Daily Mail, Thursday, March 5, 2020 QQQ Page
What do you
mean, I’m
just your
puppet?
Spitting Image is back
... and guess who’s
in the firing line
THEY’VE faced their fair share of
flak over recent months. Now
Harry and Meghan are first in the
queue for more mockery.
The couple may be stepping back
from royal duties but that won’t stop
Spitting Image lampooning them
when it returns to TV after 24 years.
Rubber puppets of Harry and Meghan
have already been made, with other vic-
tims of the topical satirical show set to
include Boris Johnson, his chief adviser
Dominic Cummings, Donald Trump, thelic service satire announcement,’ he said.
‘I’ve refused to resuscitate Spitting
Image for years but when my pension ran
out and my palm was crossed with silver
what could an old man do?’
It is the first original commission
announced by BritBox, the British TV
and film streaming service launched by
the BBC and ITV last year to take on
Netflix. Development of the puppets is
already under way. As with previousseries, scripts will be written and new
puppets made nearer to airtime.
The producers behind the revival said:
‘With the world getting smaller and more
turbulent, the time couldn’t be more
appropriate for an iconic British satirical
take on global events.’
Mr Law added: ‘With scandalous scripts
and A-list characters, it will be the peo-
ple’s programme! We will take back con-
trol from the likes of BoJo, Trump, Harryand Meghan, Elon Musk and Kim
Kardashian. We will be dazzled and
amazed by Jurgen Klopp and Beyonce,
we will have regular weather updates from
our roving reporter Greta Thunberg.
‘And the message for the doomsayers is,
this autumn we will get BritBox done.’So emulsional! Paint f irm pulls ‘sexist’ pink shades
By Eleanor Sharples
TV and Radio ReporterDuke of York, Kanye West and Beyonce.
The series, which will air this autumn on
streaming service BritBox, will also fea-
ture Vladimir Putin, Bernie Sanders,
Elon Musk, RuPaul, Adele and James
Corden in puppet form.
The original programme ran on ITV for
18 series between 1984 and 1996, attract-
ing up to 15million viewers.
Spitting Image co-creator Roger Law is
back as executive producer and promises
the new show will be ‘more outrageous,
audacious and salacious’ than ever. ‘Pub-Lampooned: Donald and Melania Trump, and sketches of how Dominic Cummings may look
Rubber royals:
Harry and
Meghan get the
Spitting Image
treatmentA MAJOR paint brand is pulling its
pink pots from the shelves of a
high street retailer – because it
fears their names are ‘old-fash-
ioned gender stereotypes’.
Valspar will rebrand the shades
called Dollface, Sweet Angel,
Girly Girl and Ladylike.
In a move that will delight the
‘woke’ generation, it will renamethem in ‘empowering, gender-
neutral terms’ including Woke
Up Like This, Unstoppable, Fear-
less and Like a Boss.
Valspar, whose paint is given
great prominence in B&Q stores,
is also scrapping pots called Shy
Girl, Dolled Up, Faint of Heart andDainty Delight and is inviting new
name suggestions online.
A company spokesman said:
‘Valspar is holding its hands up
and acknowledging some of its
pink paint names are formed of
old-fashioned gender stereo-
types which no longer have a
place in modern-day society.’
The firm consulted Jane Sun-derland, an honorary professor
and expert in gender matters at
Lancaster University, as part of
its rebranding.
Dr Sunderland said: ‘Traditional
ideas such as “pink is for girls”
often contain stereotypes about
gender that restrict aspirations
and opportunities.
‘These are out of place in the21st centur y where gender
equality is expected. The lan-
guage we use matters.
‘The term dollface suggests an
object and a possession, whereas
girly girl implies someone who
can’t really be taken seriously.’
The new names will appear on
Valspar’s website in April and in
stores from later this year.Daily Mail Reporter
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