The Thick Of It Series 1-4 (2005-2012) - Review

Starring: Peter Capaldi, Rebecca Front, Chris Addison, Roger Allam & Joanna Scanlan

Written By: Armando Iannucci (Head Writer)

Directed By: Armando Iannucci (Head Director)

Certificate: 18

 

Politics is one of those things that's always ripe for parodying, no matter what year it may be. In the past few years alone, there have been countless things going on in the world of politics, that if I hadn't seen them myself, I'd struggle to believe they happened. In fact, there are plenty of times where politics doesn't even need comedy to be a joke. But enter Armando Iannucci's The Thick Of It, here to present the world of the UK's politics, through the lens of dark comedy. The result is perhaps one of the best comedic takes on the government that we could have asked for.

 

The Thick Of It follows the day-to-day events that take place at the government's fictional Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship (DoSAC), under the intense eye and scrutiny of 10 Downing Street's aggressive spin doctor, Malcolm Tucker. Series 1 and 2 see minister Hugh Abbot in charge of the department, until he is replaced in Series 3 with Nicola Murray, who later goes on to become the leader of the opposition in Series 4. By the end of Series 2, the opposition side (who by Series 4 take over in government), are introduced, led by old-fashioned shadow minister Peter Mannion MP.

 

It's difficult to summarise each series of The Thick Of It in one go, because with each and every series, there are different circumstances to be found. Whether it be a different party in power, characters moving to different sides, different filming locations, or even introducing whole new elements to the series, the show rarely stays entirely the same. This really helps the show to feel fresh with each new series, and things never get boring or stale. The show only returns for a new series after a gap of two or three years, and this allows the production team some time to figure out ways to shake things up. I also found it a smart move not to explicitly name the political party that each side belongs to. It's fairly obvious that characters like Malcolm and Nicola are with Labour, and that Peter and Stuart are Conservatives, while later in the show, new characters like Fergus and Adam are Liberal Democrats, but its never definitely stated that this is the case. Again, this makes sure that the show won't become dated in future years, but it's instead timeless while still reflecting the political climate on its first broadcast.

 

What truly makes The Thick Of It shine is its hilariously dark and cynical, yet somewhat accurate view of politics, and politicians in general. While it of course features some outlandish and bombastic humour, the most reliable source of comedy to be found here, is the more straight, subtle and droll humour, particularly from characters like Nicola Murray and Peter Mannion. The two get some of the best, yet underrated laughs of the show, particularly Peter, who seems to have at least one hysterically-funny line in every episode he's in. In almost every episode, there doesn't seem to be a politician on offer who's capable of making everything run smoothly, despite the best efforts of spin doctor, Malcolm Tucker. Malcolm is the show's best and easily the most iconic asset. He's such an aggressive, yet undeniably funny character, that I don't think you can really say anything bad about him. Malcolm is brought to life entirely by Peter Capaldi, and if any other actor played this character, I don't think it would work anywhere near as well. Honestly, Peter Capaldi's performance is worthy and fully deserving of all the awards he won for the role.

 

But it would be unfair to attribute the show's success just to Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker. Malcolm may be a hilarious character, but a big part of that comedy comes from his interactions with other characters, particularly Nicola Murray. Rebecca Front is perfectly cast in the role, and makes for such a good comedy pairing with Peter Capaldi. Both characters are constantly at odds with each other, and have a strong dislike towards the other, despite being equally influential. It's this pairing that helps to make Series 3, for me at least, the funniest series, and definitely the one that stands out the most. That being said, the show reaches its absolute peak of hilarity when everything just falls to pieces for the characters. At no other point is this better seen than in Series 4 Episode 5. This episode just sees both the government and the opposition melt into a puddle of anger, uncertainty, confusion and worry – and its absolutely side-splitting. Things just get worse for every character as the episode goes on, and the last ten minutes descend into chaos, with some of the best quotes and memorable lines of dialogue in the show's run:

 

“I've had enough of all of you. You're all s***, I'm going to sort it out by myself!”

