0:00:02 > 0:00:08This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:09 > 0:00:15MUSIC: Symphony No. 1 in D major, "Titan", by Gustav Mahler
0:00:47 > 0:00:50CHARGING DEFIBRILLATOR
0:00:51 > 0:00:52ELECTRICAL CRACK
0:00:53 > 0:00:55ELECTRICAL CRACK
0:00:59 > 0:01:01BEEPING
0:01:01 > 0:01:02- ECHOING MRS THATCHER: - And I can announce
0:01:02 > 0:01:05exactly what we're going to do for the next five years...
0:01:05 > 0:01:07MURMURS OF APPROVAL
0:01:07 > 0:01:09..whatever we like!!
0:01:09 > 0:01:11CHEERING
0:01:14 > 0:01:18MUSIC: "Another Green World" by Brian Eno
0:01:43 > 0:01:48MUSIC: "Das Lied Vom Tod" by Ennio Morricone
0:02:36 > 0:02:39'Did you, in all the years of the broadcast,
0:02:39 > 0:02:46'ever run into someone whom you regarded as untouchable?
0:02:46 > 0:02:49'"We just can't deal with this one?"'
0:02:51 > 0:02:52'No.'
0:02:56 > 0:02:59'Now, John,
0:02:59 > 0:03:03'the business of Mr Tebbit drinking a human body -
0:03:03 > 0:03:05'do you find that amusing?'
0:03:23 > 0:03:25It set out as a satirical show,
0:03:25 > 0:03:29which means it's got to deal with prominent, famous people.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31And you realise with your horror when you start
0:03:31 > 0:03:33just how many of them there are.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38MUSIC: "The Rocks" by Jimmy Yancey
0:03:53 > 0:03:55- MICHAEL PARKINSON:- Are we agreed on the first record?
0:03:55 > 0:03:59Yes, the first record is Jimmy Yancey playing The Rocks.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01This is a record we remember very well
0:04:01 > 0:04:05from my art school days, where the sort of early jazz piano
0:04:05 > 0:04:08suited the lifestyle of the time.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13If you actually go in a pub on Monday lunchtime
0:04:13 > 0:04:15and you hear people talking about television,
0:04:15 > 0:04:19they will always say, "Did you see Spitting Image last night?"
0:04:19 > 0:04:22- I didn't actually- see - Spitting Image last week,
0:04:22 > 0:04:24but it was disgusting!
0:04:24 > 0:04:28You can never embarrass politicians by giving them publicity.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31- TERRY WOGAN:- Do you enjoy it, though? Do you watch it and enjoy it?
0:04:31 > 0:04:32I don't watch it.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35Wrong, Mr Hattersley! I am a bully!
0:04:35 > 0:04:39This is the prerogative of those who are jealous,
0:04:39 > 0:04:43who haven't been able to achieve anything in public life themselves,
0:04:43 > 0:04:46who have no sense of responsibility,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49and who, therefore, will, at the end,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52pass on feeling that they've had a useless life.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04It is 30 years since Spitting Image first hit our screens,
0:05:04 > 0:05:10and we have the creators of the show coming to the BFI Southbank.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14I think the show, really, has never left the airwaves.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18I think it's true to say the programme has remained in the ether.
0:05:18 > 0:05:19It actually made
0:05:19 > 0:05:22young people connect with political issues.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24It was just a brilliant way -
0:05:24 > 0:05:26through making politics entertaining
0:05:26 > 0:05:29it made young people connect with politics.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31How many shows on television
0:05:31 > 0:05:34can we say that about now?
0:05:34 > 0:05:37And I think that's a really great legacy of the show.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41I was just going to say I think...
0:05:41 > 0:05:43I think if you look at what happened in the '60s,
0:05:43 > 0:05:45the sort of That Was The Week That Was,
0:05:45 > 0:05:47that was very much sort of broadsheet satire.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49It was about issues.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52Spitting Image came along and it was much more tabloid in many ways.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55It was about personalities as much as it was about issues,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58and I think it just took that a step further.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02Would you like to order, Sir?
0:06:02 > 0:06:05Yes. I will have a steak.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07- How'd you like it?- Raw, please.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09And what about the vegetables?
0:06:09 > 0:06:11Oh, they'll have the same as me.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17- MICHAEL PARKISON: - Another choice of record.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19Well, this is Please, Mrs Henry by Bob Dylan.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22Bob Dylan's been with us... I mean, he's roughly the same age.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25I love this record because it always reminds me of the trouble we had
0:06:25 > 0:06:28with landladies in the early days, both in Cambridge and in London.
0:06:28 > 0:06:29THEY LAUGH
0:06:30 > 0:06:32# Now don't crowd me, lady,
0:06:32 > 0:06:34# Or I'll fill up your shoe.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36# I'm a sweet bourbon daddy
0:06:36 > 0:06:38# And tonight I am blue
0:06:38 > 0:06:40# I'm a thousand years old
0:06:40 > 0:06:42# And I'm a generous mum.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44# I'm T-boned and punctured
0:06:44 > 0:06:46# I've been known to be calm
0:06:46 > 0:06:50# Please, Mrs Henry, Mrs Henry, please
0:06:50 > 0:06:53# Please Mrs Henry, Mrs Henry, please.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57# I'm down on my knees
0:06:57 > 0:07:00# And I ain't got a dime... #
0:07:00 > 0:07:03We'd like to work for a mass market,
0:07:03 > 0:07:06for as large a circulation as possible.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08Otherwise, you may as well just do your work
0:07:08 > 0:07:10and put it in a Bond Street art gallery,
0:07:10 > 0:07:12and have it seen by informed people,
0:07:12 > 0:07:16and they'll make a judgment on it without being affected by it.
0:07:18 > 0:07:19We work through photography.
0:07:24 > 0:07:29I think people are conditioned to see photographs and to believe them.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32If you give them a photograph of a caricature, I think there's
0:07:32 > 0:07:34an element of the double take.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37Are they looking at the real person? What are they looking at?
0:07:37 > 0:07:38It's their first reaction.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41APPROACHING TRAIN
0:07:43 > 0:07:45- KIRSTY YOUNG:- Let's have some music, then, John. What's next?
0:07:45 > 0:07:50Well, this is an Irish band called The Waterboys, who I'm very fond of,
0:07:50 > 0:07:53and a song called The Raggle Taggle Gypsy.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55And I come from an Anglo-Irish background,
0:07:55 > 0:07:57at least on my father's side,
0:07:57 > 0:07:59and he was in the Navy,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02and so, as children, we were shipped all over the world
0:08:02 > 0:08:06and so the gypsy side is that sort of wandering sailor's son thing.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10# There was three old gypsies came to our hall door
0:08:10 > 0:08:12# They came brave and boldly-o
0:08:12 > 0:08:15# And the one sang high and the other sang low... #
0:08:15 > 0:08:17In 1979 I went to television hoping for a job
0:08:17 > 0:08:20as a trainee floor manager and,
0:08:20 > 0:08:22for reasons, again, un-given,
0:08:22 > 0:08:26I was offered a series of six half-hours as a television producer.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30And the only condition was I had to work with an insane young
0:08:30 > 0:08:33current affairs producer called Sean Hardie
0:08:33 > 0:08:35who kept putting jokes into Panorama.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37They didn't want him, so I got him,
0:08:37 > 0:08:39and that was the start of Not The Nine O'Clock News.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42Mrs Thatcher revealed in the House of Commons today
0:08:42 > 0:08:45that a man called Sir Alec Douglas-Home
0:08:45 > 0:08:48was Prime Minister for several years in the '60s.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50The Queen, who was never told,
0:08:50 > 0:08:52has since stripped him of his knighthood.
0:08:52 > 0:08:53LAUGHTER
0:08:53 > 0:08:55I think it's terribly important
0:08:55 > 0:08:57that comedy ought to be able to comment
0:08:57 > 0:09:00on world events, and to deal with real things in a way that dramas
0:09:00 > 0:09:04and documentaries and even children's programmes are allowed to.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07John Lloyd knew how to get a show on TV.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11And he took it on board, and it pulled the idea together.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16I think that Spitting Image was a sort of hybrid
0:09:16 > 0:09:19between the tradition that Scarfe comes out of,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23that we came out of, English comic art, English satirical art,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27and John Lloyd, of course, is out of Footlights.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30So it's that hybrid between Oxbridge Footlights
0:09:30 > 0:09:34and a traditional form of visual art, and Punch and Judy.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36Who's that? That's...
