Television Puppetry

Rubbery Figures

By August 11, 2005 September 27th, 2014 No Comments

This may be a bit of a blast from the past for readers Down Under…

Rubbery Figures was a weekly five-minute program that ran in various forms on Australian television from 1984 – 1990. The series featured comedy sketches with puppet caricatures of notable Australian and international political and social figures.

Although stylistically similar to (and probably inspired by) the UK series The Spitting Image, Rubbery Figures was made using a blend of cut-out animation and puppetry on a tiny budget with glove puppets designed and sculpted by The Australian newspaper’s Peter Nicholson.

Puppeteers on the series included Jenny Sherlock, Esther Haskell, Jenny Ishmakovitch, Michelle Spooner, Cassie Serpell, Astrid Judge, Maeve Vella, Kath Gordon, Rebecca McLean, and Cathy Shehata.

If anyone out there knows how to get in touch with any of the performers from the series or has any more info on Rubbery Figures I’d love to learn more about it!


5/8/14 Update: The original post has been updated with an embedded clip of Rubbery Figures from YouTube, as well as links to additional information.

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