Spitting Again
One of the good things about the nineteen-eighties - - oh, hell, one of the only good things about the nineteen-eighties - apart from Emily's birth, obviously, and a few things I can't currently remember - was the television show Spitting Image. It must have continued into the nineteen-nineties too, since it memorably had a grey-skinned and dull John Major, but it's the eighties I remember.
The programme, I'm certain, had a big influence on the politics of the period - the huge cadaverous David Owen with the tiny David Steel really did nothing to help the Liberals.
But the most memorable political scenes, for me, featured Mrs Thatcher - you know, the Milk Snatcher who was Prime Minister for really a very, very long time - and her Cabinet - - and I even knew who many of them were.
And they were all made of rubber. And the show was fresh and irreverent and funny and a Very Good Thing in the dark days of the eighties (I didn't much like the eighties, can you tell?)
And now the show's back, in essence, retitled Headcases. But instead of being made of rubber, the characters are made of CGI which is Computer Generated Images. I think.
These days, our political leaders and opposition are so dull that we don't know who they are, so the programme-makers had cunningly labelled them. So David Cameron, for example, was introduced as Crikey! It's the Tories!
Some of the gags were nicked from the old Spitting Image (but I didn't care) - the Queen Mother used to have a Mollie Sugden voice and the modern equivalent were Dame Helen Mirren - the only caricature not immediately recognisable to me - and Judi Dench with chav voices.
Since we are living in a cult of Celebrity I felt that Headcases concentrated mostly on that and did a fine job on such obvious targets as Posh and Becks and Katie Price and Peter Andre. Good to see Jeremy Clarkson in there too and hey, it wouldn't be satire without a Trevor McDonald.
I did like the caricatures of the Princes William and Harry - again, their bid to be classed as ordinary blokes wasn't ground-breaking, but I enjoyed it. I also thought the caricatures of them were good and emphasised that hey, they look completely different from each other, don't they? I always wondered why one of them looks like Prince Charles and the other one looks like James Hewitt.
And, just like the older version, it ended with a song - though because the computer graphics can lip-synch they didn't give us the words on the screen as they used to with the old latex puppets, and I rather missed that.
I enjoyed it very much: it didn't quite, in this first episode, get into the "unmissable" place in my head like it used to - or like Not the Nine O'Clock News used to - but I hope it will, in time. I'd like it to be a bit more - well - naughty - controversial - downright offensive - to push the boundaries a bit more. Though, perhaps in these days of wall-to-wall litigation, it won't be able to.
Great to see it back, though - with some of the same people still involved, I notice. It nearly made me feel young again.
The programme, I'm certain, had a big influence on the politics of the period - the huge cadaverous David Owen with the tiny David Steel really did nothing to help the Liberals.
But the most memorable political scenes, for me, featured Mrs Thatcher - you know, the Milk Snatcher who was Prime Minister for really a very, very long time - and her Cabinet - - and I even knew who many of them were.
And they were all made of rubber. And the show was fresh and irreverent and funny and a Very Good Thing in the dark days of the eighties (I didn't much like the eighties, can you tell?)
And now the show's back, in essence, retitled Headcases. But instead of being made of rubber, the characters are made of CGI which is Computer Generated Images. I think.
These days, our political leaders and opposition are so dull that we don't know who they are, so the programme-makers had cunningly labelled them. So David Cameron, for example, was introduced as Crikey! It's the Tories!
Some of the gags were nicked from the old Spitting Image (but I didn't care) - the Queen Mother used to have a Mollie Sugden voice and the modern equivalent were Dame Helen Mirren - the only caricature not immediately recognisable to me - and Judi Dench with chav voices.
Since we are living in a cult of Celebrity I felt that Headcases concentrated mostly on that and did a fine job on such obvious targets as Posh and Becks and Katie Price and Peter Andre. Good to see Jeremy Clarkson in there too and hey, it wouldn't be satire without a Trevor McDonald.
I did like the caricatures of the Princes William and Harry - again, their bid to be classed as ordinary blokes wasn't ground-breaking, but I enjoyed it. I also thought the caricatures of them were good and emphasised that hey, they look completely different from each other, don't they? I always wondered why one of them looks like Prince Charles and the other one looks like James Hewitt.
And, just like the older version, it ended with a song - though because the computer graphics can lip-synch they didn't give us the words on the screen as they used to with the old latex puppets, and I rather missed that.
I enjoyed it very much: it didn't quite, in this first episode, get into the "unmissable" place in my head like it used to - or like Not the Nine O'Clock News used to - but I hope it will, in time. I'd like it to be a bit more - well - naughty - controversial - downright offensive - to push the boundaries a bit more. Though, perhaps in these days of wall-to-wall litigation, it won't be able to.
Great to see it back, though - with some of the same people still involved, I notice. It nearly made me feel young again.
posted by Daphne at 10:34 pm
3 Comments:
I had such high hopes for it but they were quickly dashed.
On reflection I think I know what it was.....a distinct lack of human bouncy bits. Remember Spock's ears for example ? His latex ones never stopped flapping and really helped with the humour. Many other personalities were the same and like fart jokes, funny flapping body bits can help us forgive a dull script.
With Headcases the characters were smooth and clean cut in that CGI sort of way - and nothing flapped. And we had to be told who most of the personalities were. Not a good start but we'll see. Spitting Image gave us such memorable caricatures that they have left huge latex shoes to fill.
It doesn't help them that we now have totally unmemorable politicians. No spitting Hattersley, no lecherous Parkinson, no creepy Kaufman and of course no PM like Hitler consulting Maggie.
Basically to get more laughs they need to develop CGI floppy bits and that just can't happen.
Spitting Image reruns please. They'd still be funny today.
That's it, of course, you're quite right. The very smoothness and polish of CGI detracts from the humour.
And thanks for the reminder of the characterful Eighties politicians - just goes to show what nonentities we have now. And Spock! - - ah, I'd forgotten him. Glorious. I'll keep watching this - - but bring on the reruns of Spitting Image!
Nothing could ever match Thatcher consulting Hitler (hiding out on No. 10's roof) on policy. Now THAT'S satire.
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