0:09:36 > 0:09:39That's Stalin manipulating Brezhnev.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42From beyond the grave.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45'We'd worked with Tony Hendra before on The National Lampoon.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49'He was a very good print satirist, and he was Footlights.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53'I mean, Peter Cook used to call him the bubonic plagiarist.'
0:09:53 > 0:09:55He does actually have an enormous hooter.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58'And he had the idea of making the puppets move
0:09:58 > 0:10:00'by computer animated mouth.'
0:10:02 > 0:10:05What I'll do is just black that out and I'll superimpose the mouth
0:10:05 > 0:10:08in there, and the mouth will actually be talking at you.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10OK, so you're going to take that back to the States
0:10:10 > 0:10:12and send us a piece of tape?
0:10:12 > 0:10:15Yeah, it'll be interesting trying to get it
0:10:15 > 0:10:16through New York customs, though.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18Two kilos of uncut Whitelaw.
0:10:18 > 0:10:19THEY LAUGH
0:10:21 > 0:10:23He disappeared with Willie Whitelaw,
0:10:23 > 0:10:25and, you know, we never saw it again.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28Well, we used to enjoy working
0:10:28 > 0:10:30with journalists who were good journalists.
0:10:30 > 0:10:35Murdoch came along and the whole thing went down the tubes,
0:10:35 > 0:10:39and we realised that we were just about out of business.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42With new technology, everyone could have their own magazine
0:10:42 > 0:10:44and the budgets had gone.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46You couldn't do caricatures that took a week,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50have it photographed by a high-class photographer on 5/4
0:10:50 > 0:10:53and expect to make a living. We knew we were in trouble.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02MUSIC: "Blue Monday" by the Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir
0:11:03 > 0:11:07It's 6:30, Monday January 17th, 1983.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09You're watching the first edition of BBC television's
0:11:09 > 0:11:11Breakfast Time, Britain's first ever
0:11:11 > 0:11:14regular early morning television programme.
0:11:14 > 0:11:16- SCREAMS - Oh, my giddy aunt!
0:11:18 > 0:11:21'1983 was a crucial year in all kinds of ways.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25'What was going on, and the kind of very sedate sofas'
0:11:25 > 0:11:28of new breakfast television, the election that had happened.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30But there was a time bomb
0:11:30 > 0:11:33waiting to explode under all of them.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39If we could make the move and get them onto television,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42it's not going to be the kind of television
0:11:42 > 0:11:44that washes over you from the corner.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47You know, it's not Good Morning BBC TV.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49It's going to really upset people.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53So that was my feeling about it, and that was exciting.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56That made you want to do it, I really wanted to do it.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00# When you've laid your hands upon me
0:12:00 > 0:12:04# And told me who you are... #
0:12:04 > 0:12:06- REPORTER:- Margaret Thatcher returns to Downing Street
0:12:06 > 0:12:08with the biggest majority since 1945.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14It was a time of major turmoil, and nobody was really expressing
0:12:14 > 0:12:18what the great British public actually thought.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21They were much crosser, much more pissed off about it.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25There was a time bomb, and it was a time bomb that had been set,
0:12:25 > 0:12:28not by Al-Qaeda or any kind of people
0:12:28 > 0:12:30who knew what they were doing,
0:12:30 > 0:12:34but by a bunch of complete amateurs in many respects.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36One night, and I have to say it really was
0:12:36 > 0:12:39in the middle of the night, I suddenly sat up in bed
0:12:39 > 0:12:40and said, "It's puppets,
0:12:40 > 0:12:43"and it's Roger Law and Peter Fluck."
0:12:43 > 0:12:45Well, they could see the caricatures that we'd done,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48and you didn't have to be, you know, a scientist
0:12:48 > 0:12:51to realise that if they moved, well, fantastic.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00So, when we came up with the notion of making the caricatures move,
0:13:00 > 0:13:05there wasn't really a shortage of Thatcherite entrepreneurs
0:13:05 > 0:13:07queueing up round the block, you know.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09HE LAUGHS
0:13:09 > 0:13:11We were happy to take their money.
0:13:11 > 0:13:16We took something like 70,000 quid off Sinclair,
0:13:16 > 0:13:18the home computer fellow.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23And we got to work on our puppets, doing them,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27and the person that had interfaced between Sinclair and Peter and I
0:13:27 > 0:13:30came round to the chapel where we were working and said,
0:13:30 > 0:13:32"What kind of people are you?
0:13:32 > 0:13:38"You've had £70,000, and you can't even say thank you."
0:13:38 > 0:13:44- And Fluck shouted down the stairs, "You can't buy- us- for £70,000!"
0:13:47 > 0:13:49Yes, we were very ungrateful.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54I mean, he took it back again. He had some trouble up in Dundee
0:13:54 > 0:13:56and needed the 60 grand back again.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00# I thought I told you to leave me
0:14:00 > 0:14:02# While I walked down to the beach
0:14:02 > 0:14:05MACHINERY CLANKING, THUNDER CRASHES
0:14:05 > 0:14:07# Tell me how does it feel
0:14:07 > 0:14:11# When your heart grows cold... #
0:14:17 > 0:14:19ELECTRICITY CRACKLES
0:14:29 > 0:14:31THUNDER CRASHES
0:14:36 > 0:14:38OK.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43OK, take it up a bit.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47It's alive, it's moving!
0:14:47 > 0:14:50It's alive! Oh, it's alive!
0:14:50 > 0:14:52It's alive, it's alive!!
0:14:52 > 0:14:53IT'S ALIVE!!
0:14:55 > 0:15:00In the name of God, now I know what it feels like to be God!
0:15:02 > 0:15:03- Norman?- Yes, leader?
0:15:03 > 0:15:07- Send in the Chancellor, will you? - Yes, leader.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15The fight to win the next election starts immediately,
0:15:15 > 0:15:17and I will participate in those discussions,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20and of course I took exception to the full.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22My responsibility is in the selection.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25'On the basis of this and some of Fluck and Law's postcards,
0:15:25 > 0:15:27'we went round, we hawked our product and our CVs
0:15:27 > 0:15:30'round all the television companies.'
0:15:32 > 0:15:37I took the existing static photographs of
0:15:37 > 0:15:41Roger and Peter's models, and I combined them
0:15:41 > 0:15:44with a kind of pitch.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47Nowadays to think that you could get a multimillion pound
0:15:47 > 0:15:51television series off the ground with something like this is...
0:15:51 > 0:15:55Well, my younger colleagues in television would laugh,
0:15:55 > 0:15:56as would indeed you.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59I think I led a sheltered life. I didn't know that John
0:15:59 > 0:16:02had previously offered it to Thames or to LWT,
0:16:02 > 0:16:07and that they'd both turned it down, but I was not going to turn it down.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11I think that we needed a little bit of healthy political disrespect
0:16:11 > 0:16:14and perhaps a bit of anarchy in the weekend schedule.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24And in London, it is breakfast time!
0:16:26 > 0:16:27Morning, leader.
0:16:27 > 0:16:28Morning, Norman.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31- Anything in the post today? - Nothing much, Norman.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33EXPLOSION
0:16:33 > 0:16:37Norman Tebbit was the character that we all came to love and endure,
0:16:37 > 0:16:39both as a person and as a puppet, but Thatcher,
0:16:39 > 0:16:43as you can see, is dressed in a way that she never was in the series.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47Her eyes don't move and her voice is a completely different voice,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50cos we hadn't discovered Steve Nallon yet.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52By the way, Norman, how are your children?
0:16:52 > 0:16:55Delicious, thank you, leader.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57Really, Norman, you are a sight.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00Let me get you someone to blow your nose on.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05'I committed £60,000 to a pilot.'
0:17:05 > 0:17:08£60,000 at the time was a lot of money.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12It was certainly more than you'd commit to a sitcom pilot
0:17:12 > 0:17:13or a game show pilot.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16It was getting towards drama money, really.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18Nobody had done this before.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21The nearest they'd come to doing anything like this was The Muppets,
0:17:21 > 0:17:25and this turned out to be 1,000 times more complicated than The Muppets.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40We had to make the show in Birmingham
0:17:40 > 0:17:42because the unions insisted,
0:17:42 > 0:17:45and the unions were very powerful in those days.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48And we had to then ship the first few years all the way up to Birmingham
0:17:48 > 0:17:51in an enormous lorry, increasingly larger lorries
0:17:51 > 0:17:52as we got more and more puppets,
0:17:52 > 0:17:54and come back down again and start again,
0:17:54 > 0:17:58so the work schedule was made difficult by that
0:17:58 > 0:18:00sort of endless round and round commute, as well.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03It was quite clear we knew absolutely nothing
0:18:03 > 0:18:06about television whatsoever, about budgets, or studios,
0:18:06 > 0:18:10or...puppeteering,
0:18:10 > 0:18:13directing, script writing, script editing...
