Spitting image
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Spitting image |
| Country of production | UK |
| original language | English |
| Year (s) | 1984-1996 |
| length | 30 to 60 minutes |
| genre | Comedy |
| music |
Philip Pope James Simpson |
| First broadcast | February 26, 1984 ( United Kingdom ) on ITV |
Spitting Image was a satirical British television show broadcast by ITV from 1984 to 1996 and produced by Spitting Image Productions. It was at Spitting Image to latex dolls that represented known as caricatures personalities and parodies were.
Creator
The dolls were created by Peter Fluck and Roger Law (also known as Luck and Flaw ), who were supported in the production of the dolls by David Stoten, Steve Bendelack, Tim Watts, Pablo Bach, Christopher Sharrock and Oscar da Costa, among others .
Characters
The characters were primarily British and US politicians, especially British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , who was portrayed as an aggressive, authoritarian man-woman. At her side was Ronald Reagan , who took on the role of a (literally) mindless, nuclear-obsessed US president. Other characters included Norman Tebbit (in the leather guise of a skinhead), the polite Geoffrey Howe , the manic Michael Heseltine , Edwina Currie as a vamp , the lustful Cecil Parkinson , Douglas Hurd , Kenneth Baker , Nigel Lawson , Tom King and Peter Walker of the Conservatives as well as from the left: Michael Foot as a senile old man, the talkative Neil Kinnock , Roy Hattersley , Ken Livingstone as a left-wing extremist, Denis Healey , Peter Shore and Gerald Kaufman . Liberal Democrats like David Owen and David Steel appeared as tearful eternal losers.
From US politics were represented: Caspar Weinberger as a hardliner, Donald Regan and George HW Bush as the less well-off Vice President. Sylvester Stallone , Ted Kennedy and others tried to run for president.
International politicians also performed: Robert Mugabe , Pieter Willem Botha , Yoweri Museveni , Mikhail Gorbachev , Muammar al-Gaddafi , Benazir Bhutto , Ayatollah Khomeini , François Mitterrand , Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein .
With the political departure of Reagan and Thatcher, the success of the Spitting Image series declined somewhat, as their successors, George HW Bush and John Major, gave significantly less potential for possible parodies - for the harmless major (" Dull John "), for example invented an affair with the Minister Virginia Bottomley in order to bring an element of tension into play at all (in fact it later turned out that Major was actually having an affair with Edwina Currie ). Bill Clinton and Tony Blair appeared in some of the last few shows , but the format was eventually discontinued in 1996.
The British royals were also a recurring theme: The Queen was portrayed as a slightly crazy lady who collects her clothes from garbage cans, while Prince Philip was portrayed as a prankster in naval uniform and with a rifle. Prince Charles appeared reserved and distant, contrasting with Lady Diana , who was characterized as a publicity addict. The senile Queen Mum , always with a bottle of gin in hand, Prince Andrew as a perpetual playboy, Prince Edward as an irritable teenager and the rest of the Windsors got their fat off.
In addition to the politicians, the most famous figures include Pope John Paul II as a rocker, Jesus as a hippie, the Spock actor Leonard Nimoy , Rupert Murdoch , Mark Thatcher and Steve Davis .
Music parodies
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Spitting Image's best-known songs include the Chicken Song (a parody of Agadoo by Black Lace ) and I've Never Met a Nice South-African , a settlement with the apartheid system in South Africa. Sting , the singer of The Police , recorded a version of the hit single Every Breath You Take for the show in 1984 with a new text as Every Bomb You Make . In the video, various dictators of the time were shown against the background of a setting sun. Greater awareness acquired Spitting Image by a cover of Da Doo Ron Ron of Crystals , in 1984 on the occasion of the re-election campaign of Ronald Reagan , entitled Da Do Run Ron was released as a single, and their appearance in the music video for Land of Confusion , a song by Genesis from 1986.
Influences
From the late 1980s to the beginning of the 1990s, the ORF's arts magazine kunst-pieces broadcast the original episodes and made the format known in German-speaking countries. Imitators were not long in coming: Hurray Germany (1987–1991) had puppets made by German politicians "dance", the Gerd show ridiculed musicians and other celebrities from 1999 onwards. The Austrian answer (not very successful and therefore short-lived) was called Telewisch'n and was seen from 1987–1989 in irregular, approximately 25-minute episodes on ORF. A similar show popular in Russia, Kukly ("Puppets"), was discontinued in 2002 under government pressure.
Surname
Spitting image - for example: She's the spitting image of her mother. ('She looks like her mother's face.') - in English means something like 'to look very much like someone'.
computer game
- → Main article : Spitting Image (computer game)
In 1989, a beat 'em up for the show was released for several home computers.
Awards
Spitting Image was nominated for ten BAFTA Awards from 1985 to 1992 .
- 1985 Golden Rose of Montreux - Bronze Rose
Web links
- Spitting Image in the Internet Movie Database (English)