Bring back Spitting Image: correct distorted vision

[Peter]

Bring back Spitting Image!! Indicate support by posting (brief) agree/disagree responses here please!

"Correcting for the distorted vision..." That's exactly what Spitting Image used to do of course.
So why are there no loud appeals for its return?

Fact/platitude: TV political satire is the sign of a healthy democracy and of a healthy public service broadcaster - hence the enforced satirical wilderness of the past 7 years(...at least).
Have I Got News and the News Quiz masquerade as satire - in reality neither of these BBC offerings amount to more than timid, self-satisfied, take-the-money-and-run, throwaway jolly japing.
Bremner Bird and Fortune(BBF) - especially Bremner - are brilliant when good - woolly and flatulent when not-so-good.
The new BBF series - the hour-long show - in contrast to the hard-hitting and essential BBF Iraq specials - is over-long and patchy and just doesn't spit fire and blood the way that Spitting Image did and should be doing right now. (And preferably on the BBC - political TV satire is or should be a required public service in a healthy democracy as it was in the 60's, 70's and 80's. )
The short-lived(?) D2TV was also dangerously good - clearly way too subversive for the current UK-US regimes. (It speaks volumes that the series was recently repeated in an 'uncensored' and brilliantly dubbed version on German TV / Pro Sieben. Do you still believe it's the Germans who have no sense of humour?)
It was always said that Spitting Image was ahead of its time - well the future's here and it's time is now - or should be and could be if only the public would start to scream and shout and spit some fire and blood to get the series back onto our satire-lite TV screens.

Please add your (brief?) responses....

[Philip Challinor]

I don't recall that Spitting Image had much going for it as satire. Some of it was pretty good, but it was mostly lampoon, which involves giving authority the finger rather than taking a scalpel to it.

[David Traynier]

Spitting Image had exceptional moments but it was always very patchy. It staggered on for quite a while longer than -probably- it should have. I see no particular bar to having it back, so long as the writing was reinvigorated. Satire in general plummeted in the mid to late 90s, as a result of the bland, suffocating blanket thrown across the political arena by BlairCo. It took a couple of years for satirists to get their bearings again -even Bremner (who was radicalized by the two Johns, anyway).

I take your point about Have I got News for You and the News Quiz. HIGNFY seems to be in decline after the departure of Deayton but I think it is also a result of a progressively more smug and establishment Ian Hislop (his insulting behaviour towards his team mate Mark Steel was indicative of this) and the seemingly more complacent and bored Paul Merton. New personal would be in order, I suspect -the format is ageless.

As for the News Quiz, it is very establishment but I think this is changing as some of the old guard moves on. Personally, I like it because it qives a regular gig to the excellent Jeremy Hardy and the increasingly impressive Linda Smith. In addition, Radio 4 has 'The Now Show' which, while officially eschewing satire, is often absolutely cutting -Marcus Brigstock especially. Radio 4 (and now BBC 2) also provide us with the terrific 'Absolute Power' which, although not strictly topical is very sharp (sharp enough to have been almost pulled this week, it seems).

BBF can sometimes stop being funny but it is seldom less than informative and sharp -in my opinion. I wouldn't be without it.

I've never heard of D2TV so I can't say anything.

I'm also surprised you've neglected what is arguably the finest radical satire on the box -the Mark Thomas Comedy Product (which I think is still a current production even if sporadic).


On a wider point, I agree we need more satire, however, I wouldn't hold out much hope for a return for Spitting Image. Aside from anything else, political satire generally attracts low ratings and ITV would have little interest -poor rating dogged SI almost from the beginning, if I recall.


Anyway, my penny's worth.

[Peter]

Agree with you about Brigstock - but you always sense that political satire has to be snuck in and hidden/buried somewhere in the middle of any given show in order not to raise the eyebrows and heckles of the powers-that-be - and of the assorted corporate & Blair Beeb-watchers..
I also discovered Radio 2's Half Sketch (Sat 13.30) last Saturday: after the liberation of Dyke it seemed particularly devil-may-care and vitriolic.

[Moira G]

It's "2DTV" not "D2TV"....see www.2dtv.co.uk/pages/propaganda.htm - where they do indeed compare themselves to Spitting Image.

Also: Radio 2's very un-Radio 2 'Half Sketch' - yes it was very scathing re WMD's last week -is also aired Thursday nights at 22.00.
2DTV's George Michael anti-Bush advert ran into trouble last year and was famously banned...
I agree that what political satire there is does seem far too 'affectionate': "We hate you..but we love you really".
Rather than taking the gloves off and getting the knives out in order to affect change, the aim - HIGNFY...News Quiz...Absolute Power rarely risks venturing beyond gentle, semi-affectionate and timid teasing(unlike Bremner alone at the mike..)

[Peter]

Half Sketch say they welcome listeners' satirical sketch ideas:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/halfsketch.shtml

[kebz]

The rumours I heard at the time were that there was top level interference
in the production of this series. I also remember a campaign by newspapers like The Sun and the Mail and other right wing papers who were saying that the idea had 'become tired' and was 'past its sell by date'. I suspect that campaign was ordered by the politicians who spitting image lampooned so successfully. It did society a service by making sure the public were aware of the mostly rotten character traits in our politicians.

[Eric]

I agree that Sptting Image was shamefully insipid and horribly self-satisfied. As for recent years, the only really decent thing I can remember is Brass Eye. Having said that, I don't watch much tv anymore, it makes me unhappy.

[Moira G]

Oh let's not forget the BBC's Week Ending - a biting political satire that with hindsight most of us took for granted and actually got bored with...a sort of Spitting Image with more depth and acumen...
Bring them all back!!