Spitting Image to return?

[alan strang]

A nice way to open a new series would be for them to do a straight send-up of Dead Ringers, 2DTV and The Impressionable John Culshaw. A half-arsed 'Posh & Becks meet Dubya Bush' scenario filmed against a wobbly 2DTV backdrop. Lots of smug fictional Bush-isms, Beckham 'thick' jokes, incongrous references to Star Wars/Dr Who and a laughter-track mixed far too high.

All of the above could then be pushed off the screen by a huge JCB with the Spitting Image logo painted on the side.

Cut to opening titles.

[alan strang]

By the way, does anyone remember the Marti Caine puppet?

[TJ]

By the way, does anyone remember the Marti Caine puppet?

Woah yes. Basically a very slim cylinder.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

How would you do Blair? A red-eyed B-liar puppet just seems too passe and obvious, but maybe that's because it's always been done badly. I dunno, I guess it's all in the attitude - if there's a point behind each sketch, and it's full of punchy, economical Katie Bee* writing, it'll be great.

(*Unofficial name for the coterie of regular mid-80s Spit writers - KTB, standing for Keep That Bloody Noise Down. It's true, it says so on Spit In Your Ear.)

REAGAN'S BUTLER: Time for your morning crap, sir.
REAGAN: Gee, OK. (TO CAMERA) My fellow Americans...

[Morrisfan82]

There was an auxiliary puppet that always made me laugh. It was an OB cameraman who, at the start of a scene, would invariably be squinting into his viewfinder. Then at some point he'd take the camera away and he'd have one ENORMOUS eye that swivelled madly around in every direction.

[alan strang]

Woah yes. Basically a very slim cylinder.

With huge eyes. And the entire thing shuddered when she said "Press your buttons... NOW!!!"

There was an auxiliary puppet that always made me laugh. It was an OB cameraman who, at the start of a scene, would invariably be squinting into his viewfinder. Then at some point he'd take the camera away and he'd have one ENORMOUS eye that swivelled madly around in every direction.

Originally designed for a one-off joke about hotel-room spy-holes I believe:

ANDREW LLOYD-WEBBER
My God, what happened to your face?

BLOKE WITH BIG EYE
Oh, I cut myself shaving. What the hell happened to yours!

[TJ]

How would you do Blair? A red-eyed B-liar puppet just seems too passe and obvious, but maybe that's because it's always been done badly. I dunno, I guess it's all in the attitude - if there's a point behind each sketch, and it's full of punchy, economical Katie Bee* writing, it'll be great.

I always felt that their caricatures were often at their best when politicians had yet to establish themselves properly and had not yet displayed the characteristics that 'everyone knows them for'. A prime example of this - before the 'Grey' John Major puppet, he was depicted as a crushing bore in a ringmaster's outfit ("my family used to be in the circus you know"), prevented from entering the Commons because "you have to have a personality to come in here" and speaking with an identical voice to Douglas Hurd. I preferred that, to be honest.

[Darrell]

They probably won't need to do Blair if things carry on the way they're doing.

I was just trying to work out a good way of doing Bush - the best I can think of is to have everybody in the White House as literal puppets (marionette-style), with their adventures chronicled as a Thunderbirds parody in serial form. That could work, though it's not particularly Spitting Image-y.

Oh, I've put '20 Great Golden Gobs' on Soulseek with bonus tracks and typed-up sleevenotes and stuff on in my shares on Soulseek if anyone wants a gander.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Cut to John Major chairing a cabinet meeting:

MAJOR: OK, here's the first item on today's agenda: which one of us is Malcolm Rifkind?
(General hubbub of 'It's me isn't it?', 'No I think he wears glasses' etc)

Always liked that one.

[alan strang]

Always liked that one.

Along the same lines - the Tom King song ("I'm the invisible man...").

I was less enamoured with the later shorthand-satire - turning Kenneth Baker into a slug; the grey / peas stuff about Major; or the calculated-as-a-running-joke Gerald Kaufman stuff ("Whisper, whisper, whisper...").

That's the attitude which spawned Dead Ringers and its hideous progeny (with Bill Dare flying the flag for half-heartedness).

[weirdbeard]

Had they got round to doing Blair by the end of the original run?

[Munday's Chylde]

Blimey everythings sounding a bit positive here at the moment. What ever happened to good old fashioned judging something to be shit before we've even seen it?

[Rubbish Monkey]

Had they got round to doing Blair by the end of the original run?

he was a big grinning thing wasn't he, hypnotised by a Peter Mandelson snake?

bah missing bits and missing commas

[Peking O]

Blimey everythings sounding a bit positive here at the moment. What ever happened to good old fashioned judging something to be shit before we've even seen it?

Heh - I was thinking the same thing. But this is Spitting Image, which is old, and therefore good (I'm joking here by the way, just in case the rage descends on anyone).

[alan strang]

Potentially good, therefore new. It's been a while.

