FROM BORIS JOHNSON to The Queen, no one is safe from the stinging satire of Spitting Image.
But it looks like the spoofed stars could start getting off lightly.
The sketch series, which has used puppets to poke fun at the rich and famous since the Eighties, returned on streaming service BritBox last year.
Now creator Roger Law says he may have to curb some of its edgier elements to pacify the modern woke brigade.
He said: “I thought that working for BritBox we would have quite a lot of freedom, and we have had a lot of freedom, but times have changed and I am an old man.
“Now you have got young people working who are incredibly woke which I have sort of come around to.
“But it does make things difficult. Because you want to make people laugh. You don’t want to bloody irritate them so you have to be careful.
“If you say one thing satirically and you mean another, there are a lot of people out there on the net that don’t really know the difference.
“That is one of the problems. But it is our problem and we are dealing with it.”
Spitting Image is the latest comedy to be hit by sensitive snowflakes.
SNOWFLAKES
A number of old BBC shows, including Dad’s Army, Blackadder and The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, now come with warnings alerting viewers to potentially offensive language and discriminatory jokes.
Jennifer Saunders said last month that her hit Nineties sitcom Absolutely Fabulous wouldn’t be made today because of snowflakes.
The next series of Spitting Image is set to air later this year and it will feature new puppets of BBC Director-General Tim Davie as Boris Johnson’s lapdog and Health Secretary Sajid Javid as Uncle Fester from the Addams Family.
Doesn’t sound very woke to me . . .
Megan: I’d be wilder than Bear
SHE’S worked with Bear Grylls for over a decade – and Megan Hine reckons she would outlast the telly adventurer if they were abandoned in the Amazon together.
The survival expert, who Bear calls on to do safety checks for all his shows, reckons she would give him a run for his money in the wild.
Asked who would survive the longest, a laughing Megan replied: “If we were dropped in the Amazon, I’d totally survive longer than Bear.
“In all honesty, if I ended up in the jungle with Bear, it’s a case of you’re stronger as a pair because he brings strengths that I don’t have and vice versa.
“It’s good to have a gender balance on these things – it brings a very different dynamic to the team.”
Megan is currently starring in Sky History series Curse Of The Lost Amazon Gold which airs on Mondays at 9pm.
And she says she’s on a mission to change the face of TV’s toughest shows.
She said: “I’ve actually just had a couple of my own show ideas commissioned over the last few months, which is exciting.
“When we think of an adventurer or explorer, there is a certain image that pops into most of our heads – Bear or someone like Ant Middleton, these SAS shows.
“I’m on a bit of a mission to diversify the face of adventure.”
Len not Strictly honest
AMBER GILL has her eye on the glitterball trophy after a boost from former Strictly judge Len Goodman.
The Love Islander and Len both feature in C4’s Can I Improve My Memory? – on tonight at 8pm – and she was thrilled when Len told her she would be great on Strictly.
Amber revealed: “He said he knows a dancer when he sees one and I was like, ‘What?!’. I don’t know how he could tell – I wasn’t dancing around. But when Len says you can dance, you don’t argue with that.”
Sadly, Len is a bit of a fibber.
He admitted: “I tell everyone they would make a good dancer! So apart from having a terrible memory, I’m also a bit of a liar.
“It isn’t a good combination, as I’m never sure who I’ve told the truth to and I can’t remember if I lied or if I didn’t.
“A bit hopeless, ain’t it?”
