Home TV News Avalon Pilot A ‘Spitting Image’ Revival

Avalon Pilot A ‘Spitting Image’ Revival

by Dave Elliott

Avalon Pilot A ‘Spitting Image’ Revival

As some of you may have seen, over the weekend it was announced that production company Avalon has filmed a pilot for a revival of the classic satirical puppet show ‘Spitting Image’ after 23yrs off-air.

For those of you too young to remember the original show, the series was created by caricaturists Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn, which Law describes as “public service satire”. The weekly comedy used puppets to make fun of various public figures, usually in extremely biting satire.

“It’s pretty chaotic out there, commented Law in an interview with The Guardian. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s better than shouting at the television set, isn’t it? So, I thought, ‘Let’s give it a go’.”

The original show ran for 18 Seasons from 1984 to 1996 and, at its peak, had an audience of 15 million. The series provided memorable caricatures of figures such as Margaret Thatcher, who was often portrayed as a dominatrix-type character, John Major, whose puppet was grey and had an obsession with garden peas, and the Queen Mother, who was shown as an excentric gin-soaked grandmother. The comedy often ended on a musical number, which led to collaborations with artists such as Phil Collins and Sting. They even had a hit single with the infamous “Chicken Song” – the lyrics of which were written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor… the creators of ‘Red Dwarf’.

https://youtu.be/pWZKuuFli2o

This revival comes from Avalon, the producers of ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’, with Jeff Westbrook, who previously worked on ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘Futurama’, set as showrunner. Although the new show would be shot in the UK, Westbrook would lead a writers room from the US. The producers are currently in advanced talks to bring the show to a US network along with the UK. Although the original series was a very British affair, this would be designed to have a more global appeal, but still with the same satirical bite.

“Today’s world does seem to have an especially large number of evil goofballs who deserve taking down,” commented Westbrook. “It’s true that Britain has a special tradition of caricature and satire, but I think that audiences around the world are sophisticated enough to enjoy it. If not, we can also put in some puppets bonking heads with a coconut sound.”

The ‘Spitting Image’ revival is still only at the pilot stage right now, but if it does get picked up to series, we will let you know.

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