Spitting Image wouldn't work without Thatcher - she was pure panto-villain and made the show the brilliant success it was. OK, she screwed the country in real life, but sometimes you have to suffer for your art.
Interestingly, the celebs/politicians at the time were split on whether they liked their puppets and were happy to be sent up on the show. Some wanted to buy their puppet and didn't mind being on the programme, but others, such as Liberal David Steele, who was shown as a tiny weedy little twerp living,literally, in his political partner's pocket (David someone...forget his full name) hated the programme,and his puppet.
But I don't recall ANYBODY suing! They probably would today, sadly,which is another reason why it won't come back.
I'm not so sure they would win though. Satire is highly thought of in this country and many people will think it's fair game.
I was watching an interview with John Lloyd where he was infront of a panel to discuss/pass the jokes for the week on Spitting Image and as soon as the penny dropped that it was satire being used then panel were happy to pass them.
My wife used to run a one-hour photolab in Cambridge, where Luck and Flaw had their puppet studios, so she used to see pictures of the new puppets long before they were on TV.
We could have made some money selling copies of the pics to the tabloids - but she would have lost her job and never worked again in the photographic Industry.
Obviously if she worked for the Police or a hospital she would have gotten away with it !!
Yes bring it back as well as Bremner, Bird and Fortune. With regard to the latter, Bremner wants to do it but he indicated powers above him don''t want to, does that mean they only wanted to kick Labour/Blair and support the Tories?
I loved Spitting Image when I was young. If they brought it back now though it would all be Z list celebs and barely any politicians. (a bit like the one off with Ant & Dec a few years ago).
I have to say my favourites were the Royal family. Prince Philip and the Queen Mum in particular!
I'd love to see it come back. It was sharp, witty and incisive. Then it would be downright silly (Chicken Song, anyone?). Shame people are so litigious now as, back in the day, many of those parodied took it on the chin and had a love/ hate relationship with their puppets.
Yes bring it back as well as Bremner, Bird and Fortune. With regard to the latter, Bremner wants to do it but he indicated powers above him don''t want to, does that mean they only wanted to kick Labour/Blair and support the Tories?
Too be fair Bremner's channel 4 show did aim at both Labour when they were in power and the Tories when they were in power under John Major.
The programme ran on Channel 4 from 1993 until 2010, although it was broadcast under two different names. From 1993 until 1998 the show was called 'Rory Bremner, Who Else?' and from 1999 until 2010 was renamed 'Bremner, Bird & Fortune'.
I loved Spitting Image when I was young. If they brought it back now though it would all be Z list celebs and barely any politicians. (a bit like the one off with Ant & Dec a few years ago).
I have to say my favourites were the Royal family. Prince Philip and the Queen Mum in particular!
Heh heh. With the 'Beryl Reid' Brummie accent and bottle of gin. "I'm 92, you know!".
I love how they used to work all the puppet animals in, too, as with the Corgis and the royal family.
Today's politicians are so bland & boring that it would be hard to make a funny show about them.
Even Rory Bremner seems to have given up on the satire, so I doubt anyone would commission an expensive show like Spitting Image with the current state of politics.
Today's politicians are so bland & boring that it would be hard to make a funny show about them.
Even Rory Bremner seems to have given up on the satire, so I doubt anyone would commission an expensive show like Spitting Image with the current state of politics.
I think the likes of Boris Johnson, David Cameron and Nick Clegg would make the show toe curlingly hilarious !
Today's politicians are so bland & boring that it would be hard to make a funny show about them.
Absolutely. Ever since british politics became professional there have been very few characters that can be lampooned. Every since Tony Blair took control of the Labour party there has been this professional imagine management that all political parties have to have their members on message (basically the equivalent of a call centre worker reading off a script). This is why when a tory or labour back bencher publically disagrees with their parties policy they stand out so much, pre new labour it was almost expected that your backbenchers would publically disagree but would almost always vote for their parties policies out of loyalty - look at the issue of Europe under Major's tory goverment, almost daily the backbenchers would talk to the press saying how they disagreed with further intergration with the EC/EU but the government always got the bills passed (more or less).
Also another thing that came in with Tony Blair is the change from the public voting for the party they think has the best policies, to the almost presidental like personality contests - Blair vs Major, Blair vs Hauge, Blair vs Howard, Brown vs Cameron. This is probably another reason why more and more people decide not to follow politics or vote in elections.