0:18:13 > 0:18:15The whole nightmare world, you know?
0:18:15 > 0:18:18John, there is still a shadow problem here,
0:18:18 > 0:18:19if we can be aware of that.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21Perhaps lighting can help?
0:18:21 > 0:18:23That's it, read them the riot act.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30We went up there to Birmingham and met a bunch of people
0:18:30 > 0:18:32who'd basically been used to making Crossroads.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36- OK in five... - Four, three, two, one...
0:18:36 > 0:18:37And...
0:18:46 > 0:18:47Good morning.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49Good morning.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51I hoped we might have a word.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53So had I.
0:18:53 > 0:18:54When you're ready.
0:18:54 > 0:18:55Oh, I'm ready.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57Not here.
0:18:57 > 0:18:58When?
0:18:58 > 0:18:59We're not rushing you?
0:18:59 > 0:19:01No.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04Don't worry about me, David, I'm not easily pushed.
0:19:05 > 0:19:06How about lunch?
0:19:06 > 0:19:10# His name is Ronald Reagan and he's quite a guy...
0:19:12 > 0:19:16# You've got to re-elect him and we'll tell you why...
0:19:18 > 0:19:22And the first few weeks were awful, because they hated us.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25You know, all these beardy hippies coming up from London
0:19:25 > 0:19:29with lots of lapsed Catholics, lots of ex-communists,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32you know, mad people who'd never been in a studio,
0:19:32 > 0:19:35kept standing in front of the cameras, tripping over the wires,
0:19:35 > 0:19:39and all these decent, you know, Brummies in sort of brown suits
0:19:39 > 0:19:43and sensible brogues and all that suddenly being asked to work till...
0:19:43 > 0:19:46Well, literally all-nighters the first few weeks.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50And they just, they couldn't believe what had happened to them.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52# Yeah, he's 73.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54# Yeah, he's just ran into a tree...! #
0:19:58 > 0:20:01I always think that television's strange because there are things
0:20:01 > 0:20:04you're supposed not to do on television that people do in
0:20:04 > 0:20:06the pub or in their own homes every day.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08And that's all we're trying to do,
0:20:08 > 0:20:10just do ordinary things to make ordinary people laugh, really.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13And it's not there to offend or to outrage,
0:20:13 > 0:20:15it's there to be funny. That's the main thing.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17APPLAUSE
0:20:21 > 0:20:24First, Spitting Image, Central's new puppet show,
0:20:24 > 0:20:27which satirises people in the public eye.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29OK, here we go, chaps.
0:20:29 > 0:20:30Puppets up, please.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34- Three, two, one..- And...
0:20:34 > 0:20:36'What was the first show like?
0:20:36 > 0:20:39'Well, all I can say is that none of my friends would speak to me
0:20:39 > 0:20:41'the first two or three shows.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43'They said, "Well, it's just shit, you know.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46'"It's just complete crap, what do you think you're doing?"'
0:20:46 > 0:20:48# Hail to the chief
0:20:48 > 0:20:50# Who in triumph advances
0:20:50 > 0:20:54# Honoured and blessed be the ever-green pine... #
0:20:55 > 0:20:57ALARM CLOCK RINGS
0:20:59 > 0:21:01ALARM BEEPS
0:21:01 > 0:21:02Oh, My God!
0:21:05 > 0:21:07- Good morning, Mr President. - Morning, Ed.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09May God be with you, Ed.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12Mr President, may God be with you.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16I'm almost affronted by the savagery of the caricatures,
0:21:16 > 0:21:18cos some of them are really very, very upsetting.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21Excuse me, sir.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25MUSIC BOX JINGLE
0:21:28 > 0:21:30- Slippery little- BLEEP.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34Ah, got him!
0:21:38 > 0:21:40Hang on just a second, Mr President.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44That's one, and...that'll do it.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46OK. Ready, Sir?
0:21:46 > 0:21:48It is the script, I'm afraid.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51Very patchy, and I don't know,
0:21:51 > 0:21:54I gather there's about a battalion of writers working on this,
0:21:54 > 0:21:59and I think you ought to really take one in ten out and shoot them.
0:21:59 > 0:22:00Hungry for lead, Ed.
0:22:00 > 0:22:01Oh!
0:22:01 > 0:22:02Up a little!
0:22:02 > 0:22:04Yes!
0:22:04 > 0:22:05Oh, that was good!
0:22:05 > 0:22:06Wonderful, oh!
0:22:06 > 0:22:11Fantastic, Sir. This might even get the young people on your side.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13You mean Congress?
0:22:13 > 0:22:16Sometimes it seems that they go for a target and completely
0:22:16 > 0:22:20overshoot it, and sometimes they seem to fall short of the target.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24I mean, very rarely does it seem to just hit on that very spot
0:22:24 > 0:22:27that should be, "Yes, it's a satire," I suppose.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29Will Ed Meese find the tiny organ?
0:22:29 > 0:22:31Will the president be able to function?
0:22:31 > 0:22:34Will it make any difference to US foreign policy?
0:22:34 > 0:22:36Tune in next week for the second episode of
0:22:36 > 0:22:38The President's Brain Is Missing!
0:22:42 > 0:22:44The best thing about the first programme was it allowed
0:22:44 > 0:22:48the second one to happen, and so on, cos we had to learn on our feet.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52The first few shows, there were theoretically five producers
0:22:52 > 0:22:54who had to sign off on everything,
0:22:54 > 0:22:56and it couldn't be done, we couldn't make a decision,
0:22:56 > 0:23:00so, gradually, you know, people got moved or shifted or fired,
0:23:00 > 0:23:04to the point where one person had to be the funnel.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06- Argh!- Ow!- Ahh!
0:23:06 > 0:23:08I didn't know what I now know -
0:23:08 > 0:23:11that the team were at each other's throats for half of the time.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13I noticed you've got this cricket bat here.
0:23:13 > 0:23:14Do you play?
0:23:14 > 0:23:17No, I carry this partly out of...
0:23:17 > 0:23:19I don't know, sort of, er...
0:23:21 > 0:23:23I suppose, what's the word...?
0:23:23 > 0:23:25- Affectation?- Yes.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28I mean, it's a kind of totemistic thing, you know,
0:23:28 > 0:23:29but to be quite frank with you
0:23:29 > 0:23:31it's come in useful in a couple of situations.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34Certainly in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock,
0:23:34 > 0:23:37having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is quite often...
0:23:37 > 0:23:39useful.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42It was quite obvious fairly soon that Tony
0:23:42 > 0:23:44and John Lloyd couldn't be...
0:23:44 > 0:23:47wouldn't work as a team of producers,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49it was either one or the other.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53Eventually, that changed
0:23:53 > 0:23:56and it became this much simpler structure,
0:23:56 > 0:24:00that Hendra left, Blair did all the money and I did all the, you know,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03basically the editorial and creative side.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05And that started to work.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08After Hendra left, Lloyd brought in two Northern boys,
0:24:08 > 0:24:12Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, to make the show funny
0:24:12 > 0:24:14and to make it topical, and they were there
0:24:14 > 0:24:17to lower the tone, and, my God, they certainly did!
0:24:17 > 0:24:19HE LAUGHS
0:24:19 > 0:24:20Ah, Larry.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22Dear, dear, Larry.
0:24:22 > 0:24:23Ah, Johnny.
0:24:23 > 0:24:25Dear, dear, dear Johnny.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28So, how've you been keeping, Johnny?
0:24:28 > 0:24:29Tell me the news.
0:24:29 > 0:24:30I've grown a beard.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32Ah! A beard!
0:24:32 > 0:24:34Splendid.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36Splendid. Where?
0:24:36 > 0:24:38Here, on the end of my chin.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40Of course, there it is, of course.
0:24:40 > 0:24:41How foolish of me.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44No, no, no, no, it's not there now.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46It fell off this morning over breakfast.
0:24:46 > 0:24:47Dear beard.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49Dear, dear, dear beardy.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51Yes, poor beardy.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54- I loved old beardy.- We both did.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56- A scone?- They're gone.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58Sconey? Gone?
