Labour Party Political Broadcast (partially lost Spitting Image-produced political broadcast; 1996)
A screenshot of Spitting Image puppets of then-Prime Minister John Major and Home Secretary Michael Howard. Taken from the thumbnail of the taken down Youtube video.
Status: Partially Lost
This article has been tagged as Needing work due to its lack of content.
On the 10th of October 1996, the Labour Party (UK) aired a near 5-minute political broadcast featuring puppets from the satirical sketch show Spitting Image, 8 months after the show's cancellation following low ratings.
The broadcast was uploaded onto YouTube on 11th December 2016 by a user named David Boothroyd[1] before being taken down around 2020 by ITV. Thankfully, it has been archived on the Wayback Machine[2], although the off-air recording suffers from degradation leading it to suffer from losses in picture around 2:30.
Synopsis
The broadcast begins[3] with a puppet of the then-Conservative Prime Minister John Major in bed, struggling with his speech script for the "big day" with his wife Norma Major shifting and then-Chief Mouser (Downing Street cat) Humphrey. While thinking about topics to cover in his speech, he realises that he has tarnished his reputation with all the lying he's done in the past years. He also repeats lines stating the promises made by his real-life counterpart to emphasise their genuineness.
The broadcast then uses five different historical-themed disaster scenarios to summarise the state of the United Kingdom, with Humphrey, representing the British electorate and being doubtful about Major's claims, appearing in each one:
- Taxation is represented by the American Civil War.
- The mass executions by guillotine during the French revolution represent the growing crime rates, with Humphrey sitting knitting with a look of defeat.
- The poor state of the economy is represented by the sinking of the Titanic.
- Representing the housing crisis, Major, as the mad emperor Nero, fiddles around while his own city of Rome burns around him, with Humphrey's tail on fire.
- Education is represented by World War II, featuring a new Spitting Image puppet of then-Education Secretary Gillian Shepherd.
By the end of the broadcast, it's already dawn at Downing Street and Major decides, ‘I’ll say what I like - they all believe me anyway,’ to which Humphrey leaves in disappointment.
See Also
- Spitting Image (lost pilots of British satirical puppet television show; 1983)
- Thatcherworld (lost Spitting Image BBC TV film; 1993)
References
- ↑ The link to the blocked video. Retrieved 23 Feb '24
- ↑ Archived video Retrieved 23 Feb '24
- ↑ Newspaper article detailing the broadcast Retrieved 23 Feb '24