The Thick of It

The action centres on the fictional Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship ("DoSAC" – previously the Department of Social Affairs, or "DoSA", prior to the reshuffle of episode five), which supposedly came out of the prime minister's passing enthusiasm for "joined-up government". Thus it acts as a "super department" overseeing many others, with some similarities to the Cabinet Office. This concept enables different political themes to be dealt with in the programme, similar to the Department of Administrative Affairs in Yes Minister.[13]

Hugh Abbot, played by Chris Langham, is a blundering minister heading the department, who is continually trying to do his job under the watchful eye of Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), Number 10's highly aggressive and domineering "enforcer". The programme also features James Smith as senior special adviser Glenn Cullen, Chris Addison as junior policy adviser Ollie Reeder, and Joanna Scanlan as civil service press secretary Terri Coverley.

The series was revamped for the third series with Hugh Abbot being replaced as head of DoSAC by Nicola Murray (Rebecca Front), who arrives without her own staff, so Ollie and Glenn find themselves keeping their jobs.

From series 4, after a general election which results in a coalition government, Peter Mannion MP (Roger Allam) is the new Secretary of State for DoSAC, supported by his team of special advisers, commanded by Number 10's director of communications Stewart Pearson (Vincent Franklin) and thwarted by his new coalition partner, DoSAC's junior minister Fergus Williams MP (Geoffrey Streatfeild). Nicola Murray MP is now leader of the opposition, and opposition spin doctor Malcolm Tucker is desperate for a return to power.

Most episodes focus on the department's incumbent minister and a core cast of advisers and civil servants, under the watchful eye of Number 10's enforcer, Malcolm Tucker. Over its run, the series has developed a large cast of additional characters, who form the government, opposition, as well as members of the media.

• Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) – Series 1–4 – The aggressive, profane and feared director of communications for the government. He serves two main roles: acting as the prime minister's chief enforcer to ensure the cabinet ministers all follow the party line, and managing the government's crisis management PR, usually in the form of spin. He regularly uses smears or threats of violence to achieve his ends. Tucker also appears in In the Loop.[16] The Guardian used the character in its coverage of the 2010 general election and the Labour leadership contest in a column written by Jesse Armstrong.[17] The character is patterned on real-life government director of communications Alastair Campbell, as well as Hollywood producers such as Harvey Weinstein.[18]
• Rt Hon Hugh Abbot MP (Chris Langham) – Series 1–2 – He is the Secretary of State for Social Affairs (later Social Affairs and Citizenship). He is an inept cabinet minister who is generally out of touch with the electorate. While he believes he has some influence, he often finds himself at the mercy of events and bearing the brunt of Tucker's vitriol. He reads the New Statesman and has two children, Alicia and Charlie, whom he barely sees. He is replaced by junior minister Nicola Murray in a reshuffle at the beginning of series 3 without appearing on screen.[16]
• Rt Hon Nicola Murray MP (Rebecca Front) – Series 3–4 – Nicola replaces Hugh Abbot from series 3. She is promoted to Social Affairs and Citizenship Secretary as a last-minute choice in a government reshuffle in the run up to a general election. Inexperienced and naive, she begins her tenure poorly with a number of public embarrassments over her husband's career. She also finds it difficult to maintain a healthy balance between her home and work lives, conflicting with Tucker when he demands that she send her daughter to a state comprehensive school, rather than her preferred choice of a private school. Relatively powerless in the cabinet, her dour public image, largely encouraged by Tucker, leads her to be referred to as "glummy mummy". Although she and Tucker regularly clash, he is occasionally shown to be much more sympathetic towards her than to her predecessor, particularly when he suggests that the government might quietly accede to her wishes regarding her choice of school for her daughter "in a term or two". Though little improved as a political operator and unpopular within her party, Nicola is elected as leader of the opposition on a technicality before the start of Series 4, and is hounded throughout the series by calls for her to resign.
• Glenn Cullen (James Smith) – Series 1–4 – Glenn is senior special adviser to the minister. A long-standing friend of Hugh's since the campaign days, he acts as his chief adviser. He is generally politically adept, often being a voice of sense within the series, although due to his age is often ignored and emasculated by younger members of staff.[16] Despite a number of mishaps, such as swearing at a member of the public who confronts Abbot, he keeps his job due to his loyalty to Hugh. Following Hugh's departure, he expects to retire, but is unexpectedly kept on as adviser to Nicola Murray. His home life is troubled, being divorced and with a disabled son.[19][20] Originally intending to stand for parliament at the next election, his association with Nicola leads to him failing to receive enough support to become a prospective parliamentary candidate.[21] He switches party following the election, and in series 4 stays on in DoSAC as an adviser to the junior minister, who is a junior partner in coalition government. Despite his generally unfortunate experiences, he is possibly the only major character to whom Malcolm shows any (if occasional) warmth; Tucker deliberately implied Glenn's usefulness after his mini-breakdown in "Spinners and Losers" and expresses what appears to be genuine remorse after punching Glenn in Series 3, Episode 3.
• Terri Coverley (Joanna Scanlan) – Series 1–4 – Terri acts as director of communications for the department. Notionally responsible for press relations at DoSAC, Coverley was head of press recruited from supermarket chain Sainsbury’s as part of an ill-advised scheme to make government run like a business.[22] Professional but prudish, she is often left to "mop up" the bad press garnered by the department. As a civil servant, compared with the MPs and advisers she is relatively safe in her job, a fact which she repeatedly states to their annoyance. She takes a leave of absence during series 2 due to the death of her father.
• Oliver "Ollie" Reeder (Chris Addison) – Series 1–4 – Ollie is a special adviser to the Secretary of State (formerly junior policy adviser). An Oxbridge graduate from Lincolnshire, he is arrogant, inept, inexperienced, somewhat gawky, and often inadvertently the cause of departmental mistakes.[16] However, the minister often takes up his ideas believing them to be vote-winners. During series 1 it is revealed that he once had a relationship with journalist Angela Heaney (Lucinda Raikes) who makes occasional appearances through the first three series. He was seconded to the Prime Minister's Office after he slept with opposition party worker Emma Messinger (Olivia Poulet) and was told to use his relationship to gather information on opposition party policy.[23] He is described by Terri as "a little bit morally bankrupt and massively self centred and a tiny bit dangerously unreliable".[24] In series 4, he is an adviser to Nicola Murray in her capacity as leader of the opposition, but schemes with Malcolm to try and force her resignation. In the series conclusion, he takes over from Malcolm as his party's senior communications adviser.

The first run of three episodes screened on BBC Four from 19 May 2005. A further three episodes were transmitted 20 October – 3 November 2005. The six episodes were repeated on BBC Two in early 2006, and later on BBC America together as a single series. The subsequent DVD release of all six episodes describes the episodes as The Complete First Series.

An hour-long Christmas special, "The Rise of the Nutters", aired in January 2007 with a further ten episodes planned for later on in the year. Chris Langham did not reprise his role as Hugh Abbot, due to arrest and later conviction on charges of possession of child pornography,[25] ruling him out of any further roles. To fill this void, Iannucci introduced new characters into the series forming the opposition.

Another one-off hour-long episode "Spinners and Losers" aired on 3 July 2007.[26] It was followed by a 15-minute extra episode through BBC Red Button, following the same story from the opposition's point of view.

For series 3, transmission switched to BBC Two, with subsequent repeats on BBC Four. The series ran for eight episodes from 24 October 2009 to 12 December 2009. As a Red Button extra, each episode had an accompanying 10-minute documentary titled Out of The Thick of It broadcast immediately afterwards and on the BBC Comedy website, which featured cut scenes, specially written scenes and, later, discussion of the programme by the series' writers, makers and with figures involved in British politics.