0:24:58 > 0:24:59Poor sconey.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01They've all gone now.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05- Beardy, sconey, Rafey. - All gone.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09After a while, it became sort of a mix
0:25:09 > 0:25:14and the puppeteers and the, the puppet makers would come up
0:25:14 > 0:25:16with ideas for puppets,
0:25:16 > 0:25:19which we would incorporate and we would come up with ideas
0:25:19 > 0:25:21for puppets which they would go and build.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25The pressure meant that you could never make things properly.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29You'd get phone calls from John Lloyd in Central saying,
0:25:29 > 0:25:33"I need eight camels by the morning, Rog, can you do that?"
0:25:33 > 0:25:36And all of that really got on your nerves,
0:25:36 > 0:25:38because you never really did anything.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41But the trade-off was you could make the political statements
0:25:41 > 0:25:44you wanted to make, so it was sort of worth it.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46Why do we pay a police constable who's just started
0:25:46 > 0:25:48more than we pay a ward sister?
0:25:48 > 0:25:50Tell him, Norman!!
0:25:50 > 0:25:52Yes, leader.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56Foul pest, when were you last in an NHS hospital
0:25:56 > 0:25:58for, let's say...
0:25:58 > 0:26:00concussion, or...
0:26:00 > 0:26:02double concussion?
0:26:02 > 0:26:05Never. I've got private healthcare.
0:26:05 > 0:26:06Exactemoi!
0:26:06 > 0:26:09Now, when did you last cause a near riot
0:26:09 > 0:26:13by depriving the NHS of nurses and doctors and extra funds?
0:26:15 > 0:26:17I do that all the time!
0:26:17 > 0:26:18CRUNCH Exactemoi.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21Ergo, you need police protection.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24You mean we pay the police a high salary to protect us
0:26:24 > 0:26:26from the people we take the money from
0:26:26 > 0:26:28to pay the police a high salary?
0:26:28 > 0:26:29Yeah.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32And it was the puppeteers saying the scripts weren't any good...
0:26:32 > 0:26:35- LAUGHTER - The voice-over people saying the scripts weren't any good...
0:26:35 > 0:26:38- BOTH:- The critics saying the scripts weren't any good.
0:26:38 > 0:26:39Yes, I remember that bit.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41When Spitting Image started,
0:26:41 > 0:26:43many reviews said the puppets were brilliant
0:26:43 > 0:26:46but the scripts were terrible, and as I had nothing to do
0:26:46 > 0:26:49with making the puppets and I was responsible for the scripts,
0:26:49 > 0:26:50I was a little bit hurt.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53The puppets are brilliant, but I don't think much of the script.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56I had a wonderful letter from a woman who said
0:26:56 > 0:26:58she couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01Because she thought the scripts were absolutely wonderful,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04but she couldn't comment on whether the puppets were any good or not
0:27:04 > 0:27:06because she was blind.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10- Would you like to order, Sir? - Yes, I will have a steak.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13- How'd you like it?- Raw, please.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15And what about the vegetables?
0:27:15 > 0:27:17Oh, they'll have the same as me.
0:27:32 > 0:27:36In the past, most caricaturists have worked by themselves.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42Now, I think the best caricaturists are obsessive.
0:27:42 > 0:27:44The best ones work obsessively.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47And I think probably have a deeply distrustful nature.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50And maybe romantics or idealists,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53or moralists or social reformers,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56they object to what's around them,
0:27:56 > 0:28:00but the ability to make people laugh at a funny face
0:28:00 > 0:28:02is a fascinating tool and a weapon.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08When I look back on Spitting Image all those years ago,
0:28:08 > 0:28:11and let's face, it is 30 years ago, as we know,
0:28:11 > 0:28:16it seems like it happened to somebody else, so I can look at it now
0:28:16 > 0:28:20in a very kind of forgiving, cheerful way, the pain has long since gone.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26I don't throw my dinner at the television any more.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28That's a good sign. You know.
0:28:28 > 0:28:29HE LAUGHS
0:28:29 > 0:28:33But that was the kind of thing that made you want to do Spitting Image.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36But, you know, just be careful of what you want.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38You needed huge amounts of energy.
0:28:38 > 0:28:40I mean, the amount of, you know...
0:28:42 > 0:28:46..uplifting drugs that went through Spitting Image so that people
0:28:46 > 0:28:51could actually cope with the amount of work, 60 hours, 80 hours a week.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57The only people that survived at Spitting Image were people
0:28:57 > 0:28:58who had high energy.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18We used to be a nice two-handed partnership, a couple of gentlemen
0:29:18 > 0:29:21in velvet jackets and shiny shoes producing caricatures for the press.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23But things have changed,
0:29:23 > 0:29:26now we're satisfying the needs of television in this factory.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29Yes, the London Enterprise Board's answer to Gdansk.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31This is the first caricature sweatshop in the world.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33Perhaps the last.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35And it's full of very young people who have to sleep
0:29:35 > 0:29:37- under the benches at night. - If they get any sleep at all.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47Well, the very first thing is the photographic reference comes in
0:29:47 > 0:29:49and then we go over there to the modelling.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52When the modelling's completed it goes into the mould room,
0:29:52 > 0:29:54where it's moulded.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57There are master moulders over there.
0:29:57 > 0:29:59Once the thing's moulded
0:29:59 > 0:30:01it then goes into the foam room to be foamed.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05Once it's foamed it comes back over here to the puppet makers
0:30:05 > 0:30:08who fit up the skulls inside.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10They also make the eyes over there by the machine shop
0:30:10 > 0:30:12and they're then fitted in.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15Then after that it goes through to this room again to be painted,
0:30:15 > 0:30:17for the paint work to be done.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20You see that stack of boxes over there?
0:30:20 > 0:30:22They're put into boxes in alphabetical order,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25taken down in that very small lift that you saw,
0:30:25 > 0:30:27on to a lorry and driven to Birmingham,
0:30:27 > 0:30:29where the show's made in three days.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33I know, I know, let's call him Bing!
0:30:33 > 0:30:37- We haven't had a Bing in the family for ages.- No.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39I still don't see what's wrong with Charles.
0:30:39 > 0:30:41We're not going to call him Charles!
0:30:41 > 0:30:43OK, how about Dick?
0:30:43 > 0:30:45No, no, wait, John Thomas.
0:30:45 > 0:30:46- No!- No, no, no.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50Listen, here's one - Zorba, or Stavros.
0:30:50 > 0:30:52Gordon's nice.
0:30:52 > 0:30:54We're not calling him Gordon.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57Look, I'm going to settle the whole thing - Donna.
0:30:57 > 0:30:59Oh, like Donna Summer?
0:30:59 > 0:31:01No, doner kebab!
0:31:01 > 0:31:04Theakston's Old Peculiar!!
0:31:04 > 0:31:08Look, here's a totally off-the-wall suggestion...
0:31:08 > 0:31:10- ALL:- No, not Charles!
0:31:10 > 0:31:12Ahem.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15Ah, we're trying to think of a name for the baby, darling.
0:31:15 > 0:31:17- Tell me what you think of...? - No, no.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20I've decided he's going to be called Henry.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22- What?- Henry?- Yah.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24Why Henry?
0:31:24 > 0:31:26Well, all my friends are called Henry, OK?
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Oh, wonderful, hooray! Henry it is then.
0:31:29 > 0:31:30Yes, hooray, Henry!
0:31:30 > 0:31:33Good, I'll christen him.
0:31:34 > 0:31:36I name this baby Henry.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39May God bless him and all who sail in him.
0:31:39 > 0:31:41BABY WAILS
0:31:42 > 0:31:45Oh, what a waste!
0:31:46 > 0:31:49Spitting Image caused such a stir that for the first six shows -
0:31:49 > 0:31:52I believe uniquely in the history of television -
0:31:52 > 0:31:55I had actually to go to defend it line by line
0:31:55 > 0:31:59and word for word to the Independent Broadcasting Authority
0:31:59 > 0:32:01at their headquarters in the Brompton Road.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04UPPER CLASS VOICE: "Oh, yes, hello again, John."
0:32:04 > 0:32:05Norman?
0:32:06 > 0:32:08Yes, leader?
0:32:10 > 0:32:11Argh!
0:32:11 > 0:32:15'The business of Mr Tebbit drinking a human body -
0:32:15 > 0:32:17'do you find that amusing?'
0:32:17 > 0:32:20I said, "Oh, no, sir, I don't find it amusing at all."
0:32:20 > 0:32:21"You don't find it amusing?"
0:32:21 > 0:32:23"No, it's not meant to be funny, sir."
0:32:23 > 0:32:25"Not funny?"
