Just ask the poor writers of The Thick Of It, who having already examined a government rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic and an excitable opposition looking forward to assuming office in 2007’s special episodes. What is left to satirise now when nothing else has changed? These would be insurmountable problems for another TV show. But that wouldn’t figure on The Thick Of It‘s ability to squirm its way out of such a tricky situation with the slippery finesse of, well, an established politician, and turn those challenges into real strengths. In the first five minutes, we establish that Chris Langham’s bumbling minister Hugh has gone, that no-one wants to assume his office, and, eventually, that Rebecca Front will take his place as Nicola Murray, despite being a low Number 10 choice. (Tucker: “This is series 10 of the Big Breakfast, and you’re the fucking dinner lady they’ve asked to host the show.”) Special advisers Glenn and Ollie and civil servant Terri jostle for the attention of their new boss. Malcolm blisters through with the most quotable dialogue on telly. It’s hard to remember what exactly the problems facing the show were. The shift in cast is the most obvious change, but the tone of the show also feels different in a way that goes far beyond capturing the mood of an nth-stage government. There has been a move away from the scatological pop culture references that verged on live-action Family Guy dialogue; there was nothing more current than Leonard Cohen to contend with here. There also isn’t any referencing back to obscure minor characters, which was threatening to make 2007’s specials creak under their own weight. There are still, of course, enough killer lines to mark out the writing team as too good to be allowed to fly on the same plane. The always-competitive line of the night competition would probably be won by Malcolm’s dismay at an MP’s daughter planning on running for office: “This isn’t Tsarist Russia, it’s not the Dimblebys,” although Ollie’s description of Malcolm as a ‘thin, white Mugabe’ would also be in the running. But that doesn’t detract from what a successful reboot this episode was. After there was an actual policy worth arguing over in In The Loop, it’s good to see our political class back to fighting over nothing of any greater consequence than office furniture. Long may it last.
