Armando Iannucci

The new series continues of the fizzing, potty-mouthed political comedy created by Armando Iannucci. A week into her new job as secretary of state for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship, Nicola Murray MP (Rebecca Front) sends the government's communications team into a spin. Her department's computer system has wiped the immigration records of 170,672 people, presenting her with two daunting tasks: keeping the fact from the press, and breaking the news to the irascible Tucker (Peter Capaldi). Handling these duties of office, Murray has to sit through lunch with the staff of The Guardian without letting her department's mishap slip.

Armando Iannucci found life imitating art last week when the media scrum surrounding BNP leader Nick Griffin became the backdrop to an edit of The Thick of It at Television Centre. Writing in the Observer, Iannucci noted that the episode in question centred on a government department going into lock-down because of... the media outside. Suddenly, the edit - usually "about as glamorous as old trousers" - became a little more exciting; so much so, in fact, that he had to down tools and fight his way through the angry mob outside.

If the past year has taught us anything it's that politicians are a bunch of selfserving, egotistical incompetents only interested in lining their own pockets. Then again, if you've ever caught an episode of masterly Westminster satire The Thick Of It, that won't have come as any great surprise. It's odd to think that, thus far, there had only been six episodes and two specials plus a movie of Armando Iannucci's lacerating satire, because when it roared into ankle-biting action on Saturday it was like welcoming back an old friend. An ulcerous, sarcastic old friend who delights in spitting pure bile, but an old friend nonetheless. Spin-off film In The Loop kept the momentum bubbling but this was the real thing.

The insults and paranoid bitching kicked off in the opening seconds and scarcely paused for breath, with Peter Capaldi's Malcolm, a masterclass in amorality, leading the way. Malcolm's every utterance is a withering blow to the guts but I particularly liked his phone remonstration - 'that's a wretchedly homophobic headline, you massive poof' - aimed at a red-top editor who'd run an unsympathetic story.

If I was nit-picking it would be the sneaking feeling that the idea of anyone getting hot under the collar over a Labour minister planning to send their child to a private school seemed a little last year. Hasn't any pretence at those kind of old Labour principles long since flown the nest? And the addition of Rebecca Front as the new minister didn't quite make up for the absence of Malcolm's pet rottweiler Jamie. But the writing in The Thick Of It is second to none, with the careerist bureaucratic underlings who prop up the whole decaying system ruthlessly exposed along with the backbiting nature of office politics. How would your colleagues assess you if asked their opinion by your new boss? Something like 'that's like asking what you think of skirting boards - I'm sure you need them but I'm not sure why'? That was unctuous Olly on ageing sidekick Glenn but feel free to lift it for personal use.

Profile: Armando Iannucci

Armando Iannucci's coruscating political satire show The Thick of It has just returned to television screens.

My Week: Armando Iannucci

The TV producer and presenter finds himself genuinely in the thick of it with Nick Griffin's arrival the BBC.

Is The Thick of It the best TV show ever made?

The Thick of It, Armando Iannucci's scabrous Westminster sitcom, has changed the way we see politics. Not bad for a TV programme with only six episodes to its name. Caitlin Moran catches up with its foul-mouthed spin doctor star Malcolm Tucker to follow the making of the second series.

After the success of film spin-off In the Loop last spring, Armando Iannucci's acclaimed political sitcom returns to the small screen - and its raised profile sees it promoted from BBC Four to Two. Rightly so, as it's sharply written, satirically spot-on and often shows uncanny prescience in its themes. Think The West Wing but with drabber corridors of power, no happy Hollywood endings and Tourette's Syndrome. Most memorably, it's graced by sweary spin doctor Malcolm Tucker (the eye-bulgingly, vein-poppingly brilliant Peter Capaldi) - a magnificently monstrous comic creation, not at all based on New Labour attack dog Alistair Campbell, honest. Tonight's opener, typically, starts at breakneck speed with insults flying like bullets and only gets more machine gun-like. It's Reshuffle Day at Number 10 but with the Prime Minister on his way out, no one fancies joining him at the helm of a sinking ship. Needs must, so a backbencher (Rebecca Front) gets promoted from obscurity to the Cabinet. Naturally, with her new ideas and desire to actually do something, she turns out to be trouble, especially for the apoplectic Tucker.

The Thick of It: series three, episode one

With its characters visibly on the way out, Armando Iannucci's satire seems darker - and a bit less funny.

Armando Iannucci interview

As a new series of The Thick of It launches, Armando Iannucci, the hardman of political satire, reveals an unlikely soft spot.

Why I Love...The Thick of It

Armando Iannucci might well be right in his assertion that Yes Minister was the series that first lifted the lid on the workings of government - but history will show that it was The Thick of It that built on that foundation to give us our most candid tour around the corridors of power.