0:32:25 > 0:32:29"No, sir, as you will remember, it's actually an homage
0:32:29 > 0:32:33"to Dean Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal of 1729,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36"where he suggests that if the Irish
0:32:36 > 0:32:39"are short of potatoes because of the famine,
0:32:39 > 0:32:42"there are plenty of babies for them to eat instead."
0:32:42 > 0:32:43"Oh!
0:32:43 > 0:32:46"Oh, satire! Oh, lovely!
0:32:46 > 0:32:49"Lovely, lovely. That's fine."
0:32:49 > 0:32:51Caricature is exaggeration.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54Punch and Judy would be...
0:32:54 > 0:32:55It's about hitting each other.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58It's about being...
0:32:58 > 0:33:01It's about being extremely rude,
0:33:01 > 0:33:03which I had a talent for,
0:33:03 > 0:33:05- so, finally... - HE LAUGHS
0:33:07 > 0:33:14The puppets have the same advantage as an animated Disney character has.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17You can run it over with a car, it would go flat
0:33:17 > 0:33:21and then get and up stand up again and go back into business.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24Well, with puppets, you can bang 'em around.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27As television comedy, Spitting Image goes
0:33:27 > 0:33:30probably a lot further than That Was The Week went.
0:33:30 > 0:33:32But people are less shocked.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35You can't come on and have Millicent Martin singing
0:33:35 > 0:33:39mildly topical songs. No-one's going to say, "Ooh!" anymore.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42You have to go further than that to get people's attention.
0:33:43 > 0:33:47Just cut it in a style that will be universally popular.
0:33:47 > 0:33:48Certainly, madam.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54The skills came from, you know,
0:33:54 > 0:33:59us having to find people who could help us.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03And for us it was the people who had worked with The Muppet Show.
0:34:05 > 0:34:06- Oh, I'm 92!- Shut up!
0:34:06 > 0:34:08Get out of my way!
0:34:08 > 0:34:12'You can't really see, and to try and mask your head
0:34:12 > 0:34:16'as much as possible you've got the clothes over your face.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20'You've got wires dangling off you for the eyes, and you've'
0:34:20 > 0:34:24probably got another person wrapped around you operating a hand,
0:34:24 > 0:34:26who if you move comes with you.
0:34:26 > 0:34:28Puppeteers know each other,
0:34:28 > 0:34:29so you find a puppeteer,
0:34:29 > 0:34:33you'll get ten others knocking on the door.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38How do you see what the puppet's doing then?
0:34:38 > 0:34:42Well, we have a monitor, a television monitor at our feet
0:34:42 > 0:34:45we can look down at and see exactly what's going on.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48The picture on the monitor is reversed so that
0:34:48 > 0:34:50we've actually got a mirror.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53This is for item 19.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56This is the 19th set of the programme.
0:34:56 > 0:34:5719 in one day?!
0:34:57 > 0:35:00I think we've got round to 19, yeah.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02'We have to put everything at two feet.
0:35:02 > 0:35:04'That was decided after many experiments,
0:35:04 > 0:35:05'that that was the optimum!
0:35:05 > 0:35:07'So everything's two feet,
0:35:07 > 0:35:10'so our floor is always two feet from the studio floor.'
0:35:10 > 0:35:13- And this is all the thanks I get. - Oh, bollocks!
0:35:13 > 0:35:15'After the first probably six, eight shows
0:35:15 > 0:35:18'you had a crew that was all onside,
0:35:18 > 0:35:22'that everybody was prepared to put in these hours,'
0:35:22 > 0:35:24and they believed in it, because these same guys,
0:35:24 > 0:35:27who'd go to the pub formerly and said, "I make Crossroads,"
0:35:27 > 0:35:29and people go, "Oh, yeah? Really?",
0:35:29 > 0:35:32they say, "I make Spitting Image." "You do Spitting Image?!"
0:35:32 > 0:35:33'"Yeah, I do all the sound effects."'
0:35:33 > 0:35:37Yes, I tell you what, er, let's use the cup.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41- Er, you put the mic up, John?- Yep.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44Once again, then.
0:35:48 > 0:35:50SQUEAKING
0:35:53 > 0:35:58'We employed some terrifically talented young guys
0:35:58 > 0:36:01'who were much cleverer than we were,
0:36:01 > 0:36:03'who could really do it, you know,
0:36:03 > 0:36:06'Tim Watts, David Stoten, Pablo Bach.'
0:36:08 > 0:36:12'We have about...between anything from about three costumes
0:36:12 > 0:36:15'to about ten costumes to make in two days,'
0:36:15 > 0:36:18so some weeks you might get a bit more time
0:36:18 > 0:36:21and other weeks you don't get any time at all.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25'I've got a feeling, with Mrs Thatcher,
0:36:25 > 0:36:28'that if I was going to improve her image that's exactly what'
0:36:28 > 0:36:29I would have suggested,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32that she actually does go in for a three-quarter wig
0:36:32 > 0:36:36and has a permanent hairdo, and almost...a guaranteed image.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45- ROGER:- 'One of the lifers on the team was Scott Brooker,
0:36:45 > 0:36:49'and he was the only person that knew how to make a proper puppet.
0:36:50 > 0:36:51'Out of all of us.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54'And all the animals you see, the white cat, the dogs,
0:36:54 > 0:36:58'the anteater, they're all Scott Brooker's.'
0:36:58 > 0:37:00Yeeees? HE SIGHS
0:37:00 > 0:37:02Who is it?
0:37:02 > 0:37:05For my age I'm wearing quite well.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09Little rips in the latex start to appear as one gets older.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12That's the trouble with being a puppet.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15- ROGER:- 'We had the very, very best voice artists
0:37:15 > 0:37:17'but at first it was all impersonation,
0:37:17 > 0:37:19'and Harry Enfield made the breakthrough.
0:37:19 > 0:37:21'He took one look at the puppet
0:37:21 > 0:37:24'and thought, "This has to be a voice caricature,"
0:37:24 > 0:37:26'and that's the way it went.'
0:37:26 > 0:37:30Douglas Hurd's another one of mine that I used to do.
0:37:30 > 0:37:31When he first came in...
0:37:31 > 0:37:35I decided to do him because Leon Brittan got sacked and he got...
0:37:35 > 0:37:37And I thought, I might be out of a job,
0:37:37 > 0:37:39I'd better learn the new Home Secretary.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43And, er, I heard him and, you know, he's always very slightly irritated,
0:37:43 > 0:37:45isn't he, just very slightly, in normal life.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48It doesn't matter what you ask him, "How's it going in the Middle East?"
0:37:48 > 0:37:51and he says, "Well, it's not a question of how it's GOING."
0:37:51 > 0:37:52Just very slightly cross.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54But, erm...the puppet...
0:37:54 > 0:37:57Roger Law came up with this ridiculous puppet
0:37:57 > 0:37:59with a sort of ice-cream-cone head,
0:37:59 > 0:38:02and it was obvious it needed a sort of huge sort of voice,
0:38:02 > 0:38:04so I just turned him into Fozzie Bear,
0:38:04 > 0:38:07and took the sort of slight growl in his voice,
0:38:07 > 0:38:12and MADE IT INTO A HUGE GROWL... so that the whole head could move,
0:38:12 > 0:38:14and then it worked with the puppet.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19There's been a bomb in Oxford Street!
0:38:19 > 0:38:22There's been a bomb in Oxford Street!!
0:38:22 > 0:38:27- Who's responsible? - You are, you dreadful old witch!!
0:38:28 > 0:38:31'Chris Barrie, he worked as a puppeteer.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34'He really could take a voice apart.'
0:38:34 > 0:38:36AS RONALD REAGAN: When I became president,
0:38:36 > 0:38:37someone told me I had a voice.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40Then I opened my mouth...hahahaha... and here it came.
0:38:40 > 0:38:44- Splendid.- I'm still discovering many other things about my body.
0:38:44 > 0:38:46- And Mags is helping me. Aren't you, Mags?- No, Ronnie, I'm not.
0:38:46 > 0:38:48Is this a two-shot?
0:38:48 > 0:38:53One of my treasured memories is John Lloyd saying, "This is Steve Nallon.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55"He's Mrs Thatcher."
0:38:55 > 0:38:57Ha-ha-ha-ha!
0:38:57 > 0:39:00You know, Spitting Image portray me as someone who is out of touch,
0:39:00 > 0:39:04someone who has no humanity. Well, the truth is, I care.
0:39:04 > 0:39:06I care a great deal.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09I care, I care, I care, and don't you ever forget it!
