Lay it on Thick
When the last election resulted in a Coalition as aghast as a lot of the political commentators were, TV producer and poker of sacred cows Armando Iannucci must have been rubbing his hands together with glee. For it is Iannucci who created The Thick Of It seven years ago, went on to be the driving force behind the film In The Loop, and then travelled over the Pond to create the US smash hit Veep, lambasting the activities of a fictional vice-president. A coalition government, eh? Where politicians are supposed to get on together and find compromises. Yeah, right.
“every backbite and double-cross feels fresh as a daisy.”
As there’s a new government there’s clearly a new team in running things in DoSAC (the fictitious Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship). Not that they’re any more together or averse to gaffs as this first, entirely Malcolm Tucker-free, episode demonstrates. Do not worry, the sneak preview of next week’s episode shows there’ll be plenty of the foul-mouthed spin doctor Tucker to come, utilising his talent for vitriol and insults dripping with acid. To have the first episode without him though reminds us that this is no one trick pony and there’s more to the intelligent writing than one man. The star of this show is the situations and the politics, not necessarily any one character.
Back to the new team in charge, and with the senior minister admitting his troglodyte leanings when it comes to the new policy of a ‘Silicon Playground’, created by his junior minister and coalition partner, he’s less than pleased to be put in charge of launching the thing. Feet are still firmly in mouths as soon as the world’s press look their way, and orders from on high at Number Ten ready to alter everything with a single nudge. It’s all change but nothing has changed in the office, yet still every backbite and double-cross feels fresh as a daisy. Welcome back.
One of the great things I’ve certainly appreciated personally about The Thick Of It is that you don’t really have to know about politics to get a whole load of joy from it. Everyone’s worked in an employment environment, and this is as much about office politics and workplace behaviour as it is the running of the country (not that work at the Latest is anything like that, of course). Sweeping statements at the wrong level can mean huge ill-thought out changes on a massive scale, and ulterior motives for an individual’s voluntary redundancy can end up undermining projects like a single rotten apple in a barrel of oblivious fruit, utterly supermarket-ready and raring to go. You’ll get what I mean when you watch the first episode.
Suffice to say, shackling the old guard to the young Turk was a stroke of genius, as they rattle their handcuffs at each other and prepare to steal as much of the duvet as possible whilst sleeping with the enemy. It’s very funny, clever and most of all sharp.
Next week’s episode clips saw not only Peter Capaldi’s iconic Malcolm Tucker but also glimpses of the last incumbents of the DoSAC office. Rebecca Front and Chris Addison as Nicola Murray and Ollie Reeder through a doorway, no doubt revelling in picking holes in policies now that they are in the Opposition. There’s a lot of pressure on this series, it’s won awards and fans that are unforgiving of weaknesses, but no laurels are being rested on here. Sometimes it feels good to let the ugly behaviour out, look at it and laugh loud and hard. The Thick Of It is all of those times.
The Thick Of It, BBC2, Saturday 8 September 2012
