Oh come all ye faithful-puppets … seasonal satirical cheer and a second outing to ITV this year for the BritBox hit show.
Advent events to go through Spitting Image’s legendary prism include a shocking Christmas surprise for Prince Andrew; an ever-heroic Tom Cruise stepping up to save Christmas for Santa; who better to add a bit of flair to the Queen’s annual Christmas message than Phoebe Waller-Bridge; Keir Starmer finally springing into action for an oncoming Christmas lunch crisis with his (always law-abiding) vigilante alter-ego, Fox Man; while poor Rishi Sunak is visited by terrifying visions including of The Ghost of Tory Glory Past.
Spitting Image has delivered record subscribers for BritBox UK, the BBC and ITV created streaming platform. Across official social media channels, Spitting Image content has been hugely popular with over 200 million views globally and three No. 1 trending videos on YouTube.
With the world getting smaller and more turbulent, last year celebrated Spitting Image co-creator Roger Law returned to head up the show’s creative team, while multi-award-winner Jeff Westbrook (The Simpsons, Futurama) joined as Showrunner, leading the international writing team on the iconic British satirical take on global events.
A next generation of satirical writers and voice artists are working with established talent to drive a new wave of ‘public service satire’. The show is ultra-topical with scripts being written and new puppets made as close to each episode as possible.
Internationally, a bespoke German language version of the show has successfully launched in Germany. Spitting Image: The Krauts’ Edition, includes the globally resonating content from the English language version (redubbed by Germany’s leading voice artists), with new topical local sketches (written by German comedy writers) – all filmed in the UK-based Spitting Image studio as close to transmission to ensure maximum topicality.
Elsewhere the debut drew the second-best channel audience figure in Finland for its time slot, the show is a leading title for BritBox Australia, as well as seeing millions of views in the USA via YouTube.
The Spitting Image Christmas Special will air on ITV in the Christmas schedule and will premiere in advance to BritBox UK subscribers on Thursday 2nd December.