“I’ve Never Met A Nice South African”
Roger Law, one of the co-creators of the UK puppet satire comedy, has confirmed that Spitting Image is set to return to TV.
At its peak during the 1980s, Spitting Image was watched by 15 million people each week in the UK, but it was cancelled almost a decade later as the show became dated and deemed out of fashion.
But now, twenty-three years after it last aired, the new series returns and will feature an S&M-clad Vladimir Putin, Meghan Markle wearing a glittery “princess” T-shirt and a puppet of Donald Trump whose tweets are composed by his ass.
A pilot for Spitting Image has already been filmed, and its producers are in advanced discussions with US-based networks to bring this very British brand of satire to the wider world.
Show-runner, Jeff Westbrook (The Simpsons, Futurama) said:
“today’s world does seem to have an especially large number of evil goofballs who deserve taking down”.
As for exporting Spitting Image to a global audience, he said:
“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 British production company Avalon, which also makes Last Week Tonight With John Oliver for HBO and was behind the successful Catastrophe, hopes to write the new series in the US and film it in Britain.
