TV Series created by Roger Law

A modern re-imagining of the acclaimed satirical puppet show. 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).

At 10pm on a Sunday night in 1984, Peter Fluck and Roger Law's caricatures of the famous were unveiled to British audiences. Frequently crass and tasteless, but just as often hilarious, the caricatures of Spitting Image were to offend, outrage and amuse for another 12 years, before being laid to rest in 1996, making it the most successful adult orientated puppet television programme ever. Its format, a satirical comedy sketch show with latex puppets rather than live actors, was inventive and at times surreal. Some of Spitting Image's sketches were shot and edited only hours before the show went on the airwaves, thus ensuring a fresh up-to-date topicality. Spitting Image preyed on well known faces, from the Royals to MPs. In spite of its detractors, over 12 million viewers (a quarter of England's adult population) watched Spitting Image on Central Independent Television, a subsidiary of ITV. Its spin-off records, books, comics and videos sold in the millions. It won an International Emmy for "Outstanding Popular Arts" program in the 1985-86 season, and spawned a Number 1 hit in 'The Chicken Song'.