Behind the scenes at Spitting Picture
The satirical puppet show Spitting Image is back after a 24-year hiatus, featuring everything from President Trump's tweeting anus to the James Corden-Cats hybrid. Here we speak to the creatives behind the program's unique brand of public service satire
It may be hard to imagine that a bunch of puppets now have the power to take over the political establishment, but there was a point during the Tory rule of the 1980s and 1990s when Spitting Image became a central part of the political and cultural conversation of the Day made. At its peak, the satirical puppet show drew up to 15 million viewers a week who watched Margaret Thatcher smack cabinet members over the head with her purse or John Major painted gray reminders of how boring it was .
The original ITV series, which helped start the careers of a young Ian Hislop and Steve Coogan among others, was co-created by Roger Law and Peter Fluck after they got tired of making plasticine cartoons for printed newspapers, and decided to take advantage of the legal gray area of pillorying politicians with puppets on television. They brought in Martin Lambie-Nairn of the Lambie-Nairn creative agency and legendary comedy producer John Lloyd to bring the show to life, and the rest is history.
Development of the Boris Johnson doll
Much may have changed in the political and television landscape in the two decades since the program aired in 1996, but the magnitude of our current political crisis has clearly been enough to entice the now 78-year-old law out of retirement. Spitting Image 2.0, launched with the streaming service BritBox, is bigger, better and more controversial than ever before – so much so that, according to The Times, NBC has just stopped broadcasting in the US for fear of offending "powerful people" Has .