1985 and 1986 in the Popular Arts Category. The series features puppet caricatures of contemporary celebrities and public figures, including British Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major and other politicians, US president Ronald Reagan, and the British Royal Family; the series was the first to caricature Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (as an elderly gin-drinker with a Beryl Reid voice). One of the most-watched shows of the 1980s and early 1990s, it satirised politics, entertainment, sport and British popular culture of the era. At its peak it was watched by 15 million people. The popularity of the show saw collaborations with musicians, including Phil Collins and Sting. The series was cancelled in 1996 after viewing figures declined. ITV had plans for a new series in 2006, but these were scrapped after a dispute over the Ant & Dec puppets used to host a compilation show, which were created against Roger Law's wishes. In 2018, Law donated his entire archive – including scripts, puppet moulds, drawings and recordings – to Cambridge University. In September 2019, Law announced the show would be returning with a new series, confirmed in March that the show would return on BritBox. On 11 September 2020 it was confirmed that the new series featuring 100 new puppets will debut today.

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