Live Public Service Satire from the BritBox and ITV hit show to land in 2022.
The Spitting Image puppets will tread the boards of London’s West End in 2022.
Spitting Image co-creator Roger Law:
“The last month has shown Spitting Image has been far too kind to Boris and his pals on TV recently. So to deliver the kind of sharp satire and laughter they deserve Spitting Image have decided to make a live production. Whilst Boris and his boys and girls level themselves ever upwards to the sunny uplands… we are preparing to level them down to size in a West End theatrical show.
“We can’t give too much away at this time, possibly because we’re still writing it, however, unlike Boris, we will deliver with no shortcuts. I’m afraid there will be lies because it’s Boris. I can tell you that we have devised a spectacular show-stopping ending, a huge carnival head of Boris that fills the stage will open its mouth and spew a snowstorm of paper lies all over the theatre. The lies printed on small pieces of paper will flutter down onto the audience who will be able to pick up their favourite Boris untruths and take them home as mementoes. Videndum spectaculum!”
Since returning in 2020 Spitting Image has delivered record subscribers for BritBox UK, the BBC and ITV created streaming platform, as well as picking up huge critical acclaim. Across official social media channels, Spitting Image content has been hugely popular with over 200 million views globally, three No. 1 trending videos on YouTube and achieved praise across political the political divide (quotes below).
Three one-off specials for ITV have also seen huge success on terrestrial television: with a 4.4 million audience with a one-off US Election Special, the highest Saturday night ratings at that time in four years (one of ITV’s biggest Saturday night ABC1 audiences of 2020); a 2021 Halloween Special was the channel’s second most-watched show on Saturday it was broadcast; and a Christmas Special is scheduled for this Christmas Eve at 10pm.
Series two has already seen the introduction of new puppets of prominent figures including Emma Raducanu, Olivia Colman, Sajid Javid, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Tom Cruise, Tom Daley, Jess Phillips, Ariana Grande, Gary Lineker, Bill Gates, Ellen DeGeneres, and Raheem Sterling, to name a few, to add to the existing cast of hundreds puppets of global figures including: Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, Cristiano Ronaldo, Prince Andrew, Harry Kane, Vladimir Putin, Harry & Meghan, Beyoncé, Angela Merkel, Dwayne Johnson, Gareth Southgate, Ed Sheeran, Jürgen Klopp, Elon Musk, Adele, Covid-19, James Corden, Emmanuel Macron, Mark Zuckerberg, Donald Trump, and Dominic Cummings.
Spitting Image Live will be produced by Avalon with further information on the theatre show announced in due course.
