Roger Law

Law went to Littleport Secondary Modern School in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, and attended Cambridge School of Art (now part of Anglia Ruskin University). He met Peter Fluck during his time there.[1]

In 1960 whilst Roger was at Cambridge School of Art he was made art director of Granta magazine, the University Magazine. That same year, Roger was also published by East Anglian Magazine.  

After graduating from Cambridge School of Art, Roger started his career working in print, namely, magazines. By 1963 Roger was creating a weekly cartoon with Peter Cook for The Observer newspaper. Aptly named ‘Almost the end’ as it was a short-lived venture. At the same time, Roger was also doing a 14 ft long weekly cartoon strip for The Establishment Club, a nightclub opened by Peter Cook in 1961 in London, Soho. Which, has since been named as a pivotal meeting spot for the British satirical movement in the 1960s.

In 1966 Roger was working as a freelance caricaturist and illustrator for The Sunday Times. During this time he made his first 3D caricature model for Nova Magazine which won a D&AD silver award. That same year Roger also worked on album covers for The Who, The Who Sell Out and Jimi Hendrix's Axis Bold as Love. Roger is also said to have made a brief appearance in The Who’s music video for "Happy Jack".

In 1967 Roger moved to America to be an artist in residence at Reed College, Portland Oregon. Whilst in the US Roger worked on his first film featuring puppets 'The Milkman' the film was awarded Rockefeller grant and was a dystopian-satirical look at American capitalism and the technology that surrounds it. At this time Roger was also freelancing for Esquire and Newsweek.

After a brief stint working at Push Pin Studios with Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast in New York, Roger returned to the UK in 1969 to work on the staff as the features editor at The Sunday Times Magazine.

In 1975 Rupert Murdoch bought The Times and The Sunday Times, Roger left the Magazine and formed a partnership with Peter Fluck Luck & Flaw. They made 3D caricature models for magazine covers worldwide including the New York Times Magazine, Der Spiegel, Stern, The Economist & Radio Times.

They also did visual satire over several pages for the National Lampoon. The piece on the common market was sold to every European country.

In 1979 Luck & Flaw illustrated Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. Which was published by Viking.

Moving to a new medium Roger and Peter created caricature ceramics featuring British politicians including Margaret Thatcher and members of the British Royal Family.

In 1980 the BBC’s Arena made an arts documentary on Luck and Flaw called The Luck and Flaw Show. In 1981 Roger and Peter made a plan to transfer political caricatures to television, which was funded by Martin Lambie-Nairn. Two years later they were shooting the pilot for Spitting Image. On 26 February 1984, the first episode of Spitting Image was transmitted on ITV for Central Independent Television. This was the first series of 18.

In 1985 Spitting Image created puppets for two shows called ‘Michael Nesmith’s Television Parts’ for NBC Network TV, USA.

In 1986 Roger and Peter Fluck’s second book of illustrations ‘Treasure Island’, by Robert Louis Stevenson, was published by Faber & Faber.

Spitting Image won multiple awards and gained huge public recognition. The show ran until 1996. Many young comedians writers and artists started their careers at Spitting Image including Harry Enfield, Steve Cogan, Grant and Nailer, Kate Robbins and John Sessions.

In 1986 Spitting Image's, The Chicken Song toped the UK hit parade for three weeks. Under Roger's creative eye the Spitting Image workshop produced lots of merchandise alongside the show, famously they made rubber dog chews called 'Pet Hates' with the slogan ‘Throw a politician to your dog’. Spitting Image also released many very popular books ‘The Appallingly Disrespectful Spitting Image Book’ & ‘The Spitting Image Giant Komic Book’ were two. The Spitting Image workshop also created the puppets for the music video Land of Confusion by Genesis.

1986 Spitting Image published a book titled ‘Tooth and Claw: Inside Story of "Spitting Image" This book gives an insight into working at the Spitting Image workshop and was mainly visual.  

The BBC’s Arena made another two specials about Spitting Image, Roger Law and Peter Fluck. The Spitting Image Factory, where Roger Law and Peter Fluck show us where it all happens with a tour of The Spitting Image Factory where Roger and Peter Fluck take you on a tour of the Spitting Image workshop. Also in 1985, they made another documentary with Arena called Luck and Flaws Guide to Caricature.

Then in 1990 Spitting Image brought out ‘The Real Maggie Memoirs’ and Roger published his first book ‘A Nasty Piece of Work’ which was written in collaboration with Lewis Chester.

The Alliance Graphic International (AGI) elected Roger as a member in 1993.

By 1994 Spitting Image had been franchised in Japan, Czech Republic, Portugal, Greece, Hungary, Germany, Russia and many more. That same year Roger worked on a new puppet TV film ‘Peter and the Wolf: A Prokofiev Fantasy’. It was the musical tale of Peter and the Wolf brought to life by puppets and human characters in a fairy tale world. The film was narrated by Sting and the conductor was Claudio Abbado. Peter and the Wolf was the first-ever international co-production.

In 1995 Roger and Spitting Image funded a short animated film called ‘The Big Story’ made by David Stoten and Timothy Watts, which was then nominated for an American Academy Award (Oscar) and a BAFTA award.

