Those of you with BBC Four (and with nothing better to do for the next while) could do worse than switch over around now (half 9 onwards) for an interview with Armando Iannucci (who has worked on Alan Partridge, Friday Night Armistice, The Day Today and most recently, Time Trumpet) followed by the Christmas special of his political mockumentary ‘The Thick of It‘.
The original episodes followed a fictional British minister in a fictional department as he stumbles and bumbles through his work with the help of his civil servants and forever under the watchful eye of Malcolm Tucker, the Prime Minister’s “Enforcer” who bears more than a passing resemblance to Alastair Campell.
The show has so far had just six episodes (which aired on BBC Three and BBC Two last year) but a further ten are in development for this year.
Due to a number of very serious charges laid out against Chris Langham he won’t be returning for tonight’s episode or those in the pipeline, so it’ll be interesting to see what direction the show will take. The Wikipedia suggests it won’t simply be a situation where the main character is re-cast.
It’s a superb show, though, and despite only having such a short run to date it has been heralded as this generation’s Yes, Minister. Oh, and the man behind Arrested Development has signed up with Iannucci to work on a US port of the show, which has every chance of being equally superb.