New Satire Show To Appear As Interactive App With Plans For TV Debut

“Phyzog.tv will deliver cutting edge caricatures direct into the hands of the public and hold those that think they are ‘the powers that be’ to account,” says founder Chris Chapman, announcing the launch of the ‘direct satire’ show.

The first interactive animated satire show – phyzog.tv - will be delivered to mobile devices twice a week from early summer with a planned launch on TV before the end of 2012. It is the brainchild of former head of R&D at Spitting Image Projects Chris Chapman. He has formed a new company, Fizcast, to launch the show and to exploit the ground-breaking interactive mobile technology that has been developed to make it happen.

Peter Fluck, co-founder of Spitting Image with Roger Law, comments: “Spitting Image satirical puppets were a new technology for the end of the last century. This could be the new technology for satire in the 21st century and I personally would love to be the first investor.”

“We can place our digital caricatures in a myriad of environments and cover that day’s news for an evening broadcast,” says Chapman, “with viewers becoming participants and interacting directly with the animation and show. If you’ve always wanted to suggest a sketch for David Cameron, or prod him with the arms of ‘the poor’, now you can.” The team making Phyzog includes former Spitting Image caricaturists, puppeteers from Harry Potter movies, app builders who’ve worked on Lara Croft titles, as well as new writing talent. Among the team is Steve Nallon, the voice of Margaret Thatcher in Spitting Image, who takes on the role of David Cameron in phyzog.tv.

Fizcast technology enabling mobile app broadcasts has also attracted attention beyond the world of comedy. “It enables the rapid performance of interactive animation which can be delivered at lightning fast speeds to mobiles. This is a major breakthrough and is already proving of interest to other content producers,” explains Chapman.

To fund company growth, Fizcast is currently raising a minimum of £350,000 using the Crowdcube small business finance platform to invite members of the public to invest in the business in return for a share of the equity. “The people investing in small businesses on Crowdcube love the sort of innovation that phyzog.tv is about,” comments Crowdcube director Luke Lang. “Media, mobile and entertainment are all popular sectors and Fizcast combines all three.”