Options
Spitting Image
xxtimbo
Posts: 8,877 Forum Member
✭
From the recent doc on TV we learn that the latex models were made in London and then had to be shipped up to Brummie where the show was taped.... it was pretty frantic
Law is a big beefie guy who is also apparently so far on the left that he thinks Karl Marks was a wimp..... forever in a hat with a communist red star on the front.
It was a topical show that required the guys to put in a ton of work each week to keep the show on the road.
But did it have to be so gross and so full of toilet humour ?
The idea was great... fab models of real celebs and politicians interacting on a set in various sketches..
it was pure theatre and visually great.
Lloyd of course is an extreme lefty who enjoyed getting his left anti Thatcher bias accross during his career with the BBC and progs such as ... Not the Nine O Clock News.
Pity this latex model .. spoof... comedy idea could nt be taken up again... but this time with a less extreme left political crew.
A show that would be more aimed at the celebrity culture we have ruling Britain and America right now.
Sketches with Simon Cowell and Amanda H...
Eamon Holmes... Corrie Street spoofs....
theres so much out there they could have a go at it could make a great ... hour long show for Friday or Saturday nights................
Lets do it !
Law is a big beefie guy who is also apparently so far on the left that he thinks Karl Marks was a wimp..... forever in a hat with a communist red star on the front.
It was a topical show that required the guys to put in a ton of work each week to keep the show on the road.
But did it have to be so gross and so full of toilet humour ?
The idea was great... fab models of real celebs and politicians interacting on a set in various sketches..
it was pure theatre and visually great.
Lloyd of course is an extreme lefty who enjoyed getting his left anti Thatcher bias accross during his career with the BBC and progs such as ... Not the Nine O Clock News.
Pity this latex model .. spoof... comedy idea could nt be taken up again... but this time with a less extreme left political crew.
A show that would be more aimed at the celebrity culture we have ruling Britain and America right now.
Sketches with Simon Cowell and Amanda H...
Eamon Holmes... Corrie Street spoofs....
theres so much out there they could have a go at it could make a great ... hour long show for Friday or Saturday nights................
Lets do it !
0
Comments
Ten years back they tried a cartoon type version of the show called 2DTV and that flopped, as do most satirical "impressionist" shows these days. Maybe there just isn't the market for this anymore.
As for it being left leaning, it was satire and the country was deeply entrenched in the politics of the right at the time. What else could it be?
It wasn't as if they were particularly favourable to the likes of Kinnock, Hatterley, David Livingston...etc either. They made them all look ridiculous and at times disgusting.
more focused on celeb tv ... obviously Simon Copwel would
feature large...
but also David Dickinson of the antiques show, a spoof on
Downton Abbey....
morning tv with Susanna Reid looming large
a whole new show without the toilet humour without the huge emphasis on politics and hitting on Margaret Thatcher.
A series of sketches and spoofs that could be made at leisure and then put on for a thirteen week run of hour long programmes
shows that would be entertaining and visually pleasing
The latex models that fluck and law designed and made...
were such a brilliant idea.... surely someone should take it up again
without all the left wing angst and filth
David Cameron & IBS
Kate Middletons morning sickness
Katie Prices Bunny
Katie Hopkins
Royals,Celebrities, Politicians are all there to be taken the pi$$ out of. Bring back Spitting Image
Amanda H..... Danni M..... Cherryl T
(maybe not Sharon O )
Please God no, I would not watch that.
I absolutely LOVED Spitting Image in the 80's. I agree it was very political - especially the Maggie Thatcher/John Major sketches. But it also focussed on the Royal Family - the Queen and Queen Mother in particular! Celebrities such as Hugh Grant, Sly Stallone and pop stars were mimicked all the time.
There are SOOO MANY characters they could mimic nearly 30 years on!
The Prime Minister(s), The Royal Family (the next generation), and celebs such as Joey Esssex, Gino DeCampo, Eamon & Ruth, Philip Schofield, Adrian Chiles....
