Spat Out

Britbox axes Spitting Image

You might think this was the perfect time for political satire – but Britbox has taken the decision to axe Spitting Image.

Comedian Matt Forde, who writes on the show and voices puppets including Boris Johnson and Donald Trump, confirmed the news in a newspaper interview.

The subscription service – which is majority-owned by ITV in partnership with the BBC – revived the show in 2020 after a 24-year absence.

When the second revived series was launched in September last year, ITV boasted: ‘Spitting Image has delivered record subscribers for BritBox UK… 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. 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.’

But that was clearly not enough to justify the substantial cost of the programme.

Forde told The i he was disappointed that a third series had not been commissioned, saying: ‘There is a huge public appetite for Spitting Image in this country. I just can't believe it's not on a mainstream channel at a time like this.

‘It got crazy numbers when the specials were on ITV and the online figures were going through the roof.

‘I thought it was madness not to have the whole series on mainstream ITV. They spent all that money bringing back this mega-brand only to hide it away on BritBox.’

He said it was a ‘tragedy’ there was so little tragedy on British TV, and lamenting the fact we had nothing like America’s The Daily Show. He said: ’It’s bonkers not to have a topical comedy show on all the time, you can't just give it six weeks. It takes a show time to bed in and find an audience. It's never been tried here.’

British topical satire is lead by Have I Got News For You, now in its 63rd series, with Dave just having aired the second series of its Late Night Mash. But the BBC also just axed Mock The Week.

BritBox confirmed that it would not be airing any additional original commissions due to the impending launch of ITVX, with a spokesperson adding: ‘A Spitting Image commission for ITV has not been confirmed or announced.’

When ITVX launches BritBox will be available to subscribers of the paid-for premium tier, which also removes adverts from the free-to-stream programming. A raft of comedy programming has been announced for the new platform – including shows written by Spencer Jones and Jayde Adams.

Spitting Image will however live on as a stage show, directed by Sean Foley, which launches at Birmingham Rep from February 1. Oroducers Avalon hope it will lead to a West End transfer.