2020 Satirical television puppet show
British TV series or programme
Spitting Image is a British satirical television puppet show, based on the 1984 series of the same name created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. Similar to the original, the series features puppet caricatures of contemporary celebrities, such as Adele, James Corden, and Kanye West, as well as public figures, including former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, several Conservative cabinet members such as Michael Gove, Dominic Raab and Priti Patel, and former US President Donald Trump.
ITV had plans for a reboot in 2006, but these were scrapped after a dispute over the Ant & Dec puppets used to host Best Ever Spitting Image, which were created against Law's wishes.[2] In September 2019, Law announced the show would be returning with a new series.[3] It was confirmed in March 2020 that the show would return on BritBox.[4] Featuring 100 new puppets, the series debuted on 3 October that year.[5] It was renewed for a second series four days later.[6] The second series premiered on 11 September 2021.[7] The show was cancelled by ITV on 24 October 2022.[8]
Characters
Politicians
Many British politicians were parodied in the show. Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was most prominent, portrayed as a bumbling idiot often manipulated by Chief Advisor Dominic Cummings.
Alongside Johnson was his Cabinet, which included:
- Dominic Raab, a martial arts fanatic and unable to name countries on a globe despite being Foreign Secretary.[9] Depicted as incompetent and frequently on holiday; this references real life, when Raab was abroad on holiday in Crete during the Fall of Kabul.[10]
- Priti Patel, portrayed as a vampire. Bullied the rest of the cabinet and idolised Margaret Thatcher.
- Dominic Cummings, an alien from the planet Epsilon 5 who was stranded in Durham.[11] He is able to read and control people's minds and often manipulates Johnson to get his own way, once even attempting to devour his child.[12]
- Rishi Sunak, a billionaire who is depicted as the most popular of the cabinet ministers. He referred to himself as "Dishy Rishi" and was extremely vain and arrogant,[13] expressing interest in becoming Prime Minister.[14]
- Michael Gove, depicted as disloyal to the prime minister and addicted to drugs,[15][16] shown attempting to overthrow Johnson and Cummings on multiple occasions.[13] He was often seen dancing, which referenced a video where Gove was filmed in a nightclub.
- Matt Hancock, a wimp who hid whenever confronted with an uncomfortable situation.[17]
- Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and described by Patel as "a massive egghead".[9]
- Liz Truss, Foreign Secretary.
The Opposition (Labour Party) puppets included
Nicola Sturgeon was depicted as an independence-obsessed Scottish nationalist. She appeared at UEFA Euro 2020 in Braveheart-style facepaint and assaulted the Boris Johnson puppet with a headbutt whilst shouting, "Glasgow kiss!"[20] Her predecessor, Alex Salmond, was depicted as a Shrek lookalike.[21]
Royal Family
The main characters were:
- Elizabeth II: Portrayed as a maddened old lady who often used profane language and had a strong dislike of Canada.[22] She was dismissive of her children, including Charles, and disapproved of Dominic Raab, describing him as "a complete waste of space."[23]
- Charles, Prince of Wales: Portrayed as fed up with waiting to be king; so much so that when Elizabeth entered a coma he declared himself king.[24]
- Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall: Charles's wife.
