Home TV News The New ‘Spitting Image’ Gets October Premiere Date On BritBox UK & Reveals Puppets, Writers, & Voice Talent!

The New ‘Spitting Image’ Gets October Premiere Date On BritBox UK & Reveals Puppets, Writers, & Voice Talent!

by Dave Elliott

The New ‘Spitting Image’ Gets October Premiere Date On BritBox UK

Spitting Image is back, and will air exclusively on BritBox UK from October it has been announced.

The iconic, uncompromising, fast-turnaround and uniquely British satirical take on global events, sees celebrated ‘Spitting Image’ co-creator Roger Law returned to head up the show’s creative team, while multi-award-winner Jeff Westbrook (‘The Simpsons’, ‘Futurama’) is the showrunner, leading the writing team.

Produced by Avalon (‘Taskmaster’, ‘The Russell Howard Hour’, ‘Catastrophe’, ‘Breeders’, ‘Last Week Tonight With John Oliver’) throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, over 100 puppets have already been developed by socially distanced teams of artists ready for launch. The list of new puppets is the same interesting mix of political figures and celebrities you’ve come to expect (and a few you maybe didn’t!) As with the previous version of the ultra-topical show, scripts are being written and new puppets made as close to each episode as possible.

On the politics side, we have Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings, Dominic Raab, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Ivanka Trump, Jacinda Ardern, Joe Biden, Keir Starmer, Melania Trump, Matt Hancock, Michael Gove, Michelle Obama, Narendra Modi, Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.

Featured celebrities include Adele, Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Brad Pitt, Chrissy Teigen, Cristiano Ronaldo, Dwayne Johnson, Ed Sheeran, Elon Musk, Elton John, Greta Thunberg, Grimes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Harry Styles, Idris Elba, James Corden, Jeff Bezos, Jürgen Klopp, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Lewis Hamilton, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Piers Morgan, The Pope, Richard Branson, RuPaul, Taylor Swift, Tiger Woods, and Tyson Fury.

Of course, the royal family has always featured in the show, so there are puppets of Meghan Duchess of Sussex, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall,  Prince Andrew, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Prince William, and, obviously, The Queen.

The slightly more off-the-wall puppets include Baby Yoda, “Boris Baby”, “The Johnson Dog”, and… Covid-19…

Behind the puppets are an amazing collection of talent, including next-generation satirical writers, working with established names, to drive a new wave of “public service satire”. They include Al Murray, Bert Tyler-Moore & George Jeffrie (‘The Windsors’), Bill Odenkirk (‘The Simpsons’, ‘Mr. Show with Bob and David’), Brona C. Titley (‘The Tracey Ullman Show’), David X. Cohen (‘The Simpsons’, ‘Futurama’), Gemma Arrowsmith (‘The Tracey Ullman Show’), Jason Hazeley & Nico Tatarowicz (‘Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe’, ‘Murder in Successville’), Karl Minns (‘Russell Howard’s Good News’), Keisha Zollar (‘The Opposition with Jordan Klepper’), Laura Major (‘Famalam’), Patric Verrone (‘The Simpsons’), Phil Wang, Richard Herring, Sophie Duker (‘Frankie Boyle’s New World Order’) and Travis Jay (‘Dave Chapelle and Friends’) with many more joining the growing team.

The puppets do need voices, and they have pulled together a stunning selection of voiceover talent to bring the creations to life. They include Billy West (‘Futurama’), Debra Stephenson (‘The Impressions Show’), Debra Wilson (‘Family Guy’), Guz Khan (‘Man Like Mobeen’), Indira Varma (‘Game of Thrones’), Jess Robinson (‘The Imitation Game’) John DiMaggio (‘Futurama’), Lewis MacLeod (‘Dead Ringers’), Lobo Chan (‘Killing Eve’), Matt Forde (‘Unspun’) and Phil LaMarr (‘Pulp Fiction’, ‘Family Guy’, ‘Harley Quinn’), with many more joining as the puppet cast grows.

“Everything the team have done on the new Spitting Image shows, the caricatures, puppets and satirical gags have all been done in the public interest, as Boris might say ‘Pro bono publico’. It’s time to come off furlough!” comments Roger Law. “The people have spoken and the puppets are oven ready! We’re going to take back control from the likes of Boris, Cummings, Trump, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. There will be tongue-lashings from our weather girl; Greta Thunberg, you’ll be knocked out by Tyson Fury and dazzled and amazed by Beyoncé and Herr Jürgen Klopp. This time Spitting Image is going global so we will be making world-beating trade deals with North Korea and Belarus and if Gavin Williamson and Dominic Cummings finally get the sack, Spitting Image will give them a job. We have always employed strange people and I’m sure Dom, in particular, will be a great asset; he seems to dislike the establishment just as much as we do. And the message for the Keir Starmer’s and Michel Barnier’s is… Let’s get BritBox done.”

Spitting Image is directed by Andy de Emmony and Steve Connelly. Executive Producers are Jeff Westbrook, Joanna Beresford, Jon Thoday, Richard Allen-Turner and Roger Law. BritBox Commissioning Executive is Nana Hughes.

Spitting Image‘ premieres Saturday, 3rd October 2020 on BritBox UK and is available with a free trial to all new subscribers at www.BritBox.co.uk

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