Spitting Image

Spitting Image was a satirical puppet-show that ran on Britain's ITV Network from 1984 to 1992. 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'). Musical parodies were provided by Philip Pope, and the voices were provided by some of the best British impressionists of the day, including Harry Enfield, Enn Reitel[?], Chris Barrie, Rory Bremner and Jane Horrocks.

The program was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central.

There were some attempts to produce a US version of the show, but it never really caught on. DC Follies had a passing resemblance to Spitting Image, but was not considered as funny.

In 1986, the Spitting Image puppets had a number one hit in the UK charts with "The Chicken Song", one of several parodies to have featured in the programme.

More recently 2DTV satirised celebrities in a very similar style to Spitting Image, but used cartoons rather than puppets.

List of British TV shows remade for the American market