Spitting Image returns 11 September 2021 exclusively on BritBox UK.

Following record BritBox subscribers, four-year record viewing figures on ITV, and 200 million global views online, the hit BritBox show Spitting Image returns 11 September 2021

London – 23 July 2021 – It was announced today that, following the successful return of the show last autumn, Spitting Image is set to hit Britbox UK on 11 September, with puppets of new prominent national figures already in development. 

With widespread critical and social media acclaim, Spitting Image has delivered record subscribers for BritBox UK, the BBC and ITV created streaming platform, and a 4.4 million audience for ITV with a one-off US Election Special, the highest Saturday night ratings at that time in four years (one of ITV’s biggest Saturday night ABC1 audiences of 2020).  Across official social media channels, Spitting Image content has been hugely popular with over 200 million views globally and three No. 1 trending videos on YouTube.

With the world getting smaller and more turbulent, last year celebrated Spitting Image co-creator Roger Law returned to head up the show’s creative team, while multi-award-winner Jeff Westbrook (The Simpsons, Futurama) joined as Showrunner, leading the international writing team on the iconic British satirical take on global events.

Roger Law, Spitting Image co-creator and Executive Producer, said in a further PUBLIC SERVICE SATIRE ANNOUNCEMENT: “In this next Spitting Image Series we will be in line with Boris’s ‘Levelling-up Policy’.  The puppets are moving to Hartlepool.  We were going last week but we all got pinged on our Apps so Dominic Cummings will be driving us back and forth until the HS2 is operating.  Also in line with Boris this series will go massively over budget with the full support of Britbox.  We will also be levelling off the number of our political puppets by introducing puppet characters that have a grasp of what they do for a living – the English football team along with Gareth Southgate for starters. With lunacy rife it is a tough time for satire, but someone has to do it.”

Will Harrison, BritBox UK Managing Director added: “We are looking forward to welcoming the anarchy of Spitting Image back to BritBox this September, and can’t wait to see what Roger and the team have in store for our subscribers this year.”

Nana Hughes, ITV Head of Comedy and BritBox Commissioning Executive, added: "We welcome the return of Spitting Image to Britbox this autumn. With the twists and turns of the current political climate I have no doubt that Roger's puppets and Jeff's writing team will produce sketches that will make us laugh a lot and squirm as much as watching Matt Hancock's secret snog!"

Produced by Avalon (Taskmaster, Starstruck, The Russell Howard Hour, Breeders, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver), development of puppets for series two is already underway with Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, Prince Andrew, Vladimir Putin, Harry & Meghan, Beyoncé, Angela Merkel, Dwayne Johnson, Ed Sheeran, Jürgen Klopp, Elon Musk, Adele, Covid-19, James Corden, Emmanuel Macron, Mark Zuckerberg, Donald Trump, and Dominic Cummings just some of the global figures that fell under the show’s legendary gaze for the debut hit series.  A next generation of satirical writers and voice artists were assembled to drive a new wave of ‘public service satire’. In keeping with the 80s and 90s, scripts were written and new puppets made close to delivery to ensure each week’s episode was as topical as possible.

Internationally, it was also announced earlier this year that a bespoke German version would be made for Sky Germany including the globally resonating content from the English language version (redubbed by Germany’s leading voice artists), with new topical local sketches (written by German comedy writers) added - all filmed in the UK-based Spitting Image studio as close to transmission to ensure maximum topicality.  The debut of the first series drew the second-best channel audience figure in Finland for its time slot and was hailed by the leading Finnish newspaper as being, “As vicious and risqué as before” and successfully launched in Belgium with a 22% of total TV audience share, as well as seeing millions of views in the USA via YouTube. 

Produced by Avalon, Executive Producers are Jeff Westbrook, Joanna Beresford, Jon Thoday, Richard Allen-Turner and Roger Law. BritBox Commissioning Executive is Nana Hughes.

Spitting Image will return 11September 2021 exclusively on BritBox UK.

Notes to editors

About Avalon:

Avalon is a multi-award-winning talent management, television production and live promotion group with offices in London, Los Angeles and New York.

Avalon, Artist Rights Group (ARG) and The Agency represent a prolific roster of artists including comedians, actors, presenters, writers and directors. Avalon’s numerous ground-breaking returning television shows currently in production include: Not Going Out (BBC), the UK’s longest running sitcom on air; Taskmaster (Channel 4), the BAFTA-winning hit entertainment format showing in 100 countries; multi Emmy-winner, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO); The Russell Howard Hour (Sky), the network’s most successful entertainment show launch since 2010; Starstruck, a new sitcom from the 2018 Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Rose Matafeo (HBO Max/BBC); Everything’s Gonna Be Okay, from creator Josh Thomas (Freeform); Breeders, a sitcom starring Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard (FX/Sky); a new series of the iconic British satirical puppet show, Spitting Image (BritBox UK); and multiple comedy specials for Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and Netflix.

Other landmark Avalon shows include BAFTA winning and multi Emmy nominated Catastrophe (Amazon Prime Video/Channel 4), Fantasy Football League (BBC/ITV), multi BAFTA-winning TV Burp (ITV), and Workaholics (Comedy Central USA). Avalon also distributes its catalogue of programmes to over 150 countries worldwide.  Avalon has produced many globally successful podcasts and is at the top of the UK iTunes chart with the multi-award-winning Shagged. Married. Annoyed by Chris and Rosie Ramsey.

As a leading promoter of live comedy, Avalon produced Newman and Baddiel: Live at Wembley, the UK’s first arena comedy show; Jerry Springer: The Opera, the first West End show to win all four UK ‘Best New Musical’ awards; and has continued to produce and promote live shows globally, as well as promoting more winners and nominees of the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award than any other company.

About BritBox UK

BritBox is a digital video subscription service created by the BBC and ITV. The service brings the very best in past, present and future British programming and award-winning content to viewers all in one place for £5.99 per month in HD. British TV boxsets from All 4 and British films from Film 4 are also available. The service includes high quality factual and entertainment content from Channel 5 plus original British comedies from Comedy Central UK. BritBox features the biggest collection of British content available on any streaming service, and brand new commissions for British production companies specifically created for BritBox. BritBox also offers expert curation and playlists that will enable viewers to easily find programmes they know and discover new favourites via web, mobile, tablet, connected TVs and streaming devices including Fire TV, Apple TV, Freesat & Chromecast. Content on BritBox can be downloaded and viewed offline where rights allow.