0:39:09 > 0:39:12The rhythm of the voice is more important than the sort of tone.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14For example, you can do an impression of Hattersley
0:39:14 > 0:39:16without actually speaking.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18So you can go, "Buh-buh-buh-bluh-bluh,
0:39:18 > 0:39:23"bluh-buh-bluh, buh-buh-bluh-buh. Bluh-buh-bluh, buh-bluh! Bluh-buh."
0:39:23 > 0:39:26And you get an idea of what he's saying, even though
0:39:26 > 0:39:29he isn't making any...words, because the rhythm's there.
0:39:29 > 0:39:30I've gone off the idea of red, Roy.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33- Yes, Neil.- Red's too... - Too...- ..red.- Too red.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36It says red all over it. I prefer grey, like this.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38Er, that's blue, Neil.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41No, bluey-grey. And I'm a bit concerned about the name Labour.
0:39:41 > 0:39:43Labour. Makes us sound like a bunch of lefties.
0:39:43 > 0:39:44We are a bunch of lefties.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46But Labour sounds totally wrong.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50You can't imagine saying Labour Government or Labour Prime Minister.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53- Well, what would you prefer? - Something beginning with, er, a C.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57- Er, C... C...- Con... Conservation Party.- It starts well.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00Er, Neil, are you thinking what I'm thinking?
0:40:00 > 0:40:01Put the wig on, Roy.
0:40:03 > 0:40:04How's it feel?
0:40:04 > 0:40:09I have this strange urge to kiss Ronald Reagan's leathery bottom.
0:40:09 > 0:40:10MUSIC
0:40:21 > 0:40:24It was getting 15 million viewers.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27That was more people than it took to elect the Tory government,
0:40:27 > 0:40:29which I think was 13 and a half million voters,
0:40:29 > 0:40:34and it gave you an extraordinary amount of clout.
0:40:34 > 0:40:36'Both of you are the same height.
0:40:36 > 0:40:38'Why do you think the Spitting Image people came up with
0:40:38 > 0:40:41'the notion that YOU were in the brass pocket?
0:40:41 > 0:40:43'Is it because David Owen seemed the more saturnine...?'
0:40:43 > 0:40:46- 'No, David's taller than I am. - No, I'm quite a bit taller.
0:40:46 > 0:40:48'I think that...
0:40:48 > 0:40:51'I mean, I was always portrayed in cartoons as being very small,
0:40:51 > 0:40:53'which I don't think I am particularly,
0:40:53 > 0:40:54I'm 5 foot 9 and a half,
0:40:54 > 0:40:57'but that was the way the cartoonists saw me.'
0:40:57 > 0:40:59Apparently the Liberal Party did a survey which showed
0:40:59 > 0:41:02that our portrayal of David Steel
0:41:02 > 0:41:04did them enormous electoral harm,
0:41:04 > 0:41:06which we didn't necessarily set out to do.
0:41:06 > 0:41:07Who will be the leader?
0:41:07 > 0:41:12- Again, David, one word from your name and one word from mine.- I see.
0:41:12 > 0:41:14Er, which words?
0:41:14 > 0:41:17Well, from yours, David, I thought we'd take the word David.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21- David. And from yours, David? - Errrrr....
0:41:21 > 0:41:24What about Owen?
0:41:24 > 0:41:29So, it's David Owen, head of the Social Democratic Party?
0:41:29 > 0:41:32Well, that's put my mind at rest. Thank you very much, David.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36David, have you just burst the hot water bottle?
0:41:36 > 0:41:39- No, David, I... - DAVID OWEN GROANS
0:41:39 > 0:41:42We can't take the blame for bringing them down.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45I mean, it's hardly our fault. And we were just...
0:41:45 > 0:41:48I think Spitting Image just does mirror
0:41:48 > 0:41:49what's going on in the real world.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52And is this the first time puppets have been at the top?
0:41:52 > 0:41:54Up ten at one, The Chicken Song, Spitting Image.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58# ..chicken in the air, stick a deck chair up your nose
0:41:58 > 0:42:02# Buy a jumbo jet and then bury all your clothes
0:42:02 > 0:42:07# Paint your left knee green then extract your wisdom teeth
0:42:07 > 0:42:13# Form a string quartet and pretend your name is Keith... #
0:42:13 > 0:42:15CHICKEN SONG ON RADIO
0:42:15 > 0:42:17- JOHN:- 'In Birmingham I'd get up
0:42:17 > 0:42:19'at five in the morning to read all the papers
0:42:19 > 0:42:23'and then have studio all day, all the way through the day,
0:42:23 > 0:42:26'and at lunch break you'd have writing problems.'
0:42:26 > 0:42:28# Wear salami in your ears
0:42:28 > 0:42:32# Casserole your gran Disembowel yourself... #
0:42:32 > 0:42:35'When the recording was finished at normal time,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38'six or seven o'clock, then there'd be all the issues.
0:42:38 > 0:42:39'You know, angry puppeteers,
0:42:39 > 0:42:43'"I don't want to work with him, he smells," or whatever it is,
0:42:43 > 0:42:45'and so you'd have four pints of lager
0:42:45 > 0:42:49'and then there'd be arguments about the miners' strike
0:42:49 > 0:42:52'or Roger would throw a sofa at me.'
0:42:52 > 0:42:55John and I used to have incredible stand-up screaming matches,
0:42:55 > 0:42:57you know.
0:42:57 > 0:42:58And he'd say...
0:42:58 > 0:43:02"Well, I mean, your just sort of left wing...diatribe, Rog,"
0:43:02 > 0:43:06and you'd say, "She's not interested in the left wing any more, John,
0:43:06 > 0:43:08"she's interested in people like you!
0:43:08 > 0:43:13- "Reasonable liberals!"- Meaning Mrs Thatcher?- Yes. Mrs Thatcher.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16"She's after your tail now, mate, she's finished with us."
0:43:18 > 0:43:20And so those conversations...
0:43:20 > 0:43:23I doubt those conversations happen in...
0:43:23 > 0:43:26even in the newsrooms in the television these days.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29'And I'd fall into bed exhausted at about 2:30 in the morning
0:43:29 > 0:43:31'and have to get up in two hours.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34'And I would often find myself sitting in the bath,
0:43:34 > 0:43:36'aged 31 or 32, just crying, just thinking,
0:43:36 > 0:43:39'nobody should have to do this, this is impossible.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42HORROR FILM STYLE MUSIC
0:43:46 > 0:43:50'It was very much more complicated than anything I'd done.
0:43:50 > 0:43:52'And Geoffrey Perkins kind of saved my life
0:43:52 > 0:43:54'by coming in on the third series
0:43:54 > 0:43:58'to produce it and run it, so I could kind of relax a bit.'
0:44:07 > 0:44:10Ooh-er, world driving championship.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13'I started on the show as a script editor
0:44:13 > 0:44:16'and six months later I was producing it.'
0:44:16 > 0:44:18Which was... Which was fantastic.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20'By the end of the third series it was running.
0:44:20 > 0:44:22'You know, it was a machine.
0:44:22 > 0:44:26'Geoffrey took over, he was very good at it, erm,
0:44:26 > 0:44:29'and there was nothing for me to do, really.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33'Well, I left Spitting Image in a huff, I was kind of tired out,'
0:44:33 > 0:44:37and resigned, and so after Spitting Image I went off to do
0:44:37 > 0:44:40two series of Blackadder, the third and the fourth series,
0:44:40 > 0:44:43and I was briefly a television presenter.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45I basically decided, "I'm going to have some fun now.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47"I don't want to be a public servant any more."
0:44:47 > 0:44:50Geoffrey Hicklin from Nottingham rang in to say that he finds
0:44:50 > 0:44:52Spitting Image very irresponsible.
0:44:52 > 0:44:58- "It's disrespectful to government leaders and to royalty."- Good.
0:44:58 > 0:45:02- Do you bother about what people think?- Er, yes, we do. I...
0:45:02 > 0:45:04I'm glad that he does find it's irresponsible
0:45:04 > 0:45:08and disrespectful because that is exactly what it's supposed to be.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12As you know, I won't be here forever. GASPS
0:45:12 > 0:45:17And my successor, well, might be someone from round this table,
0:45:17 > 0:45:21because you are the only people I feel I can trust these days.
0:45:21 > 0:45:22CLEARING OF THROATS
0:45:22 > 0:45:25- About that, Margaret...- What?!
0:45:25 > 0:45:30- I'm afraid we just can't work with you any more.- What do you mean?!
