Co-creator Roger Law says a pilot has been shot

Talk of a revival of Spitting Image could finally come to fruition, co-creator Roger Law has confirmed.

The satirical puppeteer has confirmed that a pilot has been filmed, with an eye on making the show for the US market.

Producers Avalon were in advanced discussions with American networks, Law told The Guardian.

The 78-year-old said he hadn’t missed Spitting Image, as ‘it’s a pig of a show to do, but I think the current situation warrants the effort.

‘It’s better than shouting at the television set, isn’t it? So I thought, let’s give it a go.’

He added that the new show would be going for bigger, international beasts rather than mid-ranking UK Cabinet ministers.

‘Dominic Raab? You’ve got to be kidding,’ he told the newspaper. ‘If you’re going to go after the bastards, you may as well go after the biggest bastards there are, hence America. It’s an awful lot of trouble to go to, and you want it to be effective.

Images from the new show depict exaggerated latex versions of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Meghan and Harry, Mark Zuckerberg.

 Jeff Westbrook, a former writer on The Simpsons and Futurama has been hired to work on the show. He told the newspaper: ‘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.'

Spitting Image ran for 131 episodes over 18 series from 1984 to 1996 and featured the voices of comedians such as Chris Barrie, Steve Coogan, Harry Enfield and Rory Bremner – as well as  featuring jokes penned by scores of other  now-famous comics and writers.

It was revived of one-off special in 2006, hosted by puppet versions of Ant & Dec. That show angered Law, who created the series with fellow puppeteer Peter Fluck.

A US pilot was produced in 1986 entitled Spitting Image: Down and Out in the White House  but NBC declined to pick it up for a series

Three years ago, Spitting Image’s original producer John Lloyd said he was thinking of reviving the notoriously expensive puppet satire for an online series saying he had discussed ideas with writers Ian Hislop and Nick Newman – but that came to nothing.

News of the new US pilot first emerged two years ago, when Hollywood industry website Deadline reported that a ‘slew of broadcasters’ –  including NBC, Hulu, Netflix and Amazon – were interested in buying a rebooted series.

And in August this year, The Mail on Sunday reported that interest was revived after Boris Johnson became Prime Minister.

At the time a source said: ‘When Boris was elected Tory leader and they realised they had the Boris Johnson and Donald Trump show on their hands, there was a real injection of enthusiasm and things started to happen.’

Published: 28 Sep 2019