Monday 14th December 2009

The third series of The Thick Of It came to a close on Saturday and I am of the opinion that it is the greatest comedy of this decade.
I'm a big fan of The Office and The Thick Of It creator Armando Iannucci (he doesn't like his name spelt incorrectly, as we found out at the recent Comedy Awards ceremony) has taken the fly on the wall style of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's sitcom, added some fascinating characters and put them into some interesting political scenarios.
For those of you that haven't seen The Thick Of It, it's a dark political comedy set in the fictional Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship. It could be compared to the immensely popular Yes, Minister sitcom of the 1980s, but it is certainly not as family friendly.
This most recent series follows the newly appointed Secretary of State for the Department Nicola Murray (Rebecca Front), who provides the cringe worthy comedy with her exceptionally poor social skills and general lack of organisation. Her job is made all the more harder by haplessness of her civil servants and special advisors.
The real star of the show though, most will agree, is Peter Capaldi, who plays the foul mouthed Director of Communications Malcolm Tucker, one of the greatest comedy characters ever created. Anyone who has had an authoritarian Scottish boss will identify with Tucker immediately, who manages to make swearing a form of art. Some of the lines delivered by Capaldi's character are among the most witty, sharpest and cleverest we've ever heard on television.
I enjoyed this series as the situation the characters get themselves into each week get all the more ludicrous, yet we are reminded of the current New Labour government. For the first time, we get more of an insight into the character of Malcolm Tucker, who appears to have lost his job at the end of penultimate episode, but I shall say no more as I don't want ruin to the ending for anyone who hasn't yet seen it.
My favorite episode this series sees Richard Bacon interview Nicola Murray and her counterpart, the shadow minister of social affairs and citizenship Peter Mannion (Roger Allam). We watch in amusement as both politicians crash and burn on live radio. Whilst this is happening, rival spin doctors Malcolm Tucker and Stuart Pearson have a shouting match over who can release the most damaging story to the tabloid papers.
Towards the end of the series we are introduced to Malcolm's arch enemy and the PM's new fixer, Steve Fleming (David Haig). One character describes Fleming as having "obsessive repulsive disorder" and I think this sums him up perfectly.
It's great to see the characters from previous series return; Glenn and Olly (James Smith and Chris Addison) still have their competitive relationship, Terri and Robyn (Joanna Scanlan and Polly Kemp) still have time to mess things up as press officers and the overly polite Julius Nicholson (Alex MacQueen) is now a Lord, but still has the power to be a thorn in Malcolm Tucker's side. However, it was a shame there was no return for Jamie MacDonald, a younger and even angrier version of Malcolm Tucker, as he was in my view the star of the film spin off, In The Loop.
After watching the season finale on Saturday, it looks as though there will be an election special of The Thick Of It some time next year and I'm already looking forward to it.
Iannucci's programme surpasses the work of Gervais and Merchant in terms of comedy genius and that is why The Thick Of It just pips The Office as my favorite comedy of the last decade. If you want to see what all the fuss is about then catch it on BBC iplayer now, the more you watch it the better it seems to get.