Broadcaster SBS Belgium have picked up the first two new series of the iconic British satirical take on global events, Spitting Image.
It was announced earlier this year that celebrated Spitting Image co-creator Roger Law would return to head up the show’s creative team, while multi-WGA-winner Jeff Westbrook (The Simpsons, Futurama) is Showrunner, leading the international writing team.
Produced by Avalon (Taskmaster, The Russell Howard Hour, Catastrophe, Breeders, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver), development of the puppets is already underway with Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, Vladimir Putin, Harry & Meghan, RuPaul, Boris Johnson, Beyoncé, Elon Musk, Adele, James Corden and Dominic Cummings, all falling under the show’s legendary gaze.
A next generation of satirical writers and voice artists are being assembled to drive a new wave of ‘public service satire’. In keeping with the 80s and 90s, some scripts will be written and new puppets made close to delivery to ensure each week’s episode is as topical as possible.
Spitting Image ran between 1984 and 1996, and mocked public figures including Margaret Thatcher (who treated her Cabinet, “the vegetables” with contempt), Paul Gascoigne (with water constantly jetting from his eyes), Ronald Reagan (shown in bed with two red call buttons, one marked ‘Nurse’, the other ‘Nuke’) and the Royal Family (The Queen Mother was often seen slugging from a gin bottle while The Queen studied the horse-racing pages).
Set to return this autumn, in the UK it has already been announced that BritBox subscribers will be able to enjoy Spitting Image exclusively on the service.