London – Wednesday 15th July – It was announced today that SBS Belgium have picked up the first two new series of the iconic British satirical take on global events, Spitting Image. With the world getting smaller and more turbulent, it was announced earlier this year that celebrated Spitting Image co-creator Roger Law would return to head up the show’s creative team, while multi-WGA-winner Jeff Westbrook (The Simpsons, Futurama) is Showrunner, leading the international writing team.
Produced by Avalon (Taskmaster, The Russell Howard Hour, Catastrophe, Breeders, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver), development of the puppets is already underway with Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, Vladimir Putin, Harry & Meghan, RuPaul, Boris Johnson, Beyoncé, Elon Musk, Adele, James Corden and Dominic Cummings all falling under the show’s legendary gaze. A next generation of satirical writers and voice artists are being assembled to drive a new wave of ‘public service satire’. In keeping with the 80s and 90s, some scripts will be written and new puppets made close to delivery to ensure each week’s episode is as topical as possible.
Spitting Image ran for a total of 18 series between 1984 and 1996, and proved no one was safe from ridicule in puppet form, as public figures including Margaret Thatcher (who wore a man’s suit and treated her Cabinet, “the vegetables” with utter contempt), Paul Gascoigne (with water constantly jetting from his eyes), John Major (a painted grey puppet to reflect his perceived dull personality), Michael Heseltine (as Tarzan), Ronald Reagan (shown in bed with two red call buttons, one marked ‘Nurse’, the other ‘Nuke’), Mick Jagger (always high with huge rubber lips), Mikhail Gorbachev (with a hammer and sickle birthmark) and the Royal Family (The Queen Mother was often seen slugging from a gin bottle while The Queen studied the horse-racing pages). The show also had success in the Official Music Charts with ‘The Chicken Song’ (parodying ‘Agadoo’ by Black Lace), which had three weeks at number one in 1986.
Set to return this autumn, in the UK it has already been announced that BritBox subscribers will be able to enjoy Spitting Image exclusively on the service. Further announcements on the show will be made in due course.
ENDS
For more information please contact:
Dan Lloyd at Avalon – Dlloyd@avalonuk.com
Notes to editors
About Avalon:
Avalon is a multi-award-winning talent management, television production and live promotion group with offices in London, Los Angeles and New York.
The company represents a prolific roster of artists including comedians, actors, presenters, writers and directors and produces numerous ground-breaking television shows. Series currently in production include: Not Going Out (BBC), the UK’s longest running sitcom on air; Taskmaster (Channel 4), the hit entertainment format showing in 100 countries; multi Emmy-winner, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO); The Russell Howard Hour (Sky), the network’s most successful entertainment show launch since 2010; Starstruck, a new sitcom from the 2018 Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Rose Matafeo (HBO Max/BBC); Everything’s Gonna Be Okay, from creator Josh Thomas (Freeform); Breeders, a new sitcom starring Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard (FX/Sky); The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show (Netflix); new series of the iconic British satirical puppet show, Spitting Image (BritBox UK); and multiple comedy specials for Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and Netflix. Other landmark Avalon shows include BAFTA winning and multi Emmy nominated, Catastrophe (Amazon Prime Video/Channel 4), Fantasy Football League (BBC/ITV), multi BAFTA-winning TV Burp (ITV), and seven seasons of Workaholics (Comedy Central USA). Avalon also distributes its catalogue of programmes to over 150 countries worldwide.
As a leading promoter of live comedy, Avalon produced Newman and Baddiel: Live at Wembley, the UK’s first arena comedy show; Jerry Springer: The Opera, the first West End show to win all four UK ‘Best New Musical’ awards; and has continued to produce and promote live shows globally, as well as promoting more winners and nominees of the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award than any other company.
For Avalon news visit: www.avalonuk.com/press or follow @avalonent
