Arena to focus on Spitting Image 30th anniversary
Spitting Image, the long-running satirical puppet show is to be celebrated on its 30th anniversary by BBC Four.
The channel has today announced the commission of an edition of Arena, the long-running arts documentary strand, looking at the history and influence of the landmark ITV comedy series.
Launching on Sunday 26th February 1984, the Central Television sketch show ran for 21 series, finally coming to a close in 1996. Caricaturing and defining in popular consciousness a generation of political figures, it was known for its grossly exaggerated latex puppets of celebrities, royalty and politicans (pictured).
Reuniting the founding creative team, Arena: Whatever Happened To Spitting Image? will tell the "vexed and frequently hilarious story" of the genesis of the comedy series, with exclusive contributions from caricaturists and creators Peter Fluck and Roger Law, plus producer John Lloyd.
It will also speak to a number of the impressionists who worked on the series. Famous names to have made a contribution to Spitting Image include Chris Barrie, Phil Cornwell, John Sessions, Harry Enfield, Jan Ravens, Alistair McGowan, Hugh Dennis and Steve Coogan.
In 2000 the puppets were auctioned off at Sotheby's and in the course of this programme the team sets out to discover where they now reside and who is taking care of them in their old age.
Arena will also meet the other 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 public figures of the day.
Tracing its journey to TV screens, through 12 years of huge audience figures and weekly controversy to its eventual demise, BBC Arena will ask what Spitting Image got right, where it went wrong and whether its absence the last 17 years has left a hole in the schedules that has yet to be filled by modern broadcasting.
Anthony Wall, Series Editor of Arena, says: "I made a film about Fluck and Law in 1980, some years before Spitting Image was made, so it's great to be able to revisit their distinctive contribution to Britain's television history."
Cassian Harrison, Channel Editor for BBC Four, says: "It's a testament to Arena's success and eclectic tastes that they've secured access to the Spitting Image team, and this is a timely opportunity for Arena to look back at one of television's most extraordinary satirical successes."
Arena: Whatever Happened To Spitting Image? will air on BBC Four in the spring.
Here is a sketch from the fourth series of Spitting Image, broadcast in October 1986: