Sunday 17 March 2019

A Comedy On This Day: Spitting Image (18 March 1984)


 Only the third episode... Has any other programme of the significance and stature of Spitting Image ever had quite so poor a first series? In the 1980s, one used to often hear public figures and commentators diplomatically opine that they thought that the puppets were much better than the material. If they'd only seen the early ones, that was a understandable verdict.

 Something that's odd is how little of it is really topical. The only jokes that come out of that week's news are brief skits about Arthur Scargill (threatening response to pit closures announcement) and Mark Thatcher (dubious Oman deal). To my mind, these to-the-point one-liners and mini-sketches have dated rather better than long convoluted routines about Reagan being senile or Thatcher being authoritarian.

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