John Lloyd has yet to disappoint me in terms of anything he's done. Unlike Chris Morris, Steve Coogan and all the other creakily-accepted 'heroes of comedy' whose best stuff was done a long long time ago (and can presumably join Peking O's 'old' pile).

Up his old arse.

[bomb_dog]

Had they got round to doing Blair by the end of the original run?

They'd had a couple of blair puppets I remember.
I can also vaguely remember a snake based one, but I do definitely remember a small Blair puppet who acted like a child, being made to write thank-you letters by Margaret Beckett, and chanting 'leader, leader, leader, i'm going to be leader' !

There were some good jokes in the later series, I remember stuff like:
Baddiel..." The think about television.......is its crap"
The Shabba R/Wanks song (Come here little dumpling, give Shabba a kiss, I respect  you as a person, now get your laughing gear round this)
Norman Lamont, being recognised by him holding a yoghurt pot next to his head
The 'We wish we were black' song, around the time of Lisa Stansfield and The Commitments film, and the Postman Pat jungle/rap song.

Some great stuff in there.  Imagine what they'd do with Gordon Browns annoying habit of making his jaw hang loosely every time he draws breath. Once you've spotted this, you can never get it out of your head every time you see him.

[a bald avuncular jew]

Baddiel..." The think about television.......is its crap"

"The thing about x, right, is... it's shit."  In the Newman and Baddiel Wembley documentary they show a clip of this, and then a clip of Baddiel doing a gig, "Anyone see Spitting Image last night?  Well, the thing about Spitting Image, right, is.. it's shit."  He then complains about the size of the puppets ears.  

New Spitting Image, fucking exciting.  There's just something about comedy shows with good comedy songs at the end, they are often the most memorable bits for me and stay with you for many a year.  Do shows like Dead Ringers have songs at the end?  I must confess I don't bother with much of the current output.

[Darrell]

Baddiel of course was a writer for Spitting Image at one point. He's credited on one series 12 episode anyway, with Newman and Punt. And Dennis was in it. Ahh.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Blimey everythings sounding a bit positive here at the moment. What ever happened to good old fashioned judging something to be shit before we've even seen it?

Given the people involved, the new series of Spitting Image sounds promising. Unlike, say, I Am Not An Animal, which sounded terrible on paper and then *was* terrible.

[Bogey]

Some great stuff in there.  Imagine what they'd do with Gordon Browns annoying habit of making his jaw hang loosely every time he draws breath. Once you've spotted this, you can never get it out of your head every time you see him.

Darth Vader seems the obvious choice.
So hopefully they won't do that.

[neveragain]

A nice way to open a new series would be for them to do a straight send-up of Dead Ringers, 2DTV and The Impressionable John Culshaw. A half-arsed 'Posh & Becks meet Dubya Bush' scenario filmed against a wobbly 2DTV backdrop. Lots of smug fictional Bush-isms, Beckham 'thick' jokes, incongrous references to Star Wars/Dr Who and a laughter-track mixed far too high.

All of the above could then be pushed off the screen by a huge JCB with the Spitting Image logo painted on the side.

Cut to opening titles.

That is really quite bloody brilliant!! Oh-hhhhh-h.... joy. I hope the new Spitting Image really does pick upon their feeble spawn.

[Ambient Sheep]

Well, you'd have a highly intelligent Beckham speaking in a plummy voice arranging various tabloid stories (dismissing various wild suggestions as not extreme enough or something), quickly putting on his thick act whenever a member of the press appears, then reverting to the intelligent version to plot more ridiculous tabloid stories.

How excellent!  And *very* Spitting Image.  :-)

I find it fascinating that John Lloyd is now doing this, as it follows on nicely from that interview he did last year (which I can't find, but I don't mean this also interesting one), in which he was bemoaning the current non-existent state of TV satire, was reminiscing about the golden age of NTNOCN and Spitting Image, and wondering if he should do something about it.  Lovely to think he may be going through with it.

[Rats]

Alan's idea is great but darrells is a bit too alistair mcgowan for my liking, like posh in the kit bag though.

[Ambient Sheep]

Alan's idea is great but darrells is a bit too alistair mcgowan for my liking, like posh in the kit bag though.

Ah well, you see, I never get round to watching A McG so that would explain it.

I did rather like Alan's idea as well, mind.

[rjpeters]

I think it should just stick to politics rather than lower themselves to do sub 2DTV-esque jokes about how thin Posh is and how stupid David is. Leave that stuff to 2DTV, Dead Ringers and Bo Selecta and let Spitting Image deal with the real issues. After all thats what I remember it best for. Taking the piss out of Thatcher and Major, not indulging the egos of the like of Not Very Posh Spice.

I think its great that ITV has seen sense and revived it. and how long overdue a revival it is as well. Whoever the fuckwit was that cancelled it in the first place deserves to have something very nasty happen to them. Especially as it spawned the awful 2DTV and The Impressionable Jon Culshaw.