Before 'Spitting Image' there was Mike Yarwood.
'Nuff said. He was great as impersonators go. But in the clearer light of the 1980's, nowhere near cynical or cruel enough. By then; we were beginning to see just what creepy, crooked liars our politicians really were, and what shallow, vain-glorious humbugs our celebrities. Cheerful lampooning was not enough.
And latex was the answer. Puppets could accomplish something that human impersonators could not. Oddly, it was something that our ancestors knew all along, and was practiced in the old Punch & Judy shows. Unlike impersonators, puppets have no intrinsic personality. Instead they are original mockeries, and can get away with the kind of ruthless abuse that would undermine the career of any human impersonator.
Margaret Thatcher's term in office was an ideal time. Politicians had become outrageously arrogant. Two of her tribe (Archer & Aitken) were ultimately sent to prison, whilst celebs thought they could do as they pleased. 'Spitting Image' changed all that. The puppets and script-writers took no prisoners. From the spittle-fountain of Hattersley and the semi-senile Reagan, to the neo-fascist Tebbit and the pocket-pet of David Owen; if you were visible on the spitting-radar prepare to squirm.
Some actually liked their puppet - or at least, claimed to. But then there was nothing else they could do except lump it, if they didn't. Others genuinely hated theirs, and it is a matter of record that careers were affected by this uncompromising satire.
There is no better proof here that a good puppet is better than human impersonators, cartoons or even CGI. Tony Blair's entire crooked regime escaped the well-deserved lambasting that the 'Spitting Image' team could have provided. No regime was more image conscious that his, nor indeed ultimately more arrogant. In this regard he far exceeded even Margaret Thatcher. And because his gang were composed mostly of lawyers, they knew how to be crooked and yet circumvent accountability. Who knows; if 'Spitting Image' had been around in the late 1990's, to worthy effect, we might have been spared 2 disastrous, costly and illegal wars.
A class act, sadly missed by the public, and gratefully avoided by the over-weening creeps of this world.
'Nuff said. He was great as impersonators go. But in the clearer light of the 1980's, nowhere near cynical or cruel enough. By then; we were beginning to see just what creepy, crooked liars our politicians really were, and what shallow, vain-glorious humbugs our celebrities. Cheerful lampooning was not enough.
And latex was the answer. Puppets could accomplish something that human impersonators could not. Oddly, it was something that our ancestors knew all along, and was practiced in the old Punch & Judy shows. Unlike impersonators, puppets have no intrinsic personality. Instead they are original mockeries, and can get away with the kind of ruthless abuse that would undermine the career of any human impersonator.
Margaret Thatcher's term in office was an ideal time. Politicians had become outrageously arrogant. Two of her tribe (Archer & Aitken) were ultimately sent to prison, whilst celebs thought they could do as they pleased. 'Spitting Image' changed all that. The puppets and script-writers took no prisoners. From the spittle-fountain of Hattersley and the semi-senile Reagan, to the neo-fascist Tebbit and the pocket-pet of David Owen; if you were visible on the spitting-radar prepare to squirm.
Some actually liked their puppet - or at least, claimed to. But then there was nothing else they could do except lump it, if they didn't. Others genuinely hated theirs, and it is a matter of record that careers were affected by this uncompromising satire.
There is no better proof here that a good puppet is better than human impersonators, cartoons or even CGI. Tony Blair's entire crooked regime escaped the well-deserved lambasting that the 'Spitting Image' team could have provided. No regime was more image conscious that his, nor indeed ultimately more arrogant. In this regard he far exceeded even Margaret Thatcher. And because his gang were composed mostly of lawyers, they knew how to be crooked and yet circumvent accountability. Who knows; if 'Spitting Image' had been around in the late 1990's, to worthy effect, we might have been spared 2 disastrous, costly and illegal wars.
A class act, sadly missed by the public, and gratefully avoided by the over-weening creeps of this world.