Media
Biting satire? Yes please
Published 28 May 2007
There's never been a greater need for a Spitting Image-style take on life and politics
Television satire is about to go back to the future, and about time. ITV is developing a series in the tradition of Spitting Image, and although the characters are going to be computer-animated rather than Fluck and Law's demented latex puppets, the truth remains that never has a programme viciously lampooning public figures of the day been more needed.
I'm not just being sentimental about the programmes I grew up with, although I don't deny just how tantalising sitting down to Spitting Image was in my teenage years. It was political vaudeville at a time when the left was broken, the SDP had been created by the Gang of Four and the reality that Margaret Thatcher would be in power for a very, very long time was steadily dawning. Through those years Spitting Image held up a mirror to those with power and influence in the country. Westminster village political shows may have grilled ministers and business leaders on Sunday mornings, but nothing compared to Spitting Image's combination of fun, ridicule, biting critique and endearment.
Remember the Arthur Scargill figure, or "Tarzan" Heseltine with eyes as wide and wild as Jack Nicholson's character in The Shining? Seeing how Spitting Image would portray the goings-on in each week's cabinet meeting was something to look forward to, with Thatcher as the only "man" around the table, wearing a suit and tie, smoking a Churchillian cigar and striking up conversation with ministers at the urinals in No 10. Labour was far from immune - Neil Kinnock never really recovered from the note-perfect caricature of his voice and accent, and the same was true of Roy Hattersley, whose puppet was cruelly made to have a constant spray of spit coming out of its mouth. And, of course, there was the long send-up of Ronald "the president's brain is missing" Reagan, and towards the end an overweight, lecherous Bill Clinton.
Spitting Image was a springboard for a generation of satirists and comedians, such as Harry Enfield, Steve Coogan and Chris Barrie, who would later come to dominate their fields. With the advent of new programmes including Have I Got News For You and the ever-brilliant Rory Bremner Show, somehow the old puppets seemed a bit yesteryear. The series had been at the cutting edge of satire for 12 years, from 1984 to 1996, and the brilliance was difficult to sustain. The tragedy was that the programme was killed off just as Tony Blair became Labour leader. He appeared in a few episodes right at the end of the series with his puppet constantly wearing what the Americans call a "shit-eating grin" and being manipulated by Peter Mandelson under a hypnotic spell. Just as intriguingly, the show made a puppet for a fanatical guerrilla fighter who was beginning to be noticed: one Osama bin Laden. But the series came to an end before his puppet ever made it to air.
How will the new series respond to a world that has changed so drastically? When Spitting Image was last on, Saddam Hussein was in trouble with the UN, having invaded Kuwait, Paris Hilton probably hadn't been born and the modern age of celebrity-worship had yet to begin. Will TV network executives try to find tomorrow's Harry Enfields and Rory Bremners by giving them the space and time to be as bold as they want to be and rattle a few cages?
If the new series really aspires to be as influential as Spitting Image was in its heyday, it will have to compete with the best of the world's satire on our multichannel TVs and YouTubed computers. You can watch everything from the unrivalled, bold political satire of Jon Stewart to the knuckle-biting brilliance of Iraqi satirical TV programmes (yes, there are several) such as the Dubai-produced Hurry Up, He's Dead.
The real missed opportunity is that a successor to Spitting Image was not developed at the height of the Blair years. Just as during the Thatcher administrations, it was a time when there were very few contrary and funny satirists, with notable exceptions such as Mark Thomas. Worse still was the fact that many actors, comedians, musicians and artists had fallen under the Blair spell with "Cool Brittania". What a field day we would have had watching Mandelson's serial woes, cash for honours, a crazy Alastair Campbell as the heir to Norman Tebbit's aggressive skinhead and, yes, Iraq.
The age of the war on terror would have been perfect for Spitting Image. Instead, we will get it six months into the Brown premiership. But that's better than not at all. The new series will have a lot to live up to; I wish it well.
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