0:45:31 > 0:45:34- No!- Yes!- Yes!- Yes!
0:45:46 > 0:45:47One, two, three, four!
0:45:47 > 0:45:52# Happy days are here again, the skies above are clear again
0:45:52 > 0:45:57# We'll sing a song of cheer again, happy days are here again! #
0:45:57 > 0:45:58Hooray!
0:46:04 > 0:46:06Politicians today strike me as being so much more colourless than
0:46:06 > 0:46:09- they were, sort of five, even ten years ago.- Er, that's...
0:46:09 > 0:46:14- Is that a problem?- It is a problem. PEOPLE are more bland these days.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17I mean, you know, the pop stars like Jason Donovan,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20they're not as sort of colourful as they were a few years ago,
0:46:20 > 0:46:23and a lot of the colourful members of the Cabinet,
0:46:23 > 0:46:27like Nigel Lawson, Leon Brittan, Heseltine, they've gone,
0:46:27 > 0:46:29or were kicked out, you know, but they've...
0:46:29 > 0:46:32And the thing is now that you've got a lot of grey men,
0:46:32 > 0:46:34a lot of young, up-and-coming Tories,
0:46:34 > 0:46:36and they're sort of... characterless.
0:46:36 > 0:46:38Last record.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41Last record is, er, Frank Sinatra.
0:46:41 > 0:46:46- Sinatra singing The Best Is Yet To Come.- Not eating your peas, dear?
0:46:46 > 0:46:49- Ooh, no. I'm saving them till last.- Oh.
0:46:53 > 0:46:58# The best is yet to come come the day you're mine
0:47:00 > 0:47:02# Come the day you're mine
0:47:04 > 0:47:07# I'm gonna teach you to fly
0:47:08 > 0:47:10# We've only tasted the wine
0:47:13 > 0:47:15# We're gonna drain the cup dry... #
0:47:18 > 0:47:21We've got a call now, Daniel McAdams. Hello, Daniel. What's your question?
0:47:21 > 0:47:25Where does he get the ideas for the Spitting Image dummies?
0:47:25 > 0:47:28I probably slightly reduced the amount of politics.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31I really wanted the show to be a popular show
0:47:31 > 0:47:34and for it to be funny above all else.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37The writers wanted to do different things, and a new generation
0:47:37 > 0:47:41of writers came along who weren't particularly interested in politics.
0:47:41 > 0:47:43And we accommodated SOME of that.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46Jon Culshaw, and I'm responsible for, let's see, Mr Motivator,
0:47:46 > 0:47:49Harry Carpenter, Wolf from the Gladiators,
0:47:49 > 0:47:52Ian Paisley, Frank Bruno, Kenneth Clarke.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56Alistair McGowan, and I'm responsible for John Major,
0:47:56 > 0:47:58Tony Blair, Paddy Ashdown, Jeremy Paxman,
0:47:58 > 0:48:02Chris Eubank, and Kenneth Branagh, and several others,
0:48:02 > 0:48:04including a new Alan Hansen, which is coming up soon.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06I think the Fergie puppet is brilliant,
0:48:06 > 0:48:09because there's something about Fergie's face, you know.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11The eyes and the sort of... SHE SNORTS
0:48:11 > 0:48:13You know, that sort of stupid laugh that I gave her.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16I don't know why I gave her that snort.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18Poor woman's probably never done that in her life.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20Gosh, Anne, it's so helpful having someone to talk to.
0:48:20 > 0:48:21SHE SNORTS
0:48:21 > 0:48:22Times had changed.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26I was exhausted with Spitting Image long before it finished.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30- Anyone admitting to being on props today?- Moving on, please!
0:48:30 > 0:48:33- One...- For the last...
0:48:33 > 0:48:36- That was the first take, OK? - OK, here we go, chaps.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39Puppets up, please. Let's go.
0:48:39 > 0:48:40And, go track.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42In the shower?
0:48:42 > 0:48:44Yes, George, I could even go to sleep in the middle of...
0:48:44 > 0:48:48'I think Central had had enough, and I think they thought they could
0:48:48 > 0:48:54'dismantle it and probably bring it back when they felt like it.
0:48:54 > 0:48:55'And we said, you can't,
0:48:55 > 0:48:58'because there are a thousand puppets, that deteriorate,
0:48:58 > 0:49:00'there's all these moulds, we have to store them,
0:49:00 > 0:49:03'we don't have the money to store them, erm,
0:49:03 > 0:49:08'there's, you know, 2,500 square feet of costumes.'
0:49:22 > 0:49:25'You're always looking for the most negative thing you can find,
0:49:25 > 0:49:29'that you can read in the news. You...
0:49:29 > 0:49:33'You find that bit where you can take the piss out of somebody,
0:49:33 > 0:49:37'and it gets a bit...it gets a bit depressing.
0:49:37 > 0:49:39'Because if you come to the realisation that
0:49:39 > 0:49:42'it ain't going to change anything...
0:49:42 > 0:49:45'Cos I remember an early meeting with...
0:49:45 > 0:49:49'other people and Lloydy in a pub in the Fulham Road,'
0:49:49 > 0:49:54and at that time I was...we were fully fired up with...
0:49:54 > 0:49:57"We're satirists, we're caricaturists,
0:49:57 > 0:49:59"we're going to change the world."
0:49:59 > 0:50:00And he said,
0:50:00 > 0:50:03"It doesn't change anything." And he was absolutely right.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17'I take the view the most interesting satire
0:50:17 > 0:50:18since Spitting Image
0:50:18 > 0:50:22'is The Two Johns on Rory Bremner, which is two faceless,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25'you know, very charming fellows talking in a very reasonable way
0:50:25 > 0:50:27'about why we've taken all your money
0:50:27 > 0:50:29'and why we're committing genocide.'
0:50:29 > 0:50:32'"I think you'll see, now I put it quite reasonably to you,
0:50:32 > 0:50:34'"I think you'll see what I'm saying."'
0:50:34 > 0:50:37They're not responsible, you don't even know their names,
0:50:37 > 0:50:40they could be a corporation, they could be a PR firm,
0:50:40 > 0:50:43and they're all the same person and they control us
0:50:43 > 0:50:47and they can't be found, they can't be pointed at.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50When Mrs Thatcher died, Lady Thatcher died,
0:50:50 > 0:50:53and I was asked on telly a bit to go and talk about it
0:50:53 > 0:50:56and they'd show clips and I was astonished at how funny it was,
0:50:56 > 0:50:59even the stuff that at the time I thought wasn't very good, you know,
0:50:59 > 0:51:04wasn't funny enough, wasn't clever enough, wasn't well enough made.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08Then it was divisive, it was angry, it was, you know, probably
0:51:08 > 0:51:12the most unpopular government of the century, and also the most popular.
0:51:13 > 0:51:17And that's what...the climate in which Spitting Image could thrive.
0:51:20 > 0:51:24'Spitting Image ended up as a show that 12 million people,
0:51:24 > 0:51:27'14 million people, never less than seven...
0:51:27 > 0:51:31'In The Thick Of It is one of my favourite satire shows -
0:51:31 > 0:51:33'they're lucky to get 2 million.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35'That is the difference.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39'So I think Peter's assessment of what would happen
0:51:39 > 0:51:42'with Spitting Image was correct for now.
0:51:42 > 0:51:47'If we did it, we'd be a cult thing, probably on the net.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52'A lot of the commissioning editors have never made television, ever.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55'So they really want to cover their bottom.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58'There aren't people like Denton that can take a decision.
0:51:58 > 0:52:03'Anything that might fail, miserably, is avoided,
0:52:03 > 0:52:06'and that must be to do with budgets and it must be to do with
0:52:06 > 0:52:10'the fact that they've kind of Americanised the system.'
0:52:11 > 0:52:14But I don't feel that strongly about...these people.
0:52:14 > 0:52:16I mean, what have you got?
0:52:16 > 0:52:20You've got a PR man who's never had a proper job,
0:52:20 > 0:52:24and you've got a government that's sort of like, erm...
0:52:24 > 0:52:28It's like a George Orwell land, but with...but Conservative.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46'I think Spitting Image is a programme that...
0:52:46 > 0:52:48'stopped and made people think,
0:52:48 > 0:52:50'and it was a very important barometer
0:52:50 > 0:52:52'of public opinion at the time.
