This DVD is not exactly hot off the press but it is certainly unavailable in Australia. In fact the lead up series to this DVD, The Thick Of It was only televised in Australia late last year.
If you’re not familiar with this critically acclaimed series, it’s something like the meeting of the John Clarke series The Games with Yes Minister, together with a fuck load of swearing thrown in. The series is set amongst the inner workings of a governing political party, documenting the throws, shoves, setbacks and back flips of bureaucracy. The original series focussed on the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship headed by Minister Hugh Abbot (Chris Langham). With the exit of Chris Langham from the series, the focus of these specials has expanded to incorporate the opposition party and well as enveloping the media in a more expansive manner.
The DVD set contains two episodes, The Rise of the Nutters and Spinners and Losers. Spinners and Losers also contains a short Opposition Extra which looks at the correlating perspective from the other side of politics.
The Rise of the Nutters begins with Ollie Reeder (Chris Addison) a party worker for the Government and Emma Messinger (Oliver Poulet) a party worker for the Opposition walking to work together as boyfriend/girlfriend. This political interrelation sets the tone for this special, and they are soon joined by Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) and Jamie MacDonald (Paul Higgins) propelling the story into the thick of the action.
The “Nutters” or “Tomists” are a fictional faction within the government which support an alternative leader, known only as “Tom”. Ben Swain (Justin Edwards) is a Nutter and the caretaker MP for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship while Hugh Abbot is on holiday in Australia. He is joined by Abbot regulars, Ollie Reeder and Glenn Cullen (James Smith) as well as Civil Servants Terry Coverley (Joanna Scanlon) and Robyn Murdoch (Polly Kemp).
There are quick interchanges between the government and the opposition party in this episode. Roger Allam plays the opposition leader Peter Mannion with his corresponding offsiders Emma Messinger, Phil Smith (Will Smith) and Vincent Franklin as Stewart Pearson, a kind of new age, cuddly version of Malcolm Tucker.
This episode is typified by the political wrangling with policies. The opposition steal policies from the government, the government plant policies in the opposition, the government undermine factional policies and are undermined back. It’s a dense read, but well worth the effort.
Spinners and Losers reflects the aftermath of the announcement of the retirement of the Prime Minister. It’s here where the wheeling and dealing really hits high gear. Set over the course of one night, from dusk to dawn, the immediacy and frenetic pace are matched by the action which often sees characters running like a herd of zebras trying to head off the next disaster or jump on the next band wagon.
This show takes the adage that ‘a week is a long time in politics’ and boils it down to its logical extension. Here we see that half an hour can mean the difference between being a potential leader of the country and being a flailing underling, struggling against the threat of political redundancy.
The series creator, Armando Iannucci has said that The Thick Of It is based on imagined scenarios rather than any real experience in the internal workings of politics, but the success of the show is heavily rooted in the fact that these imaginings ring so true.
The spearhead in both these specials is the Malcolm Tucker character played by Peter Capaldi. Peter’s performance is high energy, eloquent subterfuge, subtle incredulation, mesmerising backflanking, and delicious power grubbing. He is supported beautifully by the rest of the cast including Alex MacQueen as an officious yet undermining Julius Nicholson.
This DVD is a must for all comedy fans. It will give you a new perspective on not only the working of politics but on the level of excellence to which television comedy can aspire.
The Thick Of It – The Specials is region coded 2+4 so it will play on region sensitive DVD players in Australia. The DVD is available through Amazon