It was definitely in english, I saw it on TV, but it was a movie, not a TV show, but could have been a made for TV movie.

What I remember is that in the last 10 minutes, we discover the oldish bad man was actually dead, mostly rotting, and wired to be a very complicated puppet.

I likely saw it in the early to mid 2000s, but it could have come out earlier.

I randomly started watching some other puppet movies recently and really want to try and find that one again. Thanks!