[Music] yes good evening tonight we celebrate a TV show that when it was on our screens was simply too good to miss that was a mustat show on television on Sunday night spitting image that will do for me I feel good AR I feel really good spitting image would come on and that would be the last little bit of fun that you could ring out of the weekend rud classic Champion silly and rude mainia it was just rude hello there you are it made politics accessible was a hugely politically powerful program more peas dear we'll look back at some of our favorite spitting image characters David Coleman uh astony his puppet was brilliant Roy Hatley spitting Roy Hatley having a mouth like a bird B an umbrella you could tell it was an age in which nobody got sent to the to anyone fancy a game of Mr wobble hides his helmet just you always felt that actually that's what the queen mother was really like oh come and get your bully that's the Bull's ey and we'll find out what the Stars themselves made of it no I hated it I'd like to inspect your bags please sir certainly I went cold I thought no they can't do me I didn't think it was all that funny suddenly I was so flattered I was thrilled you know so sit back and enjoy the rudest the funniest the best ever spitting image yes viewers we have got a crack and show for you tonight celebrating one of the funniest shows ever seen on British television spit in image hey deck deck show them one of your impersonations no go on no go and do do your tcher oh okay then uh like kangaroo testicles Yumi have you got any more like no not Carol thater oh all right okay anyone need a cool organizing and can I Del like the helicopters no not Mark thater I mean Maggie Margaret thater longest servant prime minister of modern times oh no no no no I can't do her of course you can I can't you can you can all right then this lady is near for Lake [Music] y 1984 the miners Were Striking and Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were both entering their second terms in office it was against this backdrop that spitting image rudely burst onto our TV screens I can't remember in my lifetime the government that was disliked as much so yeah it it certainly it came at the right time bye well so long honey bun What a fine looking woman pity I'm only screwing her country we set out essentially to make people laugh and to make them think and to say what we felt people were feeling and in an era when the House of Commons was a living breathing Punch and Judy show of its own spitting image was never short of Larger than Life characters to make fun of what spitting image did was to say this is one side the Blues this is the other side the [Music] Reds win and they're going to knock hell out of each other and we're going to get some fun out of it but whether they loved it or loaded it most MPS rarely missed an episode of spitting image our reaction was a mixture of horror and excitement and from there on was week by week everybody was watching it and every body in the House of Commons was um hoping that they would be in it and that they would be portrayed in a favorable light some MPS even seem to Revel in the way spitting image portrayed them you wouldn't hit someone with glasses nice one Norman all right you've done it now T it was terrific um I mean that was a really obvious piece of characterization all right I give it we just had him as a boot boy when were you last in in an HS hospital for let's sake concussion know skin head who came in and hit people and we felt that was politically true didn't we yes I always felt that the jobs I was given to do in politics required someone who was willing to take on the big guys Norman send in the chancellor William yes lader I was the little guy that took the bullies on and sorted them Norman [Music] blow [Applause] you I gradually got to be rather fond of my puppet actually he I he a rather good chap anyway mustach I've got a window at 3 what we're going to do is soak the rich and here's the man who's going to do it Roy hatle one of the most famous political characters was an MP who really put the spit into spitting image they would be very good at taking one physical thing um that appeared to be true and really highlighting it like Roy Hatley spitting Ro has having a mouth like a bird bath well R risk of we Comm with a 10 I've with his siblings for all my life and I take it for granted it was intrinsically funny and somebody who can't take that joke ought to be uh well not in politics I'm sorry I couldn't get the H way say that again couldn't get the H way and on this bit H pray H that'll do nicy by the time you've seen SP image you know a few times you start to think it definitely is true and in fact when Roy Hasley then appears on telly in your mind he he seems to be spitting you do occasionally get this little bit of uh saliva that pops out and it's of course also from public speaking you've got a natural way of speaking and a rhythm that allows that to be emphasized did you ever feel it was a sin to mock The Afflicted no I thought you a politician and deserved it that was my view too politicians may not always have liked spitting image but one thing's for sure it turned many of them into instant TV stars and brought politics to the masses in a way unseen before or since I would say that there's a whole generation of children who got almost in all their political Knowledge from splitting image that they people could actually name the Home Secretary the foreign secretary they would feel say oh he's the one who looks like a caterpillar or ice cream cone or whatever that's got to be good I think