Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Co-originator of the satirical television show Spitting Image.
On the island
Eight records
This is a record we remember very well from our art school days, where this sort of early jazz piano suited the lifestyle of the time.
Stay with MeFavourite
Stay with me baby, where we enjoyed ourselves in the sixties, obviously because we were young.
Cello Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012
It's a piece of music I've always liked very and there's a particular section in the middle that always makes me think of Bruegel Pictures or those dancing peasants having a great time drinking wonderful beer.
Bob Dylan's been with us I mean he's roughly the same age. I love this record because it always reminds me of the trouble we had with landladies in the early days, both in Cambridge and in London.
The Indestructible Beat of Soweto
I'm going to miss my wife on this island. I'm very fond of her and I'm very proud of her. She was a founder member of the Quilters Guild, a quilt maker. She's taught a lot of people to quilt. And amongst those people the Somani Soweto sisters, and I'd like a track from The Indestructible Pete of Soweto.
I've chosen this really because I know it irritates Roger immensely. But it also reminds me of a very good friend I had in when I was living in Essex who told me everything but little I know about Marla over several pints of beer in a very pleasant pub.
Peter's a very practical person and I'm sure he's going to find a way of fermenting something or other. So I need a song for that, and I also need a song to play after he's finished the Marlowe.
Seeräuber-Jenny (Pirate Jenny)
It's associated in our minds with the work of George Gross, who Bert Orbrecht worked with in Germany in the thirties. It's something we've al both been very fond of.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:25Would you in fact get along [on a desert island]?
No, I think what we've got to do, we've got to split the island by the high tide. So when the high tide comes in, we get some part of the day where we're separate. … the thought of being stuck on a desert island with just Roger, or just stuck there with him, is absolutely unbearable.
Presenter asks
7:08Was there in any of your background any suggestion of art?
No, in my family it was something that the door was shut very firmly on. But as I went through grammar school and failed quite patently every subject they put in front of me, it was noticed that I did come top in the art classes. So hence art school and a career as a commercial artist.
Presenter asks
8:32When you first met [at Cambridge Art School], did you become friends immediately?
I suppose so, yes. Not having much of an eye to the future, we did careless things in those days.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
How did [the models] in fact happen? What was the starting point?
First glossy magazines were coming out with colour pages and they're beautifully printed. … And it occurred to me that the only people that really appreciated good drawing … were other illustrators and the only way we could crack it … would be to … join the club, as it were, and use photography, and so the three-dimensional caricature came in in that sense.
Presenter asks
24:53How do you find [politicians'] reactions, generally speaking? Are they hurt or are they proud that you've chosen them?
Well I think what's happened is that if you're not caricatured on Spittin' Image, then you haven't made it. Which is a rather double-ish thing as far as we're concerned. I mean, if you do a caricature and you mean it, then in a way you like to think that the point goes home. … But for Edwina Curry to actually get in touch with and say she'd be delighted to … appear with the puppet, you realize you've failed miserably.
Presenter asks
25:16Do you think that the [Spitting Image] programme itself ... changes public perception of an issue or a purpose?
It doesn't change anything. … it's a release, like laughter, but it doesn't change anything.