Spitting Image set to return with new series after 24 year hiatus

Spitting Image will return to screens with a new series for the first time in more than two decades.

The new series will launch on screens from autumn of this year.

It will be available on Britbox, a global streaming platform produced in partnership between ITV and the BBC.

ITV said producers will aspire to keep the new episodes close the original ones, with scripts written and new puppets made close to delivery to ensure each week’s episode is as topical as possible.

Spitting Image ran for a total of 18 series between 1984 and 1996, and proved no one was safe from ridicule in puppet form. No new series have been produced for two decades, although a special was created in 2014.

Spitting Image regularly picked on former prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Credit: ITV

Famous sketches took on the likes of Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Paul Gascoigne.

It also secured a number one hit for three consecutive weeks in 1986 with The Chicken Song, a parody of Agadoo by Black Lace.

Roger Law, who was behind the original series', will also be at the helm for the shows reincarnation. He promised: "The new Spitting Image will be global through a uniquely British eye, it will be more outrageous, audacious and salacious than the previous incarnation."

Pinpointing his first targets, he selected the prime minister and his special adviser Dominic Cummings, Donald Trump, Harry and Meghan, alongside Kim Kardashian and Greta Thunberg.

He added: "This autumn, we will get Britboxdone," in a reference to the platform on which the series will be hosted.