The Thick Of It

Rebecca Front: Claustrophobia isn't rare

"I, like the character I play in The Thick of It, am badly claustrophobic."

"It's like the break-up of the Beatles during the fall of the Roman Empire while Jordan's getting dumped by that bloke," said Malcolm Tucker of the atmosphere in a Downing Street much like our own. In this third series of The Thick Of It, the wizard of spin is not only losing his marbles - they were dislodged years ago - but his magical power to terrify. In an eerily controlled monologue he told Terri, the civil servant whose main ambition is to get home by 6, that he was an ex-pharaoh floundering in a Nile of s***: "But I am going to fashion a paddle out of that s***." I loved the delicacy of that verb "fashion". As Tucker, Peter Capaldi should get an OBE.

Den Of Geek review of episode 3.6

There's only two episodes left; fingers crossed, that's just enough time for Tucker to quietly bump an incompetent staffer off and get back his status as Bastard In Chief.

With the Prime Minister away at a summit in Spain, splenetic spin doctor Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) is left holding the fort in the savage political farce. Naturally he's soon driven to blue language and blind fury by minister Nicola Murray (Rebecca Front), who attempts to unveil her hobby horse policy, "The Fourth Sector Initiative" - but in the process inadvertently launches a leadership challenge.

One of the best things about In the Loop, the film The Thick of It spawned, was the way the character of government spin chief Malcolm Tucker appeared in it not as the vicious, all-knowing puppet master we love, but occasionally as someone flawed, flailing and out of his depth. There's a bit of that tonight, as he pays a call on DoSAC (the not-fit-for-purpose ministry where our heroes work) just as some remarks made by the minister on camera are mistaken for a leadership bid. Thanks to the pressure he's under at Number Ten, Malcolm's usual air of murderous command starts to unravel and he is soon raging around like Basil Fawlty on gourmet night, as his best-laid plans make matters worse. It doesn't help that the cloyingly useless Terri is offering advice. "Terri, I thought we had a deal, right?" he tells her through gritted teeth. "When I need your advice, I'll give the secret signal. Which is me being sectioned under the Mental Health Act."

The Thick of It: series three, episode six

Nicola accidentally launches a leadership bid - is she the best man for the job?

It's been pleasing to see Armando Ianucci's polit-com promoted from BBC Four to BBC Two and reach a wider audience. Tonight, he playfully sets proceedings at another Beeb edifice, Radio 5 Live. After weeks of trading bitter blows in the press, minister Nicola Murray (the fantastic Rebecca Front) locks horns with her shadow live on Richard Bacon's late-night phone-in show. Publicity pit bull Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) listens in the relative comfort of his office until some breaking news makes life difficult for the hapless politicians. Spin doctors are soon dispatched to the studio for damage limitation - with the usual side order of swearing.

The invective weeps from the walls when two sultans of spin, Malcolm Tucker and Stewart Pearson, confront one another in a BBC radio studios corridor. The pair are doing a poor job of lurking behind the scenes as their two hapless puppets, Secretary of State Nicola Murray and her opposition counterpart Peter Mannion, unravel live on air on the Richard Bacon show. Murray's carefully nurtured agenda based on "inspiring people out of poverty" and "fourth sector pathfinders" (don't ask) tanks immediately and even the suave Mannion's "common sense checklist" is torpedoed before he even has chance to get going. Bacon (yes, it really is him) more than holds his own as his studio is invaded by shrieking apparatchiks and the chaos becomes almost Biblical - apart from the swearing, of course, which is as bracing and brilliant as a meteor shower. Along the way there are neat barbs aimed at people who send witless texts to radio shows, and Malcolm receives an offensive birthday cake.

The Thick of It: series three, episode five

Rival spin doctors Malcolm Tucker and Stewart Pearson go head to head - and find they have a lot in common.

According to Mark Lawson, a recent meeting between top-level BBC talent and execs saw the former bemoaning the corporation's current paranoia about any joke that the Daily Haters might find offensive, and arguing that this was stifling comedy. The suits apparently hit back by saying, "How can you say we are not risk-taking when The Thick Of It is on - and on Saturday nights, no less?" To tvBite's little mind, this is to miss the point: TTOI is still very good, but is now just a one-man turn. No matter how brilliantly barked the sweary similes, is a parody of a Labour spin-doctor who quit six years ago really pushing back the boundaries of comedy and taste? Not hating on the show, but if the execs are patting themselves on the back for how cutting-edge the series is, then that's evidence of a big problem.