"The Thick of It" Spinners and Losers (2007)

Director:

Armando Iannucci

Writers:

Jesse Armstrong (written by) &
Simon Blackwell (written by) ...

TV Series:

"The Thick of It" (2005)

Original Air Date:

3 July 2007 (Season 2, Episode 2)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Reference To Laurel And Hardy | Politics

Cast

  (Episode Cast overview, first billed only)

Peter Capaldi	...	Malcolm Tucker
Chris Addison	...	Oliver Reeder
James Smith	...	Glenn Cullen
Joanna Scanlan	...	Terri Coverley
Polly Kemp	...	Robyn Murdoch
Lucinda Raikes	...	Angela Heaney
Tony Gardner	...	Dan Miller
Ben Willbond	...	Adam Kenyon
Tim Bentinck	...	Cliff Lawton (as Timothy Bentinck)
Rob Edwards	...	Geoff Holhurst
Martin Savage	...	Nick Hanway
Paul Higgins	...	Jamie
Justin Edwards	...	Ben Swain
Alex Macqueen	...	Julius Nicholson
Eve Matheson	...	Clare Ballentine

Quotes:

Malcolm Tucker: [coming into an office where Julius and Glenn are listening to a radio and eating] Oh God, it's like a prostate consultant's waiting room in here.

Movie Connections:

References "Kung Fu" (1972)

PM has resigned so can Tucker save the Nutters and his own job?

This is a truly masterful episode of The Thick of It, a fitting climax to the whole series. As with all of the other episodes of "The Thick of It", to enjoy this properly you really need to understand the characters, who is who. The whole thing moves so fast, that if you don't know, it will just seem like a load of people running around in offices swearing at each other.

The PM has resigned and rival party leader Tom is all but crowned as the new leader. This is a problem for Tucker because he has never been in with Tom's faction (aka The Nutters). So what should he do, should he take Tom down and put a rival in his place or can he inveigle himself into the Nutter faction? The way Tucker lies, cheats, spins and swears his way past his rivals is truly a sight to behold and should be compulsory viewing for all party hacks and PR spin-meisters.

The counterpoint to Tucker is the hapless Ollie Reader, who is looking after Ben Swain MP, junior minister, but is promised a place in Tom's cabinet after the transition. Ollie sees his opportunity to be in his own words "catapulted into the political f**koffasphere" out of the moribund Deparment of Social Affairs and Citizenship and onto "the bridge of starship government". Ollie is very clever but at the same time utterly clueless. If ever there was a character who illustrated the difference between book smart and street smart, Ollie is it.

Poor old Glenn, loyal to his minister Hugh Abbot who is out of the country. If you watch carefully, you can see Glenn being beaten down at every turn by everyone's withering put-downs until finally he completely cracks and breaks down.

In the background there is the night desk of the Daily Mail, where the editor is desperately trying to figure out what is going on, so that he can put it on the front page. Sadly his only source for the political maneuvering is Ollie via his ex-girlfriend Angela on the news desk. Ollie's reliability as a source is alternately described as "shallow throat" or "a complete spasmoloid." At one stage the editor memorably tells Ollie that the headline on page six will be "Junior Government Gimp wrecks Ex-Girlfriends Career"