Armando Iannucci

The Thick of It, Series four, BBC Two

New series of Armando Iannucci's political satire sets its sights on the coalition.

It was brave of creator Armando Iannucci to start a new season of The Thick of It (Saturday, BBC Two) without his expletive-spewing spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi). It was the equivalent of hoping that no one would notice if an episode of Fawlty Towers featured only Manuel, Sybil and Polly. But fear not, Tucker/Basil will appear in the second episode, as was made clear when the producers lost their nerve and included a "next week" trailer featuring him.

In this new series, the Tories, though never named as such, were the senior partners in a Coalition - and I don't know whether it was deliberate, but the Lib Dem characters were instantly forgettable.

Given that a neologism from The Thick of It was used by Ed Miliband to describe George Osborne's budget - "omnishambles" - Iannucci must feel that modern political life is copying his satirical art a little too assiduously. It might explain why his usual brio seemed to be lacking in the opening scenes.

Where were the effortless similes and casual insults? It even seemed to borrow a scene from the film Anchorman in which its dim news presenter tries to join in a conversation about love, but can't think of any examples so randomly names things he can see. I love carpet. I love lamp.

These proved to be teething troubles and it got into his stride when Roger Allam as Peter Mannion MP struggled through an excruciating and pitch perfect press launch for "Silicon Playgrounds", the Coalition's digital youth policy. After that the confidence seemed to return. My favourite line came when No 10's loquacious spin-doctor said: "What was that word I used this morning?" Mannion replied: "You used a lot of words this morning. It was like a ----ing Will Self lecture."

The Thick Of It makes a welcome, belated return for what looks to be its final series. The Coalition are now in power and Peter Mannion, introduced in Opposition as an old-school wet Tory with a distaste for modern politics, is now in office, alongside a thrusting young Lib Dem. The civil servants are the same (as, confusingly, is advisor Glenn, who seems to have conveniently switched parties between series). And the fearsome Malcolm Tucker: well, he's out, leaving an anger - and swearing - vacuum.

Tucker and the hapless Nicola Murray reappear in the second episode, but even there he's a muted version of himself and the show seems softer, less scabrous without his manic presence. Which is probably completely deliberate: creator Armando Iannucci seems to have rethought the show's satirical emphasis as well as the new political framework. The politicians on both sides seem almost vulnerable, but so do their advisors, none of them really having any clue about what they're doing anymore.

It's still very, very funny and the cast are all perfectly pitched. Roger Allam, as Mannion, has such delicious comic timing that a simple line about a Twix made me rewind three times just to savour it again. One could quibble with the sheer amount of vituperative nicknames that the characters hurl around at each other - you have the impression that they must all be sitting up at night drafting new ones for the next day - but at least they make sense, unlike their policies.

Armando Iannucci interview

"The mistake is to think that because America has this tremendous influence internationally, therefore all Americans are brilliant."

The Thick of It, BBC Two, review

Michael Deacon reviews the return of Armando Iannucci's satirical political comedy The Thick of It (BBC Two).

Armando Iannucci's political satire returns for its fourth series - the first since Labour was ousted from government - and the good news is that it's still brilliant. The MPs, advisers and civil servants of the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship are now working for a coalition government yet, unsurprisingly, are no more effective at their jobs. The department has created a new digital project aimed at teenagers but spin doctor Stewart Pearson (Vincent Franklin) decides that it should be launched by the Secretary of State (Roger Allam) - a man who has not only had no involvement in its development but is also digitally illiterate. Sadly it's a Peter Capaldi-free episode but he returns next week.

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Armando Iannucci v Andrew Rawnsley

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Armando Iannucci receiving an OBE was enough to make former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell tweet 'hypocrisy'. But, hears Stephen McGinty, the Scottish scourge of the political classes is having none of it - he's just turned his sights on the Americans.