Spitting Image episodes vanish from YouTube amid Paddington legal dispute

Five episodes of the revived Spitting Image have been pulled from YouTube amid its legal battle with the makers of the Paddington movie.

The new series takes the form of a podcast – The Rest Is Bullshit – fronted by puppet versions of Prince Harry and Paddington Bear, portrayed as a coke-crazed South American drug dealer.

Last month, StudioCanal and the estate of the bear’s creator, Michael Bond, launched legal action against the satirical show’s production company Avalon.

Since the high court writ was launched – citing copyright and design right issues – the programme-makers changed Paddington’s look, ditching his familiar red hat and duffle coat, and referring to him only as ‘Pads’.

The ongoing dispute has apparently led to the earlier episodes being pulled from the streaming service, as referenced by the satirical puppets on tonight’s weekly episode

Opening the show – written and voiced by comics Al Murray and Matt Forde – Prince Harry adopts a sombre tone to say: ‘ ‘Hi guys, we're sad to announce the sudden death of five of our YouTube episodes.

‘They were subjected to a brutal takedown mercilessly erased from existence by Studio C. Anal lawyers. All of them removed more quickly than the title "prince" from Uncle Andy.’

Pads added: ’It's real scary, man. Our creations literally snuffed out by the Fun Police. A summary execution, silencing jokes forever. Aye, aye, aye. I mean, I moved to London to escape these kind of South American tactics.’

He later urged viewers to: ’Stick two fingers up to the man, or the middle finger if you're that way inclined.’

Another sketch on the episode parodied the Paddington musical being staged by Studio Canal, offering their version of  Pads: The Musical.

In the original claim, filed on October 2, the plaintiffs  demanded the puppet used on the show to be delivered to them or destroyed saying:  ‘The Avalon puppet depicts the Paddington character with a frightening demeanour,’ it claimed, saying the portrayal as ‘a cocaine smuggler, an alcoholic and a user of heroin’ stealing in ‘coarse language’ that is a ‘distortion or mutilation’ of the polite Paddington of  the books and films. 

When the legal action was first reported, Murray told the Radio Times: ‘It’s the oldest thing in comedy We’re not saying we’ve done anything particularly original. [Paddington] is normally presented as this very "goody-two-shoes" character and we’ve flipped him over. It’s a very Spitting Image thing to do – to take someone and say "Hey, maybe they’re the opposite."’ 

Here’s tonight’s full episode:

Published: 7 Nov 2025