Recap / Spitting Image S 1 E 1

Provides examples of:

• The Alcatraz: According to Callaghan, the Exchequers house is surrounded by Angry Guard Dogs and snake pits to prevent the former PMs from escaping.
• Award Show: Muammar Gaddafi presents the International Terrorist of the Year Award.
• Bait-and-Switch: The first two sketches operate along these lines. We see the Tory cabinet awaiting the appearance of the Queen to reveal Margaret Thatcher wearing the crown and what sounds like a dispute between John McEnroe and the umpire of a tennis match only for the light to come on and show that he's in bed with Joan Collins.
• Battleaxe Nurse: Queen Victoria is the overbearing matron who runs the Exchequers retirement home. She doesn't react kindly when she Wilson tries to claim that he wasn't the one crying out for help, and forces him to drink some foul-looking medicine, warning that next time it'll be the rectal thermometer.
  • She also smacks Wilson about for trying to throw Michael Foot out of a window, and then throws him out herself.
• Bleak Abyss Retirement Home: The Exchequers house has signs barring any drinking, smoking and dying between 11:30pm and 7am.
• Continuity Announcement: One of these in the credits promises that Thatcher and The Queen will meet next week after Thatcher spent the whole episode waiting for her official audience.
• Death Glare: Ayatollah Khomeini gives one these directly into the camera in his first appearance.
• Did the Earth Move for You, Too?: When Nancy admits in The Stinger that it did not, Ronnie responds by trying to smash the "Nurse" button next to his bed only to hit the "Nuke" one instead.
• Dramatic Thunder: God ends his chat with Ian Paisley with a quick burst of thunder.
• Ear Trumpet: MacMillan uses one of these when talking to Harold Wilson.
• Fingore: One of the zombies in "Perfect" shoves a severed finger up its nose.
• Glorious Mother Russia: A meeting of the Soviet Presidium sees party members puppeteering Chernenko's unconscious body through his first television address.
• Left the Background Music On: A bit of Toccata and Fugue in D minor plays in the background at the Exchequers house by way of a Scare Chord, only for Callaghan to explain that it's just Ted Heath playing with his organ.
• Number Two: On being told that he can't escape the Exchequers house, Wilson decides to try and summon his "escort" by calling out for "Marcia", a reference to his political secretary, Marcia Williams.
• Page Three Stunna: It's implied that Leon Brittain, Geoffrey Howe, Norman Tebbit and Michael Heseltine are looking at one of these in the opening scene.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: When Ed tells Reagan that Jesse Jackson is catching him up in the polls, he asks why they can't just shoot him like they did the last guy.
• Protest Song: Tired of writing songs like these about peace and love, Bob Dylan sings a song about cheese.
• Reasoning with God: Inverted with Ian Paisley badgering God to curse Pope John Paul II and Gerry Adams with various plagues.
• Tempting Fate: As soon as Harold Wilson says that nothing could be worse than having to share his retirement with former Tory prime ministers Harold MacMillan and Sir Alec Douglas-Home, the camera cuts to Jim Callaghan reading The Guardian.

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