The Thick of It

The Thick of It is a British comedy television series that satirises the inner workings of British government. Written and directed by Armando Iannucci, it was first broadcast for two short series on BBC Four in 2005, initially with a small cast focusing on a government minister, his advisers and their party's spin-doctor. The cast was significantly expanded for two hour-long specials to coincide with Christmas and Gordon Brown's appointment as prime minister in 2007, which saw new characters forming the opposition party added to the cast. These characters continued when the show switched channels to BBC Two for its third series in 2009. A fourth series about a coalition government was broadcast in 2012, with the last episode transmitted on 27 October 2012.[1][2]

The Thick of It
Genre	Black comedy Political satire Cringe comedy
Created by	Armando Iannucci
Written by	Jesse Armstrong Simon Blackwell Roger Drew Sean Gray Armando Iannucci Ian Martin Tony Roche Will Smith
Directed by	Armando Iannucci
Starring	Peter Capaldi Chris Addison Chris Langham Joanna Scanlan James Smith Polly Kemp Rebecca Front Roger Allam Vincent Franklin Olivia Poulet Will Smith Ben Willbond Geoffrey Streatfeild
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	4
No. of episodes	23 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Jon Plowman (s. 1–2) Armando Iannucci (s. 3) Andy Forssell (s. 4)
Producers	Adam Tandy Armando Iannucci (s. 4)
Running time	29 minutes
Production company	BBC
Release
Original network	BBC Four (s. 1–2) BBC Two/BBC HD (s. 3–4) (UK)
Picture format	HDTV 1080i
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	19 May 2005 (2005-05-19) – 27 October 2012 (2012-10-27)
Chronology
Related	In the Loop Veep

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The series has been described as the 21st century's answer to Yes Minister. It highlights the struggles and conflicts between politicians, party spin doctors, advisers, civil servants and the media. In similar fashion to Yes Minister, the political parties involved are never mentioned by name, and in series 1 and 2 most policies discussed are fairly generic and non-ideological. Iannucci describes it as "Yes Minister meets Larry Sanders".[3] Journalist and former civil servant Martin Sixsmith was an adviser to the writing team, adding to the realism of some scenes.[3] The series became well known for its profanity and for featuring storylines which have mirrored, or in some cases predicted, real-life policies, events or scandals.[4][5][6][7]

A feature film spin-off, In the Loop, was released in the UK on 17 April 2009. A pilot for a U.S. remake of the show was not successful, but Iannucci was subsequently invited to create Veep for HBO, a programme with a very similar tone and political issues, with the involvement of some The Thick of It writers and production members.