- Prince William, Duke of Cambridge : Very charitable, politically correct and environmentally friendly; encouraged people to wash out their bean tins before putting them in the bin,[25] spent money to protect the environment, not "wasting it on space rockets like Jeff Bezos or William Shatner", and convinced Elizabeth to write a letter to Leylah Fernandez, as "you're the queen of Canada too, grandmama."[22]
- Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge: Shown wearing elaborate and sometimes ridiculous outfits, such as a large hat fashioned from balloons (referencing Party Pieces)[24] and a dress decorated with "feathers from a swan that was savaged by a corgi."[25]
Other members who were parodied included the badly-educated Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex,[26] his wife and former actress Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Andrew, Duke of York, who was hit with a wooden plank every time he appeared on screen.[27]
International politicians
US President Donald Trump was portrayed as a childish, gluttonous moron at odds with his constantly tired and exasperated vice president, Mike Pence. He was characterised as being unable to read, he tweeted from his bed with his sentient anus, and the colour of his complexion was credited to a coating of ketchup that covered his face.[28] Trump was also depicted as being bald and his wig being a small animal that could crawl off his head and obey his commands.[29] His wife, Melania Trump was shown as despising the role of First Lady and showed utter contempt and coldness towards her husband.[30][31]
Joe Biden was portrayed as old, forgetful and unaware that he was president.[32] He invoked the 25th Amendment to make Kamala Harris acting president whenever he went to the toilet, as "at my age that could take a while".[33]
Vladimir Putin was portrayed as a tiny megalomaniac sitting on a throne. He poisoned people for entertainment and displayed a clear disregard for human life. In one sketch, he tried to make the COVID-19 puppet Prime Minister of Russia, stating that "every five years, we switch jobs. But I am always in charge." In Spitting Image, Russia was shown as a severely underdeveloped nation which was only beginning to grasp technology from the 1930s, including tape recorders and walkie-talkies being described by Putin as "all the best Russia has to offer".[34]
Jacinda Ardern was overprotective of her country and implements a nationwide lockdown every time there was a single COVID-19 case reported in New Zealand.
Nancy Pelosi pandered to whatever minority group she met in a desperate bid to get votes as a result of being afflicted with "panderitis".[35]
Jared Kushner was a lifeless mannequin paraded around by Ivanka Trump and sarcastically described by Donald Trump as "that dynamo of energy and excitement, Jared Kushner!"[36]
Other international caricatures included Barack Obama,[32] Ivanka Trump, Mitch McConnell, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, Narendra Modi, Scott Morrison, Xi Jinping[37] and Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
Sport
England manager Gareth Southgate was overly woke, Harry Kane spoke with a prominent lisp, Phil Foden was a womaniser and Marcus Rashford was ignored and shunned by the rest of his team.[38] Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp was exceedingly cheerful, optimistic and friendly, sometimes even to his disadvantage.[39][40]
Golfer Tiger Woods was also portrayed as very calm, even under circumstances that would greatly irritate others.[41]
Other sportspeople satirized on Spitting Image included fitness coach Joe Wicks, former professional footballer Micah Richards and professional tennis player Emma Raducanu.
Celebrities
Actors
Many actors were also lampooned. Tom Cruise was a scientologist unable to tell the difference between his films and real life;[42][43] Gwyneth Paltrow sold increasingly odd products;[37] Brad Pitt was overly emotional;[44] Idris Elba employed unusual interrogation tactics;[39] Olivia Colman won everything that she entered;[34] Daniel Craig was perplexed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge's lack of subtlety[45] and Kevin Hart was tiny and in the pocket of Dwayne Johnson.[46]
Musicians
A Paul McCartney character was washed-up, phony and cheap, making substandard new songs in desperation to get another hit,[47] and Adele was portrayed as a brash philanthropist with a very deep voice;[48] Billie Eilish was relaxed with unintelligible speech and required subtitles to be understood;[37][49] Elton John was satirized wearing ruffles and huge, square glasses, whilst Ed Sheeran had a West Country accent and – in the trailer – had "carrots sprouting from (his) head" (an allusion to Sheeran's red hair) before this was changed at risk of offending viewers.[50] Kanye West was an egotist who declares himself "Ruler of Earth" in reference to his 2020 presidential campaign.[37]
Other musicians parodied on the show included Grimes, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande, and Taylor Swift.[46]
Production
In April 2017, it was reported that US broadcaster HBO was set to revive the series in light of the presidency of Donald Trump. However, no immediate official confirmation or announcement was made.[65] In September 2019, the show was confirmed to be returning to screens twenty-three years after it originally ended, with the unveiling of the puppets of Trump, Vladimir Putin, Mark Zuckerberg, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.[66] Roger Law stated that the pilot for the new series had been filmed and that talks were in progress with US networks to take the show to a larger, global audience.[3] According to Law, the revival is set to have a global appeal through a "uniquely British eye".[4] Originally NBC was set to distribute the series stateside, however they backed out weeks before its initial broadcast. Executive producer Jon Thoday cited their "nervousness" with the series' content as the reason for their departure.[67]
The writers for the revival include Jeff Westbrook, Al Murray, The Windsors creators Bert Tyler-Moore and George Jeffrie, Bill Odenkirk, David X. Cohen, Jason Hazeley, Keisha Zollar, Patric Verrone, Phil Wang, and Sophie Duker.[68]
On 4 March 2020, the show was announced to be returning on the streaming service BritBox, as its first official commission.[4] The show premiered on the service on 3 October 2020, featuring the voice talents of Billy West, Debra Stephenson, Debra Wilson, Guz Khan, Indira Varma, Jess Robinson, John DiMaggio, Lewis MacLeod, Lobo Chan, Matt Forde, and Phil LaMarr.
