Spitting Image, A Legend In Rubber

Spitting Image, 1984

The original series is now 40 years old!

It’s what Sunday nights were made for.  Running for one hundred and thirty two episodes over eighteen series, Spitting Image was must see Sunday Night TV.

Biting Satire at it’s absolute best and perhaps never bettered.

In development for several years before it hit our TV screens. The original idea is credited to graphic designer Martin Lambie-Nairn who put the idea of a satirical television show featuring puppets to Peter Fluck and Roger Law, two illustrators and sculptors who had worked mostly in print media.

The puppets, caricaturing public figures that included British and American politicians, celebrities and even the Royal Family, were designed by Fluck and Law.

We’re afraid that when you’ve finished reading this post you’ll be singing this song for days.

Summary

Each week the rubber puppets would poke fun at anybody who’d been in the news that week.  Favourites were Ronald Reagan (U.S. President of the time), Margaret Thatcher (British P.M.) and the Royal Family.  The show usually ended with a memorable song, that was not always politically correct.

As we said goodbye to the eighties and hello to the nineties the political landscape began to change along with many of the show’s most popular characters.  Mrs Thatcher resigned, Ronald Reagan retired.

In much the same way as Mike Yarwood in the Seventies when the Eighties heralded a new political era, the demise of the show’s most popular characters lead in turn to a downturn in ratings.  Spitting Image was cancelled with the final series being aired between January and February of 1996.

Clips

 

Voices Characters Included:

Chris Barrie
Harry Enfield
Jon Glover
Louise Gold
Steve Nallon
Kate Robbins
John Sessions

Details

Channel: ITV
Produced By: Central Television
Original Transmission Dates: 26th February 1984 – 18th February 1996