What do you think was the crowning achievement of Spitting Image?
Perhaps you’re of the opinion that teaching the country who was actually in the cabinet was its lasting cultural legacy. Or possibly you want to point to the stunning end to Series 1, and “Every Bomb You Make”. Maybe you want to stick your neck out and say “The Chicken Song”, although the B-side is really where it’s at, man.
But no, you’re all wrong. In fact, the best ever thing Spitting Image ever did is the following, broadcast on the 19th January 1986.
I am only being slightly facetious. I honestly do think that’s one of the best things Spitting Image ever did, performed in a beautifully deadpan manner by Jon Glover, and aimed at precisely the right target.
I’m always keen on finding who wrote individual sketches like this, but sadly, finding out the author of specific Spitting Image sketches can be an impossible task. Unless, that is, you luck out and said sketch features on one of the albums. As indeed this one does, on 1986’s Spit in Your Ear, under the name “Bernard Manning Newsflash”.
So we do in fact know that the sketch was written by Burman and Purton, or more completely, Christopher Burman and Nigel Purton. They haven’t got loads of credits to their name, although they did get some material on Not The Nine O’Clock News, and on 81 Take 2. They are also credited on a fair few other Spitting Image episodes.1
But that isn’t our real tale for today. Instead, have a look at this video, uploaded to YouTube in 2014 by Spit alumnus Steve Nallon, and particularly the part 30 seconds in:
This needs a bit of dissecting, as it consists of material taken from two different sources. The opening video of the voice session is taken from Kellyvision in 1988, which I discussed in-depth the other day. This Mansell/Golf sketch had the vocals recorded on the 14th November 1987, and was transmitted on the 22nd November 1987.
But it’s the rest of the video which interests us. This section is audio only, and is from nearly two years earlier, at the beginning of 1986. Its a compilation of various outtakes; I’ll leave figuring out most of these as an exercise for the avid commenter, as I am very lazy. One which is immediately obvious is the various Barry Norman/Meryl Streep bits, which transmitted on 13th April 1986. There is also a long outtake of Harry Enfield amusingly screwing up an intro to Følm 86, which transmitted on 19th October 1986.2
I want to focus one just one section, though. I suspect you can guess what it is by now. I’ve isolated it and boosted the sound levels a little, so we can all hear it properly:
Download “Bernard Manning Has Farted – Session Outtakes” (MP3, 1:27)
Yes, it’s snippets of the recording session from a certain sketch which opened this article.3 And if watching the final sketch is an utter joy, hearing everybody fall about laughing while recording it might be an even greater one. There are few more wonderful sounds in the world. It approaches some kind of comedy nirvana, at least for me.
Who needs breathing exercises? Just keep that recording on your phone, and play it to yourself whenever you feel like screaming in existential terror.
Their other most famous sketch on Spitting Image was also a news parody: “Someone Famous Has Died”, broadcast the previous year on 17th February 1985, and also featuring in Spit in Your Ear. “I think the thing we’ll remember them most for is that wonderful catchphrase… whatever it was…” ↩
With thanks to Gareth Randall in the comments for identifying this one; this article initially suggested it may have gone unbroadcast. ↩
The recording date may well have been the 11th January 1986, if it was part of the non-topical vocal session the week before it aired, but there’s no way of proving that, sadly. ↩
5 comments
James C on 28 March 2023 @ 4pm
Regarding the Film 86 outtake – I may be able to help you here, though it does add a bit of mystery to the proceedings. The Film 86 (or rather, Fjølm 86) sketch did indeed appear in the show, although well toward *the end* of 1986; I cannot remember which one specifically but it’s definitely one of the episodes from October of that year, either the 19th or 26th.
I think it’s fair to assume it’s a non-topical sketch, but the question is raised: Was it written, recorded *and* filmed as early as April 1986 and then held “in the can” for almost six months? Or were Steve’s outtakes compiled from over the course of the year?
1986 was a bit of a varied year for Spitting Image; not only was it the year with the highest number of transmitted episodes, it was the year the show debuted in the USA, the year Tooth & Claw was released, the year of The Chicken Song… even the puppets themselves look different, suggesting a complete production overhaul. Not that I’m pushing you into new ideas for your next post or anything…
John J. Hoare on 28 March 2023 @ 7pm
Oooh, interesting, regarding Fjølm 86! I will have another look and see if I can find it.
Spitting Image changes quite a bit over those years, and I don’t think that much has been written about it. I find some of the ’87 series a bit lacklustre, but then the ’88 series is possibly the best they ever did. I absolute adore the Network 7 spoof, transmitted on the 13/11/88 – it might be my favourite single episode of Spitting Image ever made. Very proto-KYTV, for obvious reasons.
Then I think the series drops off a bit in ’89, and then comes flying back in ’91, with some of my favourite episodes again. Obviously, it’s the Tooth and Claw years which are most analysed, but I’d really like to write something about the later years of the show.
James C on 29 March 2023 @ 4pm
At my most extreme, I’d say I’m of the opinion the show should’ve ended with the 1988 series; in fact the final episode with its lengthy “future of television” discussion and Maggie T singing My Way (post-credits, no less) almost feels like they’re getting ready to wrap it up. Or am I just imagining things? How long in advance would a show as expensive and topical as Spitting Image been given notice that they’ve been renewed for another series?
You get the stellar Bumbledown and The Sound Of Maggie specials in the wake of the 88 series, but in my point of view it feels like the show never really recatches its stride after that – there’s genuinely plenty of good stuff in the 90s, but overall it feels like topicality starts to go out of the window, the show gets a little too smug and self-referencial and there’s a frankly excessive reliance on running gags that run out of steam pretty quick (I’ve know you’ve spoken of Spit’s running gags favourably on your Twitter, but different tastes and that, and I tend to have a low tolerance for them…)
Regardless of the era, though, I love reading your thoughts and analysis on the show, especially as you approach it from a TV production background. It was such a monster of a programme production-wise that it’s an outright miracle it took off at all, never mind the fact it’s one of the funniest sketch shows of the 1980s.
Gareth Randall on 2 April 2023 @ 11pm
“Følm 86” is from (using Network’s DVD numbering) series 6 show 1, or using the online British Comedy Guide, series 5 show 4. Either way, 19th October 1986, and the pre-titles sketch is the Queen and Prince Philip on the Great Wall of China.
Interesting seeing the dubbing suite control room in that video, as I think that may have ended up being used as a location in the show itself, in a sketch where Michael Grade and Alasdair Milne are talking about Leslie Grantham’s unfortunate taxi driver incident. I can’t identify *that* particular show at the moment, but the puppets are in a darkened dubbing suite control room that, purely from memory, may well be the same one.
John J. Hoare on 4 April 2023 @ 10am
Cheers Gareth. Updated the article with the correct info. Once I saw it, I remembered the bloody thing!
Completely by accident, I found the Grade/Milne/Grantham sketch is in the same episode, TX’d on the 19th October 1986. It *does* look similar, but I think it might actually be one of the studio galleries at Birmingham; there’s CAM1, CAM2, CAM3, and CAM4 labelled up on the monitor wall. There’s a similar sketch in the same location in the subsequent episode.
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