The quality of the footage in this YouTube playlist isn’t great, but it features the highly regarded Stephen Mottram demonstrating some beautiful, remarkably life-like marionette manipulation techniques.

I somehow missed Frank The Fruitcake over the holidays, but it’s hilarious!

Frank is the star of an interactive ad campaign that was created for Wal-Mart by unit9. It was an attempt to create a holiday Internet meme (think JibJab/OfficeMax’s famous Elf Your Self viral campaign) featuring a talking holiday fruitcake that you can put on your Facebook wall or send to your friends. Once installed, Frank becomes “annoying charming”; he won’t stop talking and tries to convince you not to send him away. I think it’s a really clever idea for a Christmas campaign, even if the connection between talking fruitcake and Wal-Mart isn’t exactly obvious.

Frank was performed by UK puppeteer Brian Herring and is voiced by comedian Bobcat Goldthwait. There are more Frank The Fruitcake videos on YouTube and you can watch a behind-the-scenes “making of” video on the unit9 website.

Did you know that Joe Wright – who directed Pride and Prejudice (the 2005 Keira Knightly version) and The Soloist – is the son of John and Lyndie Wright, who founded the historic Little Angel Theatre in London? Neither did I until I saw this BBC report yesterday about Joe’s involvement in a recent show at the Little Angel.

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre tackles the ongoing financial crisis in the Eurozone.

Perky The Turkey is the star of The Sun Newspaper’s new ad campaign in the UK. He’s featured in a series of commercials as well as print and radio ads for a promotion called Sun Perks that allows loyal Sun readers to collect points that can be traded for free Christmas gifts.

This is apparently the first time that the Sun has ever used a puppet in their advertising. The campaign ads were produced by London’s Another Film Company and directed by Stephen Pipe, who previously made Why Puppets Don’t Drink. Do any readers know who built and performed Perky? Perky the Turkey was designed by Stephen; the puppet was built and performed by Andy Heath (special thanks to Warrick for the tip!).

Every Bomb You Drop is probably the most famous of the Spitting Image musical parodies and was one of the most poingent segments that the show ever produced. A parody of Every Breath You Take, Sting agreed to rerecord the song with new lyrics for the show. We tend to take videos like this for granted today, but when this was produced during the era of Thatcher, Regan, the Cold War and emerging international terrorism it was a profound (and unusual) political statement on prime time television in the UK.

Two decades after this was made almost all of the leaders spoofed in it have been (for the most part thankfully) relegated to the dustbin of history, but it’s sad to realize that even though the faces and conflicts may have changed, not an awful lot else has.

Back in 2005 The British Film Institute hosted a special tribute to the series that included a panel discussion with several members of the Spitting Image creative team, including co-creator Peter Fluck, voice artist Steve Nallon and puppeteer Louise Gold. The BFI has a partial transcript of their discussion (sadly, the first part of it appears to have been lost), which provides some fascinating insights in to the making of the series. You can also read a review of the BFI event with some additional information here.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was a favourite target of Spitting Image and her puppet was one of the show’s biggest stars. This is one of the best Thatcher skits, which depicts her getting political advice from Hitler, who is alive and well and living out his days as a rooftop gardener in London.

This week I wanted to take a look at one of the best, or  (in the minds of British politicians) worst puppet shows ever produced for TV, Spitting Image.

A satirical look at world politics and entertainment, Spitting Image aired on ITV in the UK from 1984 to 1996. It was a revolutionary show that was merciless in its skewering of politicians and celebrities. Nothing was sacred to Spitting Image, including religion. A good example is My God Is Bigger Than Your God, probably one of the show’s most pitch perfect musical satires…and just as relevant today as the day it was made.

We tend to take these sorts of parodies for granted now, but twenty-five years ago Spitting Image was truly innovative – even dangerous – television. I don’t know that anyone else has ever done political puppetry quite so well.

I’m a little late posting this for it to be topical, but here’s The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre taking aim at the recent London riots.