I think there are enough for a small main group to get entertainment from but the problem would be padding the show with other names that people won't really know about and so won't be relevant - also the main group may be good for an episode or two but I think it would be a problem for a full series.
I doubt they'd have the money or inclination to do a one off.
There are some good names but they have just past and are no longer in the limelight.
You could have had Mandy as an evil machiavelli character
Jacqui Smith as some kind of s&m dominatrix with her porn obsessed hubby always in tow.
Man hating Harriet Harman
Neil, Portillo and Abbott on This Week
The main group are there in Cameron, Osbourne, Clegg, Cable, Boris, Ed & Ed.
The other problem is that you would probably have to explain to the post X-factor audience who most of the politicians were as they have no idea.
Wasn't that the beauty of the original setup though?
I mean in the sense it allowed those otherwise uninterested in the system to put names to faces.. even the MP's loved it (even if it was them being trolled)
I'd like to see it back, but I don't believe todays crop have the stomach for it.. I mean I'm almost giggling just imagining the parodies they could come up with
Today's politicians are so bland & boring that it would be hard to make a funny show about them.
Even Rory Bremner seems to have given up on the satire, so I doubt anyone would commission an expensive show like Spitting Image with the current state of politics.
Bremner stopped being funny round about 2003/4. His satire used to be quite sharp but he eventually started sounding like a bitter liberal luvvie who had been let down by Blair.
YES!!! That was my favourite line! We were always quoting it, haha. And Prince Philip with his massive elephant hunting gun or whatever it was!
And now Prince Philip himself could take that Beryl Reid quote for himself and shout out "I'm 92 you know!".
Never understood why they gave the Queen such a big lower jaw and massive mouth though, neither which she remotely has.
I do recall after Thatcher in the 90's week after week of sketches with John Major, all grey, pushing peas around his dinner plate opposite Norma. So you could still be a deadly dull political character and make a huge impact ironically.
I'd welcome it's return, there is so much to satirise now, and imagine a Boris Johnson puppet! Although the real Boris is already good enough in himself without need of a satirical OTT puppet on top.
I'd love to see it make a comeback, but could you imagine all the super-injunctions that would be taken out against it, in these strange times we live in.
Exactly. It would never be made today because people would kick up a right fuss over it and you can bet alot would sue.
Id love it to come back and rip into Cameron and a few others but it wont.
They could have had a field day with Jady Goody when she was alive with her antics but today it would just seem bad taste.
Spitting Image's greatest asset was all of the great writers they had. WIth the greater number of comedy outlets these days it would be hard to get a dozen plus great writers together.
Spitting Image's greatest asset was all of the great writers they had. WIth the greater number of comedy outlets these days it would be hard to get a dozen plus great writers together.
Not sure i agree comedy talent these days is spread very thinly they might jump at the chance to work on a single project such as this.
I think there are enough for a small main group to get entertainment from but the problem would be padding the show with other names that people won't really know about and so won't be relevant - also the main group may be good for an episode or two but I think it would be a problem for a full series.
I doubt they'd have the money or inclination to do a one off.
There are some good names but they have just past and are no longer in the limelight.
You could have had Mandy as an evil machiavelli character
Jacqui Smith as some kind of s&m dominatrix with her porn obsessed hubby always in tow.
Man hating Harriet Harman
Neil, Portillo and Abbott on This Week
The main group are there in Cameron, Osbourne, Clegg, Cable, Boris, Ed & Ed.
Don't forget John "Two Jags" Prescott...what a great puppet he'd make!
Too be fair Bremner's channel 4 show did aim at both Labour when they were in power and the Tories when they were in power under John Major.
The programme ran on Channel 4 from 1993 until 2010, although it was broadcast under two different names. From 1993 until 1998 the show was called 'Rory Bremner, Who Else?' and from 1999 until 2010 was renamed 'Bremner, Bird & Fortune'.
I was going to say I don't remember "BFF" being done in the 90's but I didn't see Bremner's earlier programme earlier either though I saw him occasionally when he done end of year addresses dressed up as John Major which were brilliant as well as a Neil Kinnock clip.
Comments
They could have done Alistair Campbell loitering in the background of Blair speech.
Um, yes there were. Heaps, actually.
