Spitting Image To Return?
According to flamingkitties on NOTBBC's Comedy Forum (who copied out the following article from yesterday's Western Daily Press), Spitting Image is set to return in 2005:
New Targets for Spitting Image
Tony Blair and David Beckham must be quaking already - satirical TV show Spitting Image has announced its return.
The cutting edge comedy and its host of puppets should be back on the screen by 2005 with a cast of new characters expected to include the Prime Minister, President Bush and, of course, Posh and Becks.
Blair will be hoping for kinder treatment than his predecessor John Major who was ridiculed as the Grey Man during the last series in 1996.
Other unforgettable puppets from the ITV show include the Queen, Prince Phillip, and even Her Majesty's pet corgis who put in a regular appearance.
Producer John Lloyd said: "By the time the show finished there was nothing left to say about the people in the public eye. Now there's a whole new cast of characters."
Thanks again to flamingkitties. A few things: I haven't seen this news anywhere else, so treat it with the caution you would usually give a single source news story. If it is true though, it is great news. For the past few years I've been saying that Spitting Image should return - it has endless possibilites, and having had a rest, should be ready to beat 2DTV's socks off (assuming they put together a decent team. Preferably one that includes precisely nobody from Dead "cunting" Ringers.) It's excellent news that John Lloyd is involved; he was a writer/Producer of the original series, and one of the original team that got the show (and indeed the company) up and running.
For those of you wondering what the Red Dwarf connection is here, Rob and Doug used to be Script Editors in the early series - and Chris Barrie continued to do a lot of the main male voices until 1991, when Red Dwarf V shooting commitments intervened. If you want the slightly more obscure connection, it was mooted at one point early in Dwarf's development process that it would be jointly produced by John Lloyd and Paul Jackson (eventually the latter did it alone.) Now, what a co-production that would have been.
I'd say it's very unlikely that Rob or Doug will have anything to do with the new series (although I can hold a pipedream that Rob Grant will become main writer, can't I?) - but it's (speculatively) possible that Chris Barrie might return to the series. Mind you, he probably earns more sitting on his bum staring at Angelia Jolie's tits for a day than for a whole series of Spitting Image, but never mind.
Let's hope the new series comes off, anyway. What with this, and QI, John Lloyd's return to television is proving rather interesting...
Comments
I think this is a bad idea. It seems the only person to take risks on TV now is Chris Morris and somehow i dont think he will be writing it. Its interesting 2DTV was mentioned as I expect that a new series of Spitting Image would be pretty much that but with puppets and a less blatant title
Posted by Curtis Threadgold at November 25, 2003 05:31 PM
Well, I think you have a point in saying that there are fewer shows prepared to take risks, but that doesn't mean there aren't writers who are prepared to do so. SI could serve a similar purpose to that of Weekending; given the right team.
Posted by Tanya Jones at November 25, 2003 06:51 PM
Fucking Posh & Becks every time. Why? Get the fuck over it, satirists. Next we'll be having Weakest Link and Dr Who puppets joining the team.
Posted by Yes of course they would, it's funny *every* time at November 26, 2003 09:42 AM
In fairness, nobody involved in the show has mentioned anything about Posh and/or Becks. That's just the journo's guesswork.
Posted by Ian Symes at November 26, 2003 11:03 AM
Indeed. Besides, Spitting Image in its heyday could have made practically *anything* work; given the right idea (ie. something other than "They're so STUPID!") it could actually work.
I'm convinced that you could give Dead Ringers scripts to the (old) Spitting Image team, and they'd make them at least slightly funny.
Posted by John Hoare at November 26, 2003 12:56 PM
Fuck off, you GEEK. I hope you DIE HORRIBLY.
Posted by Nev Fountain at November 26, 2003 07:22 PM
If you do have an axe to grind against Dead Ringers and myself in particular, John try to refrain from putting words in my mouth in QUITE such an unsubtle (and actionable) way...
Nev Fountain (Red Dwarf fan who queued up in the pouring rain for Rob Grant and Doug Naylor's autograph, and doesn't appreciate being defamed on a RD site)
p.s if you gave Dead Ringers scripts to the old SI team, in some cases they would be handing the scripts back to themselves...
Posted by nev fountain at April 6, 2004 04:00 PM
He's referring to John Lloyd, Grant/Naylor, Richard Curtis, Hislop/Newman, Geoff Atkinson, Docherty/Hunter, Geoffrey Perkins etc. They wrote reams of brilliantly hilarious material, a process that you're clearly not familiar with.
Posted by Darrell Jones at April 6, 2004 04:24 PM
You've missed John's point, Nev. He's praising the old SI voice actors.
Posted by Ian Symes at April 6, 2004 07:33 PM
I could have sworn he meant the writers...
Posted by Darrell Jones at April 6, 2004 08:07 PM
Spitting Image = great.
Dead Ringers = crap.
That about sums it up, I think.
Posted by John Hoare at April 6, 2004 08:56 PM
Oh man Nev, I too hate it when people do impressions of me in some sort of strained attempt at humour!
Posted by Tory W Bliars at April 6, 2004 09:49 PM
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