 

“In the time it has taken for Terri to extract herself from her Bluetooth, this little inquiry has fused! It is now growing faster than the speed of bloody light! It's not going to be something we can see from space, it's going to be space! Brian Cox is going to phone me and ask for the film rights!”

“But what leak, what leak, what f****** leak!?”

 

“It's the end of the world as we know it, to paraphrase a popular f****** Bangles song.”

“It was R.E.M.”

“Don't start contradicting me on that kind of s***!”

 

At the end of Series 2, the show introduces a new set of characters away from the main government – the opposition. It's at this point that the show becomes far more varied and even funnier, as the characters that get introduced are easily a match for the characters already in government. Peter Mannion is the standout, with Roger Allam being another example of someone perfectly cast in their role. As I've already said, Peter gets some wonderful lines here, like:

 

“I couldn't have looked more of a twat unless I'd announced it dressed as a mermaid with scallops on my tits!”

 

“If you have to wade through all this s*** to win an election, then I'm happy to lose it!”

 

But again, it would be wrong to just single out Peter Mannion, and characters like Stewart, Emma and Phil all have their own parts to play in The Thick Of It's large ensemble cast. Because I love the characters on both the government and opposition sides, it's why I really enjoyed the format of Series 4. In the final series, each episode would see the action switched from one side to the other, so in one episode, the focus would be on the government, while the next would be on the opposition, before the two groups merge in the final few episodes. It's the only time that we saw this format, but it worked well, giving each side their own time to shine.

 

From a production point of view, The Thick Of It is surprisingly effective, given its rather dull and cynical approach towards politics. One of the things I really liked was how each of the episodes was filmed and directed. Given the modern office locations we see, with an often business-like aesthetic to each of them, you'd be forgiven for expecting the direction to be similarly smooth and well-polished. The directors don't opt to go with this approach, and instead the camera movements are more akin to something from a documentary. The camera often mimics human movement thanks to shots like whip pans and double-takes, and this really helps to immerse you into the world of The Thick Of It. It constantly feels as though you're in the room with the characters, or with some it feels as though you're near them, but watching them from afar. I really appreciate the show's quite simple production design – it doesn't ever need to make use of music, a studio audience, or feature extensive costume and make-up design, and it's the epitome of less being more. While I wouldn't recommend recreating the dialogue without fear of being fired, it does feel like something that you could recreate and film in your own place of work.

 

So by now I should have hopefully made it clear that The Thick Of It is a terrific show, but are there any areas where it's lacking? Well you might have noticed that most of the things that I've been praising, are things from the show's third and fourth series, and that's mainly because the best things about the show are more prominent in these two series. I'm not saying that Series 1 and 2 are bad, far from it, but the show doesn't really “pop” until the 2007 Specials. Part of this is down to the fact that at the heart of the first two series, we focus a lot on Hugh Abbot MP, and while Hugh isn't exactly a poor character, and he does get quite a few laughs, he unfortunately pales in comparison to his replacement in Series 3, Nicola Murray. Once you've finished watching all four series, and you go back to re-watch the first two, the lack of the opposition characters becomes very noticeable, and while the smaller cast are all good in their roles, the large ensemble cast is far more effective. Apart from this, my only other complaint is quite a nitpick, but it concerns the show's use of profanity. While I'm aware that the show's heavy reliance on bad language does heighten the comedy a lot of the time, there's few and far between moments where the swearing just becomes swearing for the sake of it, and it ceases to be funny. But like I've said, this is just a nitpick, and it's not often that this becomes a problem.

 

To conclude, The Thick Of It is a dark, cynical view of the world of politics … but it's an incredibly funny one. The Thick Of It is one of those very few comedies that actually gets better as it goes along, in a similar way to comedies like The Vicar of Dibley and Only Fools & Horses. With an expansive cast-iron range of characters on both the government and opposition sides, some surprisingly good improvised dialogue from the main actors, and effective yet simple production design, The Thick Of It is definitely a comedy worth watching.

 

 

The Thick Of It



8/10