In an interview from July 2021, Law said that the second series would go massively over-budget like Boris Johnson's policies with full support from BritBox. He also said that the series would not be adding many new political figures, instead adding several footballers.[69]
Following the death of Elizabeth II in September 2022, ITV made the decision to write off £9 million which had been spent on several remaining unaired episodes of Spitting Image; they could not be effectively edited to remove reference to Elizabeth, and it was felt highly unlikely that they would now ever be broadcast.[70]
In October 2022, it was announced that the revived series had been cancelled.[71]
Reception
The series received mixed reviews from critics. The decision to satirise Greta Thunberg garnered criticism as she was a minor at the time.[74]
Mark Lawson of The Guardian wrote approvingly in his four-out-of-five star review that "[a]dmirers of the franchise will be relieved that the revival ... has lost none of its savagery or willingness to shock."[75] Also writing for The Guardian, columnist Nesrine Malik described the new series as a "toothless performance" and the jokes "excruciatingly obvious".[76]
In his three-out-of-five star review, Ralph Jones of NME lauded the series' ability to satirise timely events, "its topicality is admirable: there are several sketches here about events that occurred as little as 12 hours before the recording. This is impressive on the radio but when puppets are involved, it’s almost breathtaking."[77]
The Economist was more mixed in their analysis, calling it "pretty tame" in light of the current political atmosphere and when compared to its 1984 predecessor, writing how "[i]n an era of cynicism and conspiracy theories, the radical act would be to make a show that celebrated public life."[78] Ed Power of The Telegraph was negative in his one-out-of-five star review pertaining to the two-part US election special, calling it "toothless" in its satire.[79]
German version
On 16 September 2021, a German version of Spitting Image called "The Krauts' Edition", began to air on the TV channel Sky. The German version has new puppets, including Sebastian Kurz, Jan Böhmermann, Annalena Baerbock, Karl Lauterbach, Markus Lanz, Heidi Klum, Thomas Müller, Olaf Scholz, Barbara Schöneberger, Armin Laschet, and Adolf Hitler. Puppets used in the British version such as Angela Merkel, Jurgen Klopp, and COVID-19, also appear in this version.[80][81]
Stage show
A stage show titled Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image Saves The World opened at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre on 1 February 2023 and ran until 12 March. It was written by Al Murray, Matt Forde, and Sean Foley, directed by Foley, and features characters such as Boris Johnson, Tom Cruise, Michael Gove, Adele, Tyson Fury, Harry & Meghan, Stormzy, Beyoncé, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping and more.[82] New puppets made for the show include Suella Braverman, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Paddington Bear, and Nigel Farage.[83]
On 23 March 2023, it was announced that the musical would be open at the Phoenix Theatre, at London's West End, from 24th May 2023. [84]
