The Thick Of It
- TV sitcom
- BBC Two / BBC Four
- 2005 - 2012
- 23 episodes (4 series)
Satirical political sitcom. Number 10's foul-mouthed policy enforcer Malcolm Tucker rules the Government's PR team with an iron fist. Stars Peter Capaldi, Chris Addison, James Smith, Joanna Scanlan, Rebecca Front and more.
Streaming rank this week: 190
Press clippings Page 7
Omnishambles and other new entries into the OED
Most of his language is not fit to print yet The Thick of It's sweary spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker has made it into the Oxford English Dictionary with its 2012 word of the year, omnishambles.
Susanna Lazarus, Radio Times, 28th August 2013Armando Iannucci on helping Peter Capaldi
Armando and Peter - both Glasgow born Italian Scots - go way back together and it was the writer's casting of Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker on BBC show The Thick of It which helped relaunch the new Doctor Who's career.
Siobhan Synnot, Daily Record, 9th August 2013Doctor Who: what would it be like with Malcolm Tucker?
Peter Capaldi, who played the foul-mouthed spin doctor in The Thick of It, is now to play the Time Lord. What if he played the Doctor in the same sweary way? We imagine the scene.
Stuart Heritage, The Guardian, 5th August 2013Peter Capaldi: Thick Of It shouldn't return for a while
The Thick Of It star Peter Capaldi has said he doesn't think the show should return to the air anytime soon.
Metro, 14th May 2013Peter Capaldi on life after The Thick of It
Peter Capaldi has a solemn announcement to make: Malcolm is no more.
The Scotsman, 24th March 2013Chris Addison on Veep, the US cousin of The Thick of It
Working as a director on Sky Atlantic's Veep has made Chris Addison, star of The Thick of It, view US television with new eyes.
Chris Addison, The Telegraph, 17th February 2013The 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.
Jack Seale, Radio Times, 28th December 2012The Thick of It: the TV programme of 2012
The satire came to a glorious climax, and went from being cathartic to prophetic.
Mark Lawson, The Guardian, 21st December 2012Knowing 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.
Alex Fletcher, Digital Spy, 17th December 2012Peter Capaldi: Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie love TTOI
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie love spin doctor Malcolm Tucker's four-letter rants in The Thick Of It, says Peter Capaldi.
The Sun, 14th December 2012