Internationally, series 1 and 2 aired back-to-back in Australia on ABC1 each Friday at 9:40 pm from 21 November 2008[27] and has since been repeated on ABC2 and UKTV.[28] Later, the two-hour-long specials along with series 3 premiered consecutively on the lower-rated ABC2 channel from 7 July 2011 each Thursday at 10:15 pm[29] and again repeated, this time on ABC1 and UKTV.[30]

A fourth series was commissioned in March 2010.[31] Work began on the scripts in March 2011,[32] filming began in March 2012[33] and airing started on BBC Two on 8 September 2012.[34] The fourth series is co-produced by Hulu.[35] Iannucci stated that the coalition government, in particular the role of the Liberal Democrats, would remain the target of the next series. In an interview with The Guardian, he stated his idea was for Peter Mannion to have become a minister "but there will be someone from the other party in the coalition in his office, so a lot of the comedy will come from that tension between duplicated ministers."[36] Press for the fourth series partially focused on the applicability of the show to real life, with Will Smith commenting that the use of the word "omnishambles", coined in the third series, becoming a political meme in the months before transmission being a "baffling" example of life imitating art.[37]

The series has been the recipient of a number of awards, particularly from BAFTA. Series 1 won both "Best Situation Comedy" and Chris Langham won "Best Comedy Performance" at the 2006 BAFTA Television Awards, with Peter Capaldi being nominated for the same award in 2006 and 2008.[38][39] Capaldi won the BAFTA for "Best Male Comedy Performance" at the 2010 awards, with Rebecca Front winning "Best Female Comedy Performance". The series was also declared the "Best Situation Comedy".[40]

Additionally, the series won "Best Situation Comedy" from the Royal Television Society in 2006 and 2010, and won Broadcasting Press Guild Awards in 2006 and 2010 for "Best Sitcom" and "Best Writing Team".[38]

On 2 April 2007, a UK DVD of the first six episodes was released as "The Complete First Series". It also included audio commentary, deleted scenes, and photo galleries. The two specials were released on a second UK DVD in April 2009. The third series was released on UK DVD in April 2010, followed by a "complete series" to date box set. Although the third series was filmed and broadcast on the BBC in high definition video there has been no release to date on Blu-ray. A North American "Series One to Three" DVD box set was briefly scheduled for release in late 2012, but the release was delayed until 6 Aug. 2013, in order to allow all four seasons (plus specials) to be included in what was now a "Complete Series" release. The release date was announced by BBC Worldwide early in 2013, but coincidentally ended up occurring only two days after Peter Capaldi was announced as the new star of Doctor Who. (Even more coincidental, a cast commentary included as part of a photo gallery featurette for the episode "Rise of the Nutters" included in the DVD set, recorded several years earlier, has several cast members jokingly deciding to start a rumour that Capaldi is to be the next Doctor.)

The Thick of It: The Scripts, a book containing the scripts from the first two series and the 2007 specials, was published on 1 September 2007.[56]

A tie-in book, The Thick of It: The Missing DoSAC Files, was published on 4 November 2010.[57] An iPhone app – based on the DoSAC Files book and named 'Malcolm Tucker: The Missing Phone'[58] – was released in 2010, and was nominated for a New Media award at the 2011 Television BAFTAs.[59]

In the run-up to the 2010 general election, the column 'Malcolm Tucker's election briefing' appeared weekly in The Guardian, written by Jesse Armstrong.[60]

A one-off column written by Ian Martin in the character of Stewart Pearson – 'Stewart Pearson's Media Notebook' – appeared in The Guardian in November 2010.[61]

A column, purportedly an exchange of e-mails between Malcolm Tucker and another Iannucci character, Alan Partridge, on the topic of Britain's exit from the European Union was published in The Big Issue in October 2017 in print and online.[62]

• Omnishambles
• Politics in fiction
• Political satire
• The Hollowmen

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Thick of It

• The Thick of It at BBC Programmes
• The Thick of It at British Comedy Guide
• The Thick of It at IMDb
• The Thick of It at epguides.com
• The Thick of It at TV.com
• In the Loop at IMDb

Videos

• The Thick of It Special – Armando Iannucci – BBC Four on BBC YouTube channel
• The Thick of It: Spinners and Losers – The Opposition – BBC Four on BBC YouTube channel