A thread for 'The Thick Of It' (and 'In The Loop' as well)

I love the "oh I'm terribly sorry" when he bumps into the cleaner.

Ripples through into this one as well, when we see that Malcolm pretty much instantly knows who the peoples champion woman is just from her name and knows exactly how to behave round her (until she blabs about Glen, then he can revert to type). Actually, when he punches Glen there is a maid making up the rooms in the background -I kept on waiting for the reveal it was her who leaked the story.

Love the press officer guy, need more of him. "Hey you, twat face... and I mean that literally by the way." "You can't actually break your nose, you know, it's a myth."

Favourite bits might actually all be from the red button. "Are you autistic or something?" "No, but it's surprising how many people ask that..." and Malcolm being told he's live on the Telegraph's webcam blog from conference and running away. And Glen kissing that woman - "It's like a really bad porn film, where the woman wants an economic advisor to come round and explain the last five years of government policy. And then they start fucking."

It's being set up for Tucker to have some kind of mental breakdown, isn't it?

Because that's never happened to a Labour press apparatchik before...

The press machine's being totally unable to deal with the internet and yet trying to nonetheless was bound to crop up in this series. They did it brilliantly I thought.

"Am I being threatened by Harold Fucking Bishop or something?"

"You breathe a word of this to anyone you mincing fucking CUNT, and I will tear your fucking skin off, I will wear it to your mother's birthday party, and I will rub your nuts up and down her leg while whistling Bohemian fucking Rhapsody, RIGHT?"

Daaark episode.

KNOWLEDGE IS PORRIDGE

This Canadian is really frustrated by his inability to track down DVDs (or, better still) torrents for "The Thick Of It". They simply don't seem to exist. Or rather, a torrent for the first series does - if you sign up for some private site that banned me based on my email address (?). But no other sources, and nothing for the second series - and I guess the third is on now?

Anyone out there have a better source or anything?

season 3 seems to be ending up on the usual sites soon after broadcast. season 2 is apparently not out on dvd yet in the uk : (

p.s. the last ten minutes or so of that last episode of season 3 were dark!

season one was transmitted in two blocks of three episodes, which are all on the season 1 dvd. then you have the two specials, which were released on dvd earlier this year. it's all on dvd save the current series (obviously).

are the two specials "series 2" then, because the current series is referred to as series 3 on iplayer?

The episodes with the Tories in are next-level. The floppy haired opposite number to Ollie is such an arse.

Possibly. I think they counted the first three episodes as the first series and the second three episodes as the second when they were broadcast, but they released them on DVD as the complete first series. xpost

Yeah iTunes sells the first three eps as Series 1, and the second three eps as Series 2.

did Nichola tell Malcolm that Peter had said to her he wouldn't use the daughter thing against her? i just wasn't sure if her turn to the dark side was in spite of that (she trusts Malcolm more than Peter?)

That was pretty brutal, but very good.

Also I now have the image of Peter Mannion making love to Jeff Wayne's war of the worlds seared across my brain.

that last scene between malcolm and nichola might be the best thing i've seen from this show yet.

this show has a knack for giving us absolutely despisable people doesn't it? the useless PR guy the last time ("you're not jewish are you? oh good"), now the tory hair dude.

the whiteboard was a thing of terrible genius.

and it's a little weird having EVERY episode shot at the building i work in..!

I was wondering where I recognised it from.

even the outdoor smoking area with the "wild grasses" is from there.

Ollie's iPhone tickering "Nichola's gone all Jeremy Kyle" is the first thing that has made me want to buy one.

Brilliant episode. Where do you work, Tracer? I keep thinking I recognise the place.

It's BBC White City, isn't it?

Close - it's Broadcast Centre, right next door.

this show Politics has a knack for giving us absolutely despisable people doesn't it?

Last night's episode was next-level. Any scene involving Ollie, his girlfriend and her flatemate is just hilarious. Ditto the face-off between Malcolm and his opposite number right at the end.

what was so great- i couldn't tell if malcolm & tory malcolm were making it up or not.

Tory Malcolm (Stewart) is SUCH a prick. I was firmly on Malcolm's side.

I used to be a parliamentary researcher (one magical summer...), and the relationship between Ollie, Phil and Emma is dead on.

I thought the bit at the end was to show that Malcolm and Stewart basically hate the people they're supposed to be working for more than they hate each other. The bit when Stewart suggested hanging both MPs out to dry and Malcolm was like "hey, I like your style" was great.

Phil is probably the most loathsome of all the characters in this, just totally indefensible and funny as hell for it.

The radio producer was great in this one as well - I really felt for her.

I loved her exclamation "this is the first time we are going to brek some news that isn;t the manager of ipswich resigning"

Ditto the face-off between Malcolm and his opposite number right at the end.

this was srsly awesome

also loved when Phil and Glen were just casually talking about The Stig

matt i thought malcolm was disgusted by his opposite number throwing his man to the wolves?

the 'face-off' being on five live was just insult to injury.

Dunno, I thought he said something along the lines of "if you carry on like this I might find you less than completely contemptible". It's not like Malcolm hasn't thrown MPs to the wolves anyway. It's not in either's interests to protect DOSAC, they're working on behalf of the govt and opposition so "fuck it, let's let these idiots hang themselves and go and minimise the damage elsewhere" is exactly what you'd expect them to do.

i don't know, malcolm has definitely hung people out to dry before but only when it suited party strategy. from the attention given to this interview from both sides, it seems like they both are supposed to care about how their charge comes across. (and malcolm's basically won - he stanched the bleeding by shoving the pierced guy into the room, and now he's got his opposite number to promise to say that his guy was not in possession of all the facts)

the showdown scene near the end was probably the first bit of fictional bbc tv i've seen since The Office that gave me that 'this is actually amazing' feeling.
malcolm's clearly heading for a breakdown.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/interviews/1513/peter-capaldi-for-in-the-loop-

http://bp3.blogger.com/_WkKZJVG5wTk/Rsq2wsyFjFI/AAAAAAAAdTg/87Lo8bEFBeM/s400/Prime_Suspect_3_94.jpg

!

I'd like to read that interview, but white writing on a black background makes my eyes go funny.

xpost - !

jeffrey wells is banging on about him as a potential best supporting actor dark horse: http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2009/11/maestro.php

xp, don't leave home without it: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/

Ooo, that's handy caek, thank you!

The three-part porn invective from Tucker to Glen as he listened to the radio was priceless:
"Are you making porn for the visually impaired or something?"
"All I can hear is the sound of Nicola Murray getting royally fucked"
"Is it a fucking Bukkake at Bedtime?"

Was recounting this at work and a co-worker had never head of Bukkake. So she Googled it. Foolish, at work.

good episode. missed the opposition though.

Malcolm's heart-to-heart with Terri was deeply weird and unnerving. He's definitely losing it.

Watched this episode with a friend who's never seen it before, and she was in hysterics throughout, which was great to see.

"And if you run into any problems, I want you to SOLVE those problems"

that was aaaaaaaaaamazing.

i have to ask though- why the fuck is chris addison called ollie in the thick of it and toby in in the loop?