The last series of Spitting Image was aired in 1996. From 1996-1997 Crapston Villas, which was produced in the Spitting Image workshop and studio, was aired. It was a stop-motion animation featuring a set of characters, living in a grim apartment building in the fictional London postcode of SE69, who were plagued by various dilemmas.

Roger then moved to Australia as an artist in residence at the National Art School in Sydney. That same year he was made a fellow of the International Specialised Skills Foundation in Australia. In 1999 Roger was made a member of The Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry (RDI).

The first online sale of the Spitting Image puppets was organised in 2000 by Kerry Taylor of Sotheby’s. The second sale was just a year later and hosted at Olympia.

In 2000 Roger was an artist in residence at Dartington pottery in Devon, UK. Roger also had three exhibitions Risk Takers and Pioneers,  Aussie Stuff-Way Beyond the Black Stump and The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2000. In that same year Roger was also presented an award from the University of Leicester’s Political Studies Association on their 50th Anniversary 1950 – 2000

In 2005 Roger’s second book, a sort of autobiography, ‘Still Spitting at Sixty’ was published by Harper Collins with chapters on his Australian travels.

During this time Roger developed his skills as an artist at The National Art School in Sydney. Roger was also working in Jingdezhen, China producing large carved ceramics. The Sladmore Gallery in London now sells Law’s ceramics.

Roger then moved back to the UK in 2012.

In 2018 Cambridge University Library accepted the Spitting Image Archive.

In September 2019 Spitting Image was confirmed to be returning twenty-three years after it was last aired. Avalon Productions produced the ten shows with Roger’s as Exec Producer alongside Jeff Westbrook, Richard Allen-Turner, Joanna Beresford, and Jon Thoday. The first show was premiered on Britbox in the UK in the Autumn of 2020. The shows were also aired globally on separate platforms. Avalon has confirmed another ten shows to be aired in 2021.

2020, Drawing on Experience, Ceramic Review, July/August. An Evening with Kate Malone and Roger Law. online The Friends of Kettles Yard, Cambridge, 16 July.  Politics Gets Ugly by Benji Wilson, Radio Times, p 16-19, 3–9 October.  For Savage Satire, Nothing Beats a Puppet by Ben Macintyre, The Times, 4 October.  New series of Spitting Image, 10 weekly shows aired on Britbox from October to December.  The Oldie of the Year Award – Oldie Puppeteer of the Year, 4 November. Fired Up 4 Auction and Catalogue, bidding concluded 19 November.

2021, Second series of Spitting Image on Britbox in the UK and Youtube in the US. Roger Law credited as Exec Producer.

Inspiration

Whilst Roger was at Art school Paul Hogarth, one of his tutors, showed him the French magazine, L’Assiette au Buerre. Roger has stated many times that the drawings and attitudes of the magazine were a great inspiration. L’assiette au Buerre was illustrated front to back with cartoons or caricatures with only a short satirical caption written at the bottom of each page. The magazine challenged social norms and commented on problems of the period but had no clear political alliance.

During Roger’s early career whilst working closely with Peter Cook at The Observer and The Establishment Club he met many satirists including Lenny Bruce, such meetings gave him his first steps to use his drawing skills for satire. He quotes

“Only those who attempt the absurd are capable of achieving the impossible.”

Roger has always cited that the ‘family friendly’ puppet show Punch and Judy was a great inspiration when working on Spitting Image, they both pushed boundaries. The idea that you can have extreme violence, murder, and infanticide yet is still funny and even enjoyed by children was, retrospectively, his first step in creating the grotesque Spitting Image style.  

Roger has stated that his mentor was Paul Hogarth was a huge inspiration. Hogarth was an English artist and illustrator. Best known for his travel drawings that he made for Graham Greene’s books, Robert Graves books and the Irish playwright Brendan Bingham.

The Fen’s where Roger Law was born was outlaw territory until comparatively recently and anti-establishment attitudes still linger on. Roger feels growing up around people who had less of a desire to follow the rules gave him licence to break them throughout his career.

He married Deidre Amsden (a quilt designer) in 1960 in Cambridge. They have a son (born 1962) and daughter (born 1965).

Spitting Image

Spitting Image Specials

• threehumansinc.com/RogerLaw.html
• www.rogerlawceramics.com
• Biography
• Lambiek Comiclopedia article.
• The Times March 2005
• Whatever happened to the teapots?
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01wdwz6
• https://www.sladmorecontemporary.com/roger-law-biography
• https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/aug/03/roger-law-spitting-image-potter
• https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/10/roger-laws-odyssey-from-satire-on-tv-to-chinas-porcelain-city/246176/
• https://www.fendittongallery.com/roger-law
• https://scottish-gallery.co.uk/artist/roger-law
• https://www.discogs.com/artist/1669813-Roger-Law
• https://www.sainsburycentre.ac.uk/stories/roger-law-spitting-image/
• https://www.theoldie.co.uk/article/john-lloyd-oldie-puppeteer-of-the-year-roger-law
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p029yrf3/p029yz20
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06v5xhx/episodes/guide
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b091tv95
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• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0383j0r
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008wf02/episodes/guide
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• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rd967/episodes/guide
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pj1l7
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sdrtm
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03vzwfn
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00k718c