Chris Barrie's dead-on impersonation of Ronald Reagan was so well known, he reprised the role in the 1985 song "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
The series' first benefactor was Clive Sinclair, who funded the initial puppet development costs to the tune of £20,000, although he pulled out before the first pilot episode was made. The series made a puppet of him.
One of the generic puppets used as an extra in many scenes was a Lord Lucan look-alike. He would often appear as a waiter, barman or just in the background of many sketches in foreign settings. The real Lord Lucan Vanished without trace in 1974 on suspicion of murdering the family nanny and there had been numerous unsubstantiated sightings of him published in the press for years afterwards.
This show brought together Rob Grant, Doug Naylor, and Chris Barrie, who would team up to create Red Dwarf (1988).
The puppets from this show starred in the music video for "Land of Confusion" by Genesis. The video centered around Ronald Reagan (as voiced by Chris Barrie), but also featured most of the Spitting Images characters in one way or another.