Almost 40 years after the original television series of Spitting Image was filmed in Birmingham, the satirical sketch show is making a welcome return to the city, this time as a work of theatre. 
Birmingham Rep Artistic Director Sean Foley - the man at the helm of the new show - spoke to What’s On about the eagerly anticipated stage production, which opens next month...

Whether it’s Margaret Thatcher power-dressing in a bowler hat and suit, Ronald Reagan’s brain being popped into his empty skull, or magician Paul Daniels wearing a spinning hairpiece, the fabulous puppets, impersonations and sketches of Spitting Image are etched into the memories of comedy lovers of a certain age.

The ground-breaking BAFTA and Emmy award-winning TV programme ran for 18 series between 1984 and 1996. It was revived on Britbox for a new generation in 2020, bringing even more wonderful latex creations to the fore, including Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, Priti Patel and Vladimir Putin.

The success of the recent series - which included three specials on ITV - has prompted the creation of a first-ever stage version of the show, which next month opens at Birmingham Rep, returning Spitting Image to the city where it was originally filmed for Central TV. The theatre’s artistic director, Sean Foley, will helm the production, and he’s also part of a writing team that includes comedians Matt Forde (the voice of Boris and Trump, among others) and Al Murray, best known for his alter-ego, The Pub Landlord.

Both Matt and Al were involved in the triumphant Britbox revival of the show, and although Sean says its success made creating a stage version an attractive proposition, he also believes its timing couldn’t be more appropriate.
“The producers realised there’s a really good wellspring of admiration and love for the brand Spitting Image, but also - and let’s be straightforward - we need something like Spitting Image at the moment. We need to be able to ridicule and take down those people in power who are hypocrites and making mistakes and all of those things, and Spitting Image is a fantastic way of doing that, because it makes everyone laugh.”

Adapting the ultra-topical sketch show for the stage is a huge and exciting undertaking but not without its challenges - not least in creating a storyline that will last the course of its six-week run. The bewildering last six months of British politics hasn’t exactly been kind to the show’s creators - you can imagine they’d barely started making a puppet of Liz Truss before they no longer needed one.

“Trying to develop a satirical comedy based on the shifting politics of today has been the original fool’s errand,” says Sean. “We’ve already thrown away three entire scripts, and several famous puppets aren’t going to make their stage debuts anymore. 
“I just wanted everything to stop so we wouldn’t have to keep rewriting, but we think we’ve arrived at a story now where we can combine making fun at the contemporary but which will also serve as a proper show for the whole run. People can expect a big West End-style show with great numbers and great routines, but also fantastic, funny scripts that poke fun at pretty much everyone.”

Titled Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image Saves The World, the show will see a crack team of global celebrities brought together to save an ailing Great Britain.
“King Charles inherits a kingdom that is divided and broken, and he decides - inspired by his own father’s love for the film - to put together his own Magnificent Seven to save Britain from the bandits. Tom Cruise takes on the Yul Bryner role, and his motley crew go in search of the baddies who have ruined Britain. Who they are isn’t much of a mystery, but you’ll have to come along to find out.”

Featuring everyone from Stormzy, Taylor Swift and Daniel Craig to Greta Thunberg, Prince Harry and Paddington Bear, it’s hard to dispute Sean’s claim that the show contains “the greatest cast ever assembled”, even if it does return certain characters to the spotlight at a time when we’re still enjoying their absence. 

It seems as much of a conundrum for the creators as the audience. I tell Sean I’m relieved Boris Johnson and Donald Trump no longer have such high profiles on the world stage but that I’d miss their puppet caricatures if they weren’t there.
“That’s what we thought as well - these people are diminishing in their power, thank goodness, but they remain amazing characters. Spitting Image is the ideal way to keep them in the public eye as we hold them up to ridicule.”

The logistics of the stage show mean it can’t remain as up-to-the-minute topical as the TV version - the puppeteers perform to a recorded voice track of the script – but Sean still aims to incorporate events that happen during the show’s six-week run.
“There are a few moments where we might be able to get something in. We can’t change the script in every scene every week, but there will always be a few nuggets that we pick out.”

It’s an element he’s obviously keen to ensure happens, but Sean’s also delighted that the premise and storyline already have the blessing of Roger Law, one of the show’s original creators alongside Peter Fluck and the late Martin Lambie-Nairn.

“He’s been nothing short of an inspiration. He’s 80 now, lives out in Norfolk, and I’ve visited him occasionally to get an anarchic hand on the tiller. He’s a real free spirit, as you might imagine someone who dreamt up the whole idea of Spitting Image, and we’ve got no better applause than his. Before the audience see it, Roger is really pleased with what we’re doing and how it’s coming along - that’s delightful to know.”

It also helps to allay some, if not all, of the fears and pressure of doing justice to such an iconic and revered TV show.
“That’s what’s keeping me awake at night! You have to do a good job. You want to honour the show, but you also want to provide a fantastic evening out for everyone who comes to see it."
 

by Steve Adams