Spitting Image relaunched

BRITISH broadcaster ITV is to relaunch its cult 1980s satire show Spitting Image — with a new cast of heroes and villains for the digital era.

Out go the familiar latex puppets and instead viewers will see politicians, celebrities and the otherwise famous lampooned in modern computerised animation.

Using the same animation technique as Disney’s Toy Story films, the targets for the show include the rich, the vain, the pompous, the rude, the arrogant and Britain’s legion of dull politicians and pointless celebrities.

Now called Headcases, the show will even be broadcast in the same Sunday night slot as SpittingImage, which was cult viewing for its clever mix of humour and politics during the 1980s.

But the script writers and voice-over artists behind Headcases will have to work hard if they are to achieve anything like the success of their forerunners at Spitting Image.

ITV’s original puppet show ran for 12 years from 1984 and, remarkably, even notched up a No 1 single in 1986 with the Chicken Song.

Spitting Image’s success was partly down to the appeal of the politicians and figures loathed and loved in equal measure by the public.

World leaders like Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, not to mention Britain’s royal family, were turned into comedy gold by Spitting Image’s team every week.

But by waiting until 2008 to launch a new Spitting Image, ITV’s Headcases could well have missed the boat: top target Tony Blair is out of office, George W Bush’s controversial term as US president is nearing an end and Russia is no longer the west’s favourite ogre. Also, the sniping coverage of Britain’s celebrity culture in newspapers, radio and television could leave little room for a comedy show’s dig at the likes of stars Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse. Headcases starts next Sunday.