Santa Claus is on the Dole News Posted by John Hoare on 12th September 2006, 14:15 Whilst we’re arguing who wrote what, here’s something Rob and Doug definitely did write (along with Philip Pope, of course), that has recently been uploaded to YouTube – Santa Claus is on the Dole. Coming as it does at the end of 1986 (Series 6), presumably this was one of the last things they wrote for the series (the next full series being at the end of 1987, when they were busy with Red Dwarf) – unless they were involved in the two specials, broadcast in the middle of 1987 – The Spitting Image 1987 Movie Awards or The Spitting Image Election Special. Oh, if only I could get paid to research telly…
I love this song big time. Obviously it’s not as good as The Chicken Song (then again, what is?), but it’s fantastically witty. Actually, didn’t we make this available for download as an MP3 on the old Observation Dome? I bet it’s sat in the archives somewhere.
Yeah, we did. It’s not online at the moment, though. I’ll stick it back up at some point. But it’s lovely to have the visuals, in any case.
Just watching it again. Rob and Doug are great. I know they’ve both moved on, but when you see Spitting Image and listen to Son of Cliché, you sometimes wish they’d go back to writing sketches. It’s a very underated skill, and not many people can do it. Spitting Image was just so lushly produced, wasn’t it? Beautiful stuff.
