The name Roger Law might not be known to many South Africans but suffice to
say he is the man who held former British prime minister Tony Blair by the ears
and had a humorous conversation with the late Osama Bin Laden…sort of.
Anyone living in the UK between 1984 and 1996 who watched the ITV network
would have seen the iconic comedy series, Spitting Image, featuring hilarious
puppet caricatures of famous celebrities and politicians of the day.
Late last year Roger Law, who co-created Spitting Image together with Peter
Fluck, emailed Thierry Cassuto, producer of the South African satirical puppet
series, ZANEWS, and asked if he could do a radio documentary on the show for
the BBC.
“I was quite gobsmacked when I received Roger’s email,’ said Cassuto, “in fact,
I had to pinch myself and double check the email address because my first
reaction was to think it was a joke. Roger Law and Peter Fluck were like
demigods to us. They inspired so many generations of producers and writers to
dare to do similar shows to Spitting Image, in France, Russia, India, Kenya and
many other countries, including us in South Africa.’
Cassuto noted that when Law arrived at ZANEWS headquarters in Cape Town
with BBC senior producer Mark Richard, it seemed like a strange reversal of
roles.
“We had so many questions we wanted to ask Roger,’ continued Cassuto. “He
spoke to everybody – our writers, voice artists, puppet makers, puppeteers,
producers. We compared the way they used to do Spitting Image and what we
do here. They had a lot more money than we do, as they were aired in prime
time on ITV on Sundays, and drove huge ratings and had thousands of puppets.
But all in all we’re doing things pretty much the way they were doing it, including
the brutal deadlines and the intoxicating smells of the chemicals used to make
the puppets.’
Law added: “I saw ZANEWS on the internet and I thought it was really terrific.
ZANEWS should be on mainstream TV and not just pay-TV and the web. If the
South African politicians are frightened of the show I can say to them with the
utmost honesty that Spitting Image didn’t change one single thing about British
politics.’
Ground-breaking
Prior to Spitting Image Law was a caricaturist for the print media.
“Peter (Fluck) and I originally came up with an idea of taking political cartoons
from newspapers and turning them into a TV series but it didn’t work out. So we
thought about doing a puppet caricature show.
“Spitting Image was in many ways ground-breaking, but it was very difficult to
produce, in particular the first series, which did not really work well. The show
improved when we switched from long skits to one-liners and moved the
puppets around much faster. You see, the problem with puppets is that they
can’t act,’ explained Law.
He revealed that he was particularly fond of the “Fergie’ puppet (Sarah
Ferguson) on Spitting Image. “Every time “Fergie’ went out, she would put a
colander in front of her face and spray-paint freckles on her face.
“Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan featured prominently on Spitting Image.
They were pretty unpleasant characters and therefore suited to puppets.
There’s not much point in making puppets of nice politicians.’
Right mix
The show was originally envisaged as 28-minute episodes of political satire but,
according to Law, viewers lined up to switch off the show when it was in this
format.
“We decided to add celebrities and sports stars to the mix and that’s when the
show took off. So, in any episode there would only be about seven minutes of
real political satire. ZANEWS is doing the same thing.
“The other reason why the mix of political, celebrity and sports puppets worked
so well is because we attracted two types of audiences – the ones who read
highbrow newspapers like The Guardian and the others that read tabloids like
The Sun.’
With such satirical content you’d think Spitting Image might have had generated
legal issues.
“We only experienced minor problems,’ commented Law. “The irony is that the
more popular the show became the more politicians sent in their photos hoping
that we’d make puppets of them.
“Author Jeffrey Archer contacted us once, desperate to be on the show and I
said absolutely not. But then afterwards he was caught in a compromising
situation on camera so we made a puppet of him. Nobody ever filed lawsuits
against Spitting Image which is a pity; it would have been a great pleasure to
have been sued by politicians.’
Costly show
Law noted that Spitting Image was an expensive show to produce partly
because it required a workshop of about 15 to 20 artisans, including himself, and
lots of different materials to make the puppets.
“For every single puppet we needed a draughtsman, a modeler, a moulder, a
painter and an engineer. In the studio each puppet needed a voice artist and at
least two puppeteers, sometimes three.
“There were lots of scriptwriters on Spitting Image, mostly young people who
could work odd hours because they didn’t have spouses and kids. Among the
writers were Ben Elton (The Thin Blue Line) and Richard Curtis (Four Weddings
and a Funeral, Blackadder),’ said Law.
All in all, there are 300 hours of Spitting Image.
