In The Loop

7 best British comedy movies ever, ranked

The Brits are capable of making us laugh just as well as just about anyone, and their best comedies rank up there with some of the best comedies ever made. These are the seven best British comedies ever made.

In The Loop: this is the greatest political comedy of all time

Before Armando Iannucci made Veep, this spinoff of another political comedy series set the bar high for the genre.

10 best UK TV comedy film adaptations over 30 years

In the past 30 years there has been a trend in British comedy involving attempted transitions from TV to film, all the way from Keith Lemon to The Thick Of It - very much an obvious time and money saver when no original idea is forthcoming.

13 UK TV comedies that became movies, best to worst

Here's a rundown of the best and worst since the year 2000...

This cinematic off-shoot of the BBC's political sitcom The Thick of It features James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) as a blustering US general, as our hapless crew of civil servants and spin doctors - led by Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) - become entangled in the build-up to a war in the Middle East. It's directed by Armando Ianucci - and a little more broad than the original - but it's horribly funny, provided you can stomach the swearing.

Get In the Loop

After Go Bro got booted out of No10 Downing Street, Malcolm Tucker lost his job as Labour's sultan of spin. So the star of In the Loop and The Thick of It had plenty of time on his hands to answer our questions. If only K-Rudd had read this in time...

Armando Ianucci - extended interview

With In the Loop, I felt an objective analysis hadn't happened before the invasion of Iraq. Then, after the fact, quite respectable newspapers were apologising for getting it wrong.

'In the Loop' screenwriter's brush with Oscar

"Hi, Mum, I've been nominated for an Oscar." It's the dream call from any son or daughter. And swiftly comes back the dream reply: "Congratulations. I've got someone in fixing my boiler, so I'm going to have to go."

Only one thing is certain for Armando Iannucci...

...he'll wear Armani at the Oscars.

Annotated 'In The Loop' script

When this year's Oscar nominations were announced, one of the surprises was a well-deserved writing nod for the archly funny British production In The Loop. As director Armando Iannucci's comments on these script pages make clear, getting those words right wasn't easy.