Arena: Whatever Happened to Spitting Image?

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Arena

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

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Alex Jones

Anthony Wall

Peter Fluck

Roger Law

John Lloyd

Whatever Happened to Spitting Image?

20/03/2014

BBC Four - Arena, Whatever Happened to Spitting Image?

Documentary telling the story of the genesis of the satirical puppet show Spitting Image.

Documentary telling the story of the genesis of the satirical puppet show Spitting Image, with contributions from caricaturists Peter Fluck and Roger Law and producer John Lloyd.

Reuniting the founding creative team, this documentary tells the vexed and frequently hilarious story of the genesis of the satirical puppet show Spitting Image, with exclusive contributions from caricaturists Peter Fluck and Roger Law and TV producer John Lloyd.

Spanning the early years of Margaret Thatcher's government to the end of John Major's, Spitting Image puppets became almost as famous as the politicians they lampooned. In 2000, the puppets were auctioned off at Sotheby's and in the course of the programme the team sets out to discover where they now reside and who is taking care of them in their old age.  

Revealing the extraordinary technical achievement of the series, Arena meets the caricaturists, puppet-mould makers, designers, puppeteers, impressionists, writers and directors who worked tirelessly to ensure the show landed its weekly jibes and punches at the politicians, royals and celebrities of the day. 

Tracing its journey to our televisions screens through 12 years of huge audience figures and weekly controversy to its eventual demise, the film asks what Spitting Image got right, where it went wrong and whether its absence since 1996 has left a hole in the schedules that has yet to be filled by modern broadcasting.

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