The list is endless! Someone bring it back!! Or will the PC brigade step in??
This was of its time and I was lucky enough to be the right age to watch the first time around and the two main television programmes discussed in that era at school were Spitting Image and Blackadder. The quality of Spitting Image was very high and I do not just mean Peter Fluck, Roger Law and John Lloyd but the huge list of vocal contributors from Harry Enfield, Kate Robbins, Hugh Dennis, John Sessions and Alastair MacGowan to name just a few. I am not sure if this level of creative quality is around in the current era. I certainly do not think Jon Culshaw could not it all on his own as good as he is. They have tried similar shows since and they have not worked. There was just something very special about Spitting Image. I am all for repeating on one of the Freeview channels but I do think a new Spitting Image would work.
Also love her or hate her, the show worked because of the perception of Margaret Thatcher as the dominant Iron Lady and the rest of the cabinet as submissive minions with the exception of Norman Tebbit the crazed biker. MT was a larger than life character and the only politician who would hold this level of interest is Boris but there is not the same interest in David Cameron, Ed Miliband or Nick Clegg.
Best
M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFrvr7EB66g
Yes, that is Sting singing different words to his song.
This was the greatest ever Spitting Image moment.
Spitting Image had a stellar cast - not just the voice actors as already mentioned, but the writing staff. Rob Grant and Doug Naylor (Red Dwarf) Ian Hislop and Nick Newman, Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton (Outnumbered) , David Renwick and Andrew Marshall (2.4 Children, One foot in the grave etc), Punt and Dennis, as well as John O' Farrell
Alternatively - you work for ITV and are pitching this moronic idea to DS forumites to gauge the response.
Do you seriously think that ITV would allow Simon Cowell to be made fun of in any way shape or form.
You are more like to see a comedy routine on North Korean television making fun of Kim Jong Un, than seeing anything on ITV lampooning their favourite son.
making basically life size rubber puppets with motor driven eyes.
You d think this concept and idea would still be going today in
TV .... once created you can endlessly re use the puppets,
its a win win situation.
I suppose now ... with wall to wall soaps... reality TV...
and Simon Cowell......
creative programmes are being edged out .
That plus the cost! I doubt an episode of Spitting Image came cheap!
Today's ITV would rather stick on a repeat at 10pm than a decent programme
Some great puppets, sketches and impressions
ITV had some fantastic comedy on Sunday nights at 10pm
Spitting Image
The New Statesman
Hot Metal
Whoops Apocalypse
But then again - they "proper" TV executives in those days.
Even John Birt was in charge at LWT when they made some of those shows, and he was supposed to be the most cautious man in TV at that time.
These days he would be considered a radical !!
Me too! It was so clever.
I'd hardly call 5 series in 4 years a flop .
It's often remarked that both shows were very expensive to make with the short time constraints and the production costs of puppets and animation respectively.
An easy decision when you're hard up.
But I agree that these shows are only as good as the material they're given. With Spitting Image, there was Regan and Thatcher, with 2DTV there was a wealth of material with Blair, Brown and Bush. The landscape today is bland (and probably explains why Have I Got News For You isn't what it was - but that's for a different thread).
I was a little too young for Spitting Image, but have enjoyed what I have seen of it. I loved 2DTV - it was a must see in our house. I'd love to see either return.
cheap to make, no effort atall
.. a bit like televising snooker
you ve got to hand it to fluck and law, they had the energy and drive
to produce something novel, innovative and brilliant TV
The pop vid they made with Genesis was great also
I always thought the non-political sketches were mainly filmed in advance and slotted into the show only when the weeks news didn't throw up much topical stuff. I certainly found them far less funny than the topical political stuff anyway, almost embaressing really.
Anyhoo - as I've posted before on Spitting Image threads before, it won't come back as it was incredibly expensive to make.:(
Damn this got me yearning for The Goodies (also cost a fortune to make) and Not the Nine O'Clock News as well. Happy times.