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As the title (a colloquial phrase meaning a person closely resembling another) suggests, the show was not afraid to offend its viewers, or its targets. The puppets, caricaturing public figures, were designed by the cartoonists Peter Fluck and Roger Law (who sometimes spoonerized their names as 'Luck and Flaw'). They were assisted by various young caricaturists including David Stoten, Steve Bendelack, Tim Watts, Pablo Bach and Oscar da Costa and virtually every successful British impressionist of the time. Musical parodies were provided by Philip PopePhilip Pope is a British composer and actor. He has performed the BBC cult radio comedy series Radio Active and has also appeared in a number of TV comedy shows, including Who Dares Wins and KYTV''. He made guest appearances on Shelley with Hywell Bennett (former member of Who Dares WinsTV Show Who Dares Wins is a UK comedy sketch show of the mid-80's featuring Jimmy Mulville, Rory McGrath, Philip Pope, Julia Hills and Tony Robinson. It was one of the first outlets for alternative comedy and was broadcast by Channel 4 late at night as a and the Hee Bee Gee BeesHee Bee Gee Bees were a pop group formed initially to parody the Bee Gees towards the close of their sequence of high-pitched, somewhat repetitive disco-style hits. Performers included Richard Curtis, Angus Deayton and Philip Pope. Their big hit "Meaningl team) and later Steve BrownSteve Brown is the name of more than one person of note: Steve Brown (actor) Steve Brown (bass player) New Orleans jazz bass musician Steve Brown (composer) UK television music composer. ( Glen PonderAgain, this article makes the same two newbie mistakes. This user is writing one of these every minute, so now I'm going to stop trying to keep up. Character played by Steve Brown in UK comedy series Knowing Me, Knowing You (1994). Glen was in charge of A in Knowing Me, Knowing YouKnowing Me, Knowing You is a popular song by the group Abba. The TV show is named after the song, which it uses as title music. Knowing Me, Knowing You. with Alan Partridge (also known as Knowing Me, Knowing You or abbreviated to KMKYWAP is a British come).
The stars of the show, though, were the latexLatex fom a tree, Latex is used in Rubber production. See also LAT&Chi a macro package for the TΧ typesetting system. Latex as found in nature, is the milky sap of many plants that coagulates on exposure to air. It is a complex emulsion in which prote puppets. Centre stage (as only to be expected from a topical satire show) were the politicians, in particular Mrs. ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS (born October 13, 1925) is a British politician and the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a position she held from 1979 to 1990. She is a member of the Conservative Party and still, who was portrayed as a bullying, fascist, bald male tyrant, and Ronald Reagan (a bumbling, nuke-obsessed fool with a (literally) missing brain). Providing admirable support were Bovver boy Norman Tebbit, bland-as-sand Geoffrey Howe, raving loony Michael Heseltine, scandalous Cecil Parkinson, Leon Brittan, Nigel Lawson, Norman Fowler, Douglas Hurd (he of the Mr. Whippy hair-do), slug-like Kenneth Baker and, on the other side of the House, the verbally unstoppable Neil Kinnock and the actually spitting Roy Hattersley. As these 'characters' left the public eye it was generally felt that the show tended to miss more often than it hit. Thatcher was replaced with an all grey John Major who enjoyed nothing better than a nice meal of peas with his wife Norma. Tony Blair appeared in the last few series as a grinning puppet 'puppet' hypnotised by a Peter Mandelson snake. The show ended in 1996 never having been made under a Labour government.
A mainstay of Spitting Image was, of course, The Royal Family. The Queen always seemed ever so slightly mad, Prince Phillip was a blunderbuss-toting loon, Prince Charles a bit of an out-of-touch old hippy and Diana a publicity-hungry Sloane Ranger. There was also randy Prince Andrew, horsey Princess Anne, petulant thicko teenager Prince Edward, tipsy Princess Margaret, truffle-snuffling Fergie and a totally dotty Queen Mum complete with bottle of Gordons Gin, copy of the Racing Post and a Beryl Reid voice.
Other popular puppets included a crying Gazza, a smarmy Jeremy Paxman, Donald Sinden (forever seeking a knighthood), Leonard Nimoy (desperate to shake off his Spock image despite the fact he has pointed ears that flap constantly), hip and swinging Gorby, election-losing David Owen complete with whining, bed-wetting David Steel in his pocket, Sir John Gielgud (who always fell asleep and had to be prodded awake with a stick), bonkers to bits Gaby Roslin, blooper-friendly David Coleman, Paul Daniels and his pet wig, John Cole (always being hit on the head outside parliament), fawning Sir Alistair Burnet , Ian McCaskill (he of the huge flip-back glasses), Madonna (with singing bellybutton), vamp-like Edwina Currie and a truly rock-n-roll Pope John Paul II.
The program was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central.
In 1986, the Spitting Image puppets had a number one hit in the UK charts with "The Chicken Song", parodying "Agadoo" by Black Lace - one of several parodies to have featured in the programme.
Most of the puppet caricatures were later sold by auction at Sotheby's.
More recently 2DTV satirised celebrities in a very similar style to Spitting Image, but used cartoons rather than puppets.
Producer John Lloyd is in talks with ITV to bring Spitting Image back, and if successful, the series could be on TV again from Autumn 2005.