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The new show features Prince Harry and Meghan Markle among other prominent figures, but the stars of the old version included the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Princess Diana and the Queen Mother. It made fun of everyone it featured, famously depicting Margaret Thatcher as an abusive tyrant and her Cabinet as bickering schoolchildren. They did not go easy on the royals either, often exaggerating each royal’s eccentricities, with Charles coming across as a pseudo-hippie and Diana as a publicity-hungry Sloane Ranger.

However, Stephen Fry revealed he once spoke to the Princess of Wales about the show, and she “loved” it.

She added that “they” ‒ likely meaning the rest of the Royal Family ‒ “hated” it.

Mr Fry recalled this conversation on The Graham Norton Show last year, explaining how Charles and Diana came round to his house on New Year’s Day.

He had met the Prince of Wales in a line-up, told him he had a house not too far from Sandringham and they later organised to have tea together.

After a lovely day, the royal couple were preparing to leave when Diana told Mr Fry she was “glad” they were off, because it was Spitting Image on that night.

She reportedly said: “I’m sorry we’re going, but I’m quite glad we’re going early, because it’s Spitting Image on tonight and I’m going to watch it in my room.

“They hate it, of course, but I love it.”

The Princess of Wales was well-known for having a great sense of humour, to always be playing pranks on people and telling witty jokes.

It is perhaps no wonder therefore that she enjoyed the political satire show.

In the original show, which was on air from 1984 to 1996, Charles became a taxi driver in later episodes.

The Queen can be seen wearing a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament badge and picking clothes from rubbish bins.

The Duke of Edinburgh carried a gun around, was obsessed with Greece and wore a naval uniform.

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Meanwhile, the Queen Mother was generally seen with a bottle of Gordon’s Gin, a copy of the Racing Post and was voiced by Beryl Reid.

This was a running joke from a sketch in which the Royal Family’s desire to conceal her Birmingham accent was the reason she was seldom heard speaking on television.

Other members who were parodied include Prince Andrew, who was depicted as sex-obsessed, Sarah Ferguson, who was envious and heavily freckled, Princess Anne, who was grumpy, Prince Edward, who was poorly-informed and of course Princess Margaret, who was always tipsy.

In this way, Spitting Image pulled no punches, and it has not been easy on their modern day equivalents either.

Prince Andrew is mocked alongside public figures like Donald and Melania Trump, Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings, Beyonce, Kanye West and Greta Thunberg.

Others receiving the satirical treatment include Vladimir Putin, Elon Musk, Bernie Sanders, RuPaul, James Corden and Adele.

It is unknown what most of these people think of their puppet selves, but at least Diana was entertained by hers.

Mr Fry described the day he stumbled upon this knowledge to chat show host Graham Norton.

He said: “So the doorbell goes and I think ‘I must play it cool otherwise [Prince Charles will] think I’m really uncool’ and so I count to 15 and the bell goes again and I open it.

“And he said ‘Oh hello, I hope you don’t mind, but I brought my wife’ and then Princess Diana comes out of the shadows and she says ‘hello Stephen’ and I go ‘hello’.

“And [my friends] come down and we have this tea party and it’s fantastic and she’s wearing cowboy boots, which suits her very well.

“He’s not wearing cowboy boots, which suits him very well.

“And it all goes fantastically, everybody is having a great time and then they go and he says ‘thank you everybody goodbye’ and she holds in the doorway.”

It was then that Diana revealed how she was keen to get home and watch Spitting Image.

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