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Television

11th Sep 2020

Spitting Image know exactly what they’re doing with new Michael Gove puppet

Once you see it, it can't be unseen...

Rich Cooper

They have been less than kind to Michael Gove, you can say that for certain

Pictures of a new set of puppets from the upcoming return of classic satirical TV show Spitting Image have been released.

Prominent Conservative politicians Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove are lampooned in the latest horrifying puppets, along with Prince Charles and Camilla.

Check them out below.

Spitting Image puppets have always skated close to the grotesque – they are caricatures, after all. But the puppet of Michael Gove is particularly, um, evocative.

What does it make you think of? As Mikey Smith of the Daily Mirror put it…

The launch date for the rebooted Spitting Image has been confirmed to be Saturday October 3rd, with the show debuting exclusively on BritBox. Puppets of Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings were released last month, along with Prince Andrew and Donald & Melania Trump.

Other celebs and public figures set to get the Spitting Image treatment in the relaunched show include Beyoncé, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Vladimir Putin, Bernie Sanders, Elon Musk, RuPaul, Adele and James Corden.

The original Spitting Image ran from 1984 to 1996, for 131 episodes over 18 series. At the show’s peak, it pulled in over 15 million viewers and was a national institution. All the high profile politicians of the era were immortalised in rubber, including Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Ronald Reagan. The show also heavily parodied the Royal Family, with The Queen Mother portrayed as swilling down gin all the time.

The show was even spun off into several music releases. Multiple singles were released, including ‘The Chicken Song’, a parody of Black Lace’s ‘Agadoo’, which was written by Red Dwarf creators Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and reached number one in the UK singles chart in 1986.

The show also teamed up with real musicians, producing the video for Genesis’ ‘Land of Confusion’ and getting Sting to record a parody of ‘Every Breath You Take’.