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1136494
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=409481
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=237733
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=196965
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1259399
I was watching an interview with John Lloyd where he was infront of a panel to discuss/pass the jokes for the week on Spitting Image and as soon as the penny dropped that it was satire being used then panel were happy to pass them.
We could have made some money selling copies of the pics to the tabloids - but she would have lost her job and never worked again in the photographic Industry.
Obviously if she worked for the Police or a hospital she would have gotten away with it !!
I have to say my favourites were the Royal family. Prince Philip and the Queen Mum in particular!
The programme ran on Channel 4 from 1993 until 2010, although it was broadcast under two different names. From 1993 until 1998 the show was called 'Rory Bremner, Who Else?' and from 1999 until 2010 was renamed 'Bremner, Bird & Fortune'.
Heh heh. With the 'Beryl Reid' Brummie accent and bottle of gin. "I'm 92, you know!".
I love how they used to work all the puppet animals in, too, as with the Corgis and the royal family.
YES!!! That was my favourite line! We were always quoting it, haha.
Even Rory Bremner seems to have given up on the satire, so I doubt anyone would commission an expensive show like Spitting Image with the current state of politics.
I think the likes of Boris Johnson, David Cameron and Nick Clegg would make the show toe curlingly hilarious !
Absolutely. Ever since british politics became professional there have been very few characters that can be lampooned. Every since Tony Blair took control of the Labour party there has been this professional imagine management that all political parties have to have their members on message (basically the equivalent of a call centre worker reading off a script). This is why when a tory or labour back bencher publically disagrees with their parties policy they stand out so much, pre new labour it was almost expected that your backbenchers would publically disagree but would almost always vote for their parties policies out of loyalty - look at the issue of Europe under Major's tory goverment, almost daily the backbenchers would talk to the press saying how they disagreed with further intergration with the EC/EU but the government always got the bills passed (more or less).
Also another thing that came in with Tony Blair is the change from the public voting for the party they think has the best policies, to the almost presidental like personality contests - Blair vs Major, Blair vs Hauge, Blair vs Howard, Brown vs Cameron. This is probably another reason why more and more people decide not to follow politics or vote in elections.
I doubt they'd have the money or inclination to do a one off.
There are some good names but they have just past and are no longer in the limelight.
You could have had Mandy as an evil machiavelli character
Jacqui Smith as some kind of s&m dominatrix with her porn obsessed hubby always in tow.
Man hating Harriet Harman
Neil, Portillo and Abbott on This Week
The main group are there in Cameron, Osbourne, Clegg, Cable, Boris, Ed & Ed.
Wasn't that the beauty of the original setup though?
I mean in the sense it allowed those otherwise uninterested in the system to put names to faces.. even the MP's loved it (even if it was them being trolled)
I'd like to see it back, but I don't believe todays crop have the stomach for it.. I mean I'm almost giggling just imagining the parodies they could come up with
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1l1XGiXgo0
Bremner stopped being funny round about 2003/4. His satire used to be quite sharp but he eventually started sounding like a bitter liberal luvvie who had been let down by Blair.
And now Prince Philip himself could take that Beryl Reid quote for himself and shout out "I'm 92 you know!".
Never understood why they gave the Queen such a big lower jaw and massive mouth though, neither which she remotely has.
I do recall after Thatcher in the 90's week after week of sketches with John Major, all grey, pushing peas around his dinner plate opposite Norma. So you could still be a deadly dull political character and make a huge impact ironically.
I'd welcome it's return, there is so much to satirise now, and imagine a Boris Johnson puppet! Although the real Boris is already good enough in himself without need of a satirical OTT puppet on top.
The last show I remember in the spirit of Spitting Image, Headcases, was very poor. It would have held up if the writing was good.
Exactly. It would never be made today because people would kick up a right fuss over it and you can bet alot would sue.
Id love it to come back and rip into Cameron and a few others but it wont.
They could have had a field day with Jady Goody when she was alive with her antics but today it would just seem bad taste.
Not sure i agree comedy talent these days is spread very thinly they might jump at the chance to work on a single project such as this.
Lets have it back.:)
Don't forget John "Two Jags" Prescott...what a great puppet he'd make!
I was going to say I don't remember "BFF" being done in the 90's but I didn't see Bremner's earlier programme earlier either though I saw him occasionally when he done end of year addresses dressed up as John Major which were brilliant as well as a Neil Kinnock clip.