Armando Iannucci

Armando Iannucci... this much I know

The 49-year-old screenwriter and director on politics, comedy characters and why he refuses to work weekends.

Unused Alan Partridge quotes to be released

Armando Iannucci vows to release a Partridge gem each day in the run up to the release of the new film.

Rebecca Front takes centre stage

Looking back over a multifaceted career, the BAFTA Award-winning actress talks about her path into comedy, working with Armando Iannucci and being on the end of a Tucker-bashing.

Q&A: John Oliver

The British comedian will be sitting in for the multi Emmy Award-winning Jon Stewart for the next eight weeks on The Daily Show, when his first guests will include Armando Iannucci and Seth Rogen.

Rebecca Front interview

The star of Sky Living's The Spa talks about the demise of Armando Iannucci's political satire and her new role as bolshy spa manageress Alison Crabbe.

Armando Iannucci OBE: decades of award-winning comedy

Armando Iannucci, who has helped create a raft of influential comedy programmes and film, will receive an OBE from the Prince of Wales today.

Armando Iannucci receives OBE - 'Surreal and hilarious'

Armando Iannucci, who has lampooned the great and the good of British society, was today awarded an OBE.

The last full series of Armando Iannucci's blistering satire brought us a coalition government, carrying an innefectual junior partner and fighting a weak, disorganised opposition. But aside from the contemporary echoes, the show stuck to what's been its central point all along: that so much modern politics is a series of PR stunts and botches, conceived not to make the world better but to get or keep power. The hour-long inquiry episode was riveting, Roger Allam shone as the newly empowered (in theory) Peter Mannion, and Peter Capaldi's fearsome spin doctor Malcolm Tucker bowed out in a final episode to rank with any sitcom finale.

Knowing when to end a show is one of the most difficult things for TV writers and stars, but Armando Iannucci got it just right with this fourth and final series of The Thick Of It.

The political satire remained razor sharp, Malcolm Tucker remains one of the most incredible TV creations of all time ("You don't know Jackie f***ing Chan about me") and the penultimate Goolding Inquiry episode - which couldn't have been any more timely - was a brave and bold twist to the show's magic formula, which paid off brilliantly.

We'll keep our fingers crossed that Tucker may return for one (or two) final specials in years to come, but if this really is the end, then what a stunning way to bow out.

Hot 100 2012: No. 1 - Armando Iannucci interview

With the The Thick of It bowing out in a blaze of glory, Veep delighting viewers Stateside and an OBE in the bag, Armando Iannucci has had a triumphant year. Brian Donaldson speaks to this year's Hot 100 number one.