0:52:54 > 0:52:56'We thought it was very important
0:52:56 > 0:53:00'that the Imperial War Museum represent Margaret Thatcher,'
0:53:00 > 0:53:03one of the most important political figures of the late 20th century,
0:53:03 > 0:53:07in our new exhibition, which looks at the post-war world.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09And so Margaret Thatcher sits in a little group of objects
0:53:09 > 0:53:12considering the war in the Falklands, but also
0:53:12 > 0:53:14next to that is Northern Ireland.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16And she was a very important political figure in both
0:53:16 > 0:53:19the Falklands and Northern Ireland. It's a caricature.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23It's slightly violent in the way that she appears,
0:53:23 > 0:53:26deliberately, and so that makes people stop and think.
0:53:27 > 0:53:33Tell me, oh, tell me again, how much better am I than Neil Kinnock?
0:53:33 > 0:53:37- Oh, you're twice the man he is, PM. - No, three times.- Ten times at least.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40- Oh, come on!- 20!
0:53:40 > 0:53:43How long can I stay on as Prime Minister?
0:53:43 > 0:53:47And so we chose the Spitting Image puppet
0:53:47 > 0:53:51because we felt it would provoke a response in visitors, rather than
0:53:51 > 0:53:56just show what she looked like as a natural representation.
0:54:00 > 0:54:01MUSIC
0:54:12 > 0:54:16- Well, I think special is an understatement in this instance.- Yep.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19Because we are now going live to none other than
0:54:19 > 0:54:21Her Majesty the Queen herself.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23Just explain to us, then, ma'am,
0:54:23 > 0:54:27why you're at the British Film Institute this evening.
0:54:27 > 0:54:29I'm at the BFI Southbank
0:54:29 > 0:54:33to celebrate 30 years of Spitting Image.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35APPLAUSE AND WHISTLING
0:54:43 > 0:54:47Are you bathed in a warm glow of nostalgia, John,
0:54:47 > 0:54:51or are you having kind of flashbacks like a Vietnam vet?
0:54:52 > 0:54:55Well, I think you live with a one-sided view
0:54:55 > 0:54:57of what it was like for 30 years.
0:54:57 > 0:54:59Roger and I were extremely angry with each other
0:54:59 > 0:55:02- a great deal of the time.- We'll be talking about that shortly.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05But also it was marvellous, it was fantastic, it was such fun.
0:55:05 > 0:55:07It was so brilliant.
0:55:07 > 0:55:09Well, I think you forget,
0:55:09 > 0:55:12I mean, the talent that buoyed the three of us up.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16- Weren't they amazing?- And how about you, how did you feel about...?
0:55:16 > 0:55:18Well, I completely agree with John.
0:55:18 > 0:55:20I mean, it took a whole community of people
0:55:20 > 0:55:21to put the programme together,
0:55:21 > 0:55:24and, er, it had a curious split, actually, cos...
0:55:24 > 0:55:27a split between people who went to art school and that,
0:55:27 > 0:55:29sculpture and painting and things,
0:55:29 > 0:55:33and then...and then the guys from Oxbridge. And it was a curious mix.
0:55:33 > 0:55:38And was that what caused the often combustible moments, or...?
0:55:38 > 0:55:42No, I mean... Roger was throwing sofas around cos he's like that.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45- He does that at home. - LAUGHTER
0:55:45 > 0:55:49It was incredibly good fun, it was...really good fun.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52- Well, I think for the producers and...- Hell for them, but...
0:55:52 > 0:55:54..I think it was really hard,
0:55:54 > 0:55:57because we got the fun, we got to write it, we got to see it happen,
0:55:57 > 0:56:00and then when it went out we said, "Ah, you've messed it up,"
0:56:00 > 0:56:03and, you know, gave them a hard time.
0:56:03 > 0:56:06We watched it religiously every Sunday evening, it was fantastic.
0:56:06 > 0:56:09- What, you and David? - LAUGHTER
0:56:13 > 0:56:16- Were you two unusual?- No, Ian, me and my wife!- Oh, yeah, sorry. Sorry.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19I remember speaking to a conference of policemen,
0:56:19 > 0:56:21and Shadow Cabinet... or Cabinet ministers
0:56:21 > 0:56:24weren't popular with the police force, and the front row,
0:56:24 > 0:56:26every policeman took out an umbrella when I began to speak.
0:56:26 > 0:56:27LAUGHTER
0:56:27 > 0:56:31When Spitting Image was on, many more people in the public knew
0:56:31 > 0:56:35the names of every politician in the Cabinet than they do now.
0:56:35 > 0:56:36Now people could probably mention
0:56:36 > 0:56:39four or five people who are in the Cabinet...
0:56:39 > 0:56:42- But we did talk about that.- But at the time... And the Shadow Cabinet.
0:56:42 > 0:56:45Part of the impetus for the programme starting in the first place
0:56:45 > 0:56:48was a sort of loathing of Thatcher and the Conservatives.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51Do you think that they were kinder to you if you were in opposition?
0:56:51 > 0:56:54But it did her good. This is what people don't understand.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57People liked the idea we'd got a strong,
0:56:57 > 0:57:00aggressive Prime Minister, it did her great...great...
0:57:00 > 0:57:02benefit, I think.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05- AS THATCHER:- Could I say a few words from...- Oh, do, please.
0:57:05 > 0:57:07..from beyond the grave.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11I think the problem is that, you know, Margaret Thatcher
0:57:11 > 0:57:14- was an incredibly conviction politician.- Yes.
0:57:14 > 0:57:19That is the point. David Cameron is NOT a conviction politician.
0:57:19 > 0:57:23He wants to be everyone's friend. He's too friendly.
0:57:23 > 0:57:27You know, he's the sort of man that would call John the Baptist Jack.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30- You don't want that. - LAUGHTER
0:57:30 > 0:57:32Have conviction!
0:57:32 > 0:57:35These bastards sloped off after a few years,
0:57:35 > 0:57:38and I was there for the whole... nine yards.
0:57:38 > 0:57:41Why didn't you slope off?
0:57:41 > 0:57:44He needed the money, frankly.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49I was, you know, the Liberal voting, middle-of-the-road,
0:57:49 > 0:57:51reasonable, BBC-trained producer,
0:57:51 > 0:57:55trying to mediate between all these lunatics, and they were all,
0:57:55 > 0:57:59you know, Marxist, Che Guevara hats and all this kind of stuff.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02And by the time Flucky and I and Jon Blair
0:58:02 > 0:58:05had been shunted out by the mother cuckoo here,
0:58:05 > 0:58:09erm, and he was on his own, the workshop went to Roger
0:58:09 > 0:58:11and said, "We'd like a trade union."
0:58:11 > 0:58:15He said, "Not in my fucking company, you don't."
0:58:18 > 0:58:21WOMAN: First off I want to thank you guys for politicising a very young,
0:58:21 > 0:58:24impressionable eight-year-old 30 years ago, so thank you very much.
0:58:24 > 0:58:27- MAN:- You know, it was a great way for left-wing people and people
0:58:27 > 0:58:30that were resisting to recharge their batteries on a Sunday night.
0:58:30 > 0:58:32It gave us a lot of hope.
0:58:34 > 0:58:37- MAN:- Do you now agree with Ted Heath that you wish you'd done something
0:58:37 > 0:58:39really rather more useful with your time?
0:58:39 > 0:58:41LAUGHTER
0:58:54 > 0:58:58# Shopping around for prizes
0:58:58 > 0:59:00# Looking around for prizes... #
0:59:00 > 0:59:04- Hi.- Thought we were starting early this morning.- This is early.
0:59:04 > 0:59:07RADIO: 'Yes, it's time again for the BBC Shopping Basket...'
0:59:07 > 0:59:10Is this crap the best Radio 4's got to offer?
0:59:10 > 0:59:13- Well, turn it off. - 'Since the beginning of December...'
0:59:13 > 0:59:16- What about making a nice cup of tea, Flucky?- OK.
0:59:16 > 0:59:21'In fact, the 57 items in our basket then cost us £17.97.
0:59:21 > 0:59:26'Now, today those very same items would cost £18.49.
0:59:26 > 0:59:29'And that's an increase of 52 pence in just over a month.
0:59:29 > 0:59:32'Now, the reason for this week's increase can be put down to
0:59:32 > 0:59:34'more expensive tomatoes, greens,
0:59:34 > 0:59:39'and fractional rises on a whole range of goods, including beef,
0:59:39 > 0:59:42'bacon, onions, apples, coffee and some cleaning materials.
0:59:42 > 0:59:46'Right, and in fact the milk prices are going to go up next month,
0:59:46 > 0:59:48'and there's talk about the cost of canned goods going up.
0:59:48 > 0:59:49'I'm afraid so...'