‘The whole point is to stir the pot and ruffle feathers. And if you’re not doing that, you’re not doing it right’
‘The whole point is to stir the pot and ruffle feathers. And if you’re not doing that, you’re not doing it right’
Political cartoonist and caricaturist Adrian Teal talks about his Spitting Image full circle
By Sarah Ward
In 1986 when most twelve-year-old boys were sliding round dance floors to Spitting Image’s hit The Chicken Song, Adrian Teal was receiving tuition in the cult show’s workshop in Canary Wharf.
Almost 35 years later, when the show was revived by Britbox he was asked to work on it, drawing the caricatures for most of the new caricatures including Donald Trump and Boris Johnson.
He says:
“My life came full circle. The show was such a big deal when I was a kid and being involved even on an informal basis was fantastic and then of course when the show died, you think that’s the end of that and then suddenly it comes back around again.”
Kettering-born Adrian loved drawing since the day he first picked up a pencil and even as a child was drawn to caricature. So when Spitting Image came along, his pharmacist father got in touch with the show.
“He contacted the workshop and said ‘I’ve got a ten year old I don’t know what to do with, can he come down and spend some time with you?’ So that’s what I used to do on an informal basis. I used to go down there and have some tuition now and again, a couple of times a year. That was my only real tuition in the field of caricature.
“It was incredibly useful. The nice thing was that the head caricaturist, a guy called David Stoten, was really patient and he used to set me little tasks. On one occasion he said ‘How about we do John Cleese today?’ He gave me a batch of photo clippings and I did some drawing in the morning and lunchtime and in the afternoon I started actually sculpting from my own drawing and he helped me through the process.
“And that helped me to think three dimensionally, seeing the face from every conceivable angle in your mindseye and getting it down on paper. That kind of thing was absolutely invaluable.”
His talent helped pay his way through his time as a university student at Bristol and when he graduated he returned to Northampton to set up his art studio. He has worked as a caricaturist and freelance political cartoonist, drawing for local newspapers as well as the nationals.
He says:
“It is quite prestigious but the problem a lot of the time you’re dealing with editors and comment editors who don’t really have a sense of humour and don’t understand cartoons, or they are pandering to their readership.
“I once did a cartoon for one of the right wing newspapers and it was the week that The Scream by Edvard Munch was stolen from a museum, the same week that Mark Thatcher was arrested for being arrested in that coup in Africa. I had this idea of doing Margaret Thatcher as The Scream, holding a newspaper in which the headline was ‘Mark Thatcher is arrested’. It was quite a good visual gag. I took this to the comment editor and he said ‘Oh this is fantastic, but we can’t use it of course’. And I said ‘Why not?’ and he said ‘Because our readers have such a sentimental attachment to Margaret Thatcher that we can’t risk pissing them off’. And I thought, ‘This is ridiculous.’
“The whole point is to stir the pot and ruffle feathers. And if you’re not doing that, you’re not doing it right.”
When they revived Spitting Image in 2020 for new streaming channel Britbox, executive producer and caricaturist Roger Law, got in touch, having remembered Adrian from his younger days and having followed his work.
He said:
“So when it eventually came back to life he (Roger) said ‘Do you want to work on this show with us?
“I ended up designing the majority of the puppets which was a dream come true.”
The show went on to do some ITV specials and the live stage version Idiots Assemble went on to London’s West End.
Currently he is undertaking a lot of fine art commissions, and has recently co-written and produced the book Plague-Busters! with his wife, medical historian and New York Times best selling author Lindsey Fitzharris.
The couple live in a village in the north of the county.
He says:
“Drawing is in my blood. It’s all I’ve ever done. It’s been great. I’ve never had a proper job.”
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