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The Thick of It

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The Thick of It	type	TVTItem
The Thick of It	label	The Thick of It
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The Thick of It	comment	Satirical British Government Procedural produced by Adam Tandy and directed by Armando Iannucci. Debuted in 2005. It is styled as a fly-on-the-wall view of the inner workings of British politics, with natural-sounding, partly improvised dialogue and the use of shaky hand-held cameras. Intended to be as realistic as possible, the writing team employs several Whitehall insiders and every aspect is meticulously researched, from the office dÃ©cor to the levels of swearing.There is a lot of swearing.The show is essentially a 21st Century update of Yes, Minister, reflecting the changes the British political system has been through in the decades between the two shows, in particular the culture of spin ushered in by New Labour's Slave to PR government. While the earlier show commented on the power of unelected civil servants, the later show portrays the government's spin doctors and the media as the most powerful influences. The show also has a distinct anti-West Wing sensibility, sitting at the opposite end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: don't expect sharply-dressed idealists doing their best to serve their voters, this show is all about venal politicians, incompetent civil servants and bad suits.The show is set in and around the fictitious Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship, the least glamorous and most troublesome of all the Cabinet offices. Created as a "Super Department" with a wide-ranging and varied (read: vague and confusing) remit, it handles everything from housing to crime statistics (read: the boring stuff none of the other departments can be arsed with).The plot focuses for the most part on the Prime Minister's Director of Communications (read: enforcer) Malcolm Tucker, played by Peter Capaldi, whose job consists of yelling at people in the vain hope that it might stop them from fucking up too badly. The first two series, each comprising three episodes, star Chris Langham as the hapless Minister for Social Affairs, Hugh Abbott MP. They were followed by two hour-long specials: "Rise of the Nutters" and "Spinners and Losers", which deal with the issue of the Prime Minister's impending resignation. The third series introduced Nicola Murray MP, played by Rebecca Front, as Hugh Abbott's replacement following a Cabinet reshuffle. The fourth series started in September 2012, in which the new DoSAC minister is the world-weary Peter Mannion MP, while the party Malcolm is loyal to is now in opposition.An alternate-universe spin-off movie, In the Loop, was released in 2009, featuring many from the Thick Of It ensemble, but cast in different roles (except for Malcolm, Jamie and Sam, and briefly Angela Heaney) as they desperately try not to get involved in a war in the Middle East after a Minister's gaffe. An American version, titled Veep (being set in the office of the Vice President) aired on HBO in spring 2012.This show has numerous characters: you can read more about them and how they fit into the British Political System over at the show's Character Sheet.Very popular in Whitehall, which can only be a bad thing for the UK...
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The Thick of It / int_116f6f1c	type	Self-Plagiarism
The Thick of It / int_116f6f1c	comment	Self-Plagiarism: The line "You bought a bank out of social embarrassment?" is similar to a line in Peep Show (also written by Jesse Armstrong and Simon Blackwell) - "So you're going to get married to her, out of social embarrassment?"
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The Thick of It / int_1235f055	type	Dirty Coward
The Thick of It / int_1235f055	comment	Dirty Coward: The characters have a tendency to brag about the latest heroic scheme they're plotting or the stand they're planning to take, before chickening out of it at the last minute: For all his flaws, the only character who isn't a coward or a hypocrite is Malcolm: he's never afraid of facing his enemies or getting his hands dirty. Even this is subverted in Series 4, when Malcolm begins plotting a coup behind Nicola's back and assuring her of his loyalty. Although that's explained more as him being interested in the future of the party and it having a viable leader who can win the next election rather than someone who blathers about quiet bat-people; in essence, he's loyal to the party over any one particular person leading it.
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The Thick of It / int_1237828f	type	Anyone Can Die
The Thick of It / int_1237828f	comment	Non-death example: The series begins with a minister entering his office, greeting his staff, and getting ready for a meeting with Malcolm. Then, in the meeting, Malcolm suddenly forces him to resign. Quick cut, and Hugh Abbott appears. Basically, rather than Anyone Can Die, this is Anyone Can Be Sacked.
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The Thick of It / int_1282bf4f	type	No Celebrities Were Harmed
The Thick of It / int_1282bf4f	comment	No Celebrities Were Harmed: Many of the characters are thinly-veiled references to Real Life political figures: Stewart Pearson appears to be a caricature of Steve Hilton, an advertising exec-turned Tory spin doctor and a serial abuser of meaningless PR buzzwords. His colleague Cal "The Fucker" Richards may have been based on Tory Director of Communications Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor known for his aggressive style and allegations of bullying behaviour. Julius Nicholson (now Lord Nicholson) bears similarities to Peter Mandelson (now Lord Mandelson) and also to John Birt, the "Blue Skies Thinker" to Tony Blair whose meaningless utterances were ridiculed as "Birtspeak". Steve Fleming's personality and mannerisms are thought to have been based on Mandelson's to an even greater degree. Malcolm Tucker is based on a number of New Labour spin doctors. Alastair Campbell is the one most often cited, but he is also partly based on Peter Mandelson and possibly on Damian "Mad Dog" McBride. The last of these has led to some amusing Life Imitates Art moments: in one episode it emerges that the Opposition's nickname for Malcolm is Hamish MacDeath: the Conservatives gave McBride the nickname "McPoison". McBride was also forced to resign after his plans to set up a blog slandering David Cameron were leaked, some time after the show featured Malcolm Tucker getting into trouble for posting slanderous comments on Peter Mannion's blog. Even from the little we hear of them, we can gather that the two invisible party leaders of series 1- 3 resemble their Real Life counterparts. Dan Miller is pretty clearly based on David Miliband Baroness Sureka seems to have been inspired by Baroness Scotland
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The Thick of It / int_12b6fe15	type	Walk and Talk
The Thick of It / int_12b6fe15	comment	Walk and Talk: Possibly the only thing it does have in common with The West Wing.
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The Thick of It / int_135c6de7	type	Cannot Tell a Joke
The Thick of It / int_135c6de7	comment	Cannot Tell a Joke: Nicola often gets a blank stare, or even multiple blank stares, when attempting humour. Her poorly timed, "Thank our fucky stars for that", joke in the radio episode, especially takes the cake. Ollie too, mostly in the first couple of seasons. He occasionally manages a bit of genuinely funny deadpan snarking but mostly he just desperately prolongs other people's jokes. Glenn isn't the wittiest bloke, and he gets a smackdown from Robyn: Peter Mannion is accused of this during the radio debate:
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The Thick of It / int_141a6acb	type	Madness Mantra
The Thick of It / int_141a6acb	comment	Madness Mantra: Glenn has a pretty epic meltdown. Steve Fleming MP's last appearance in the series involves him charging down a corridor having resigned the Cabinet and ranting "Fuck him fuck him fuck him fuck him!" about Malcolm, who has just heavily intimated that he's figured out a way to screw Steve's plans to screw over the Prime Minister.
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The Thick of It / int_1439161f	type	Heroic BSoD
The Thick of It / int_1439161f	comment	In Phil's mortifying Heroic BSoD in S04E05, he admits he has nothing else in his life but work.
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The Thick of It / int_149ff4b0	type	HilarityEnsues
The Thick of It / int_149ff4b0	comment	In the season two finale, an eight-year-old girl is accidentally sent an email reading "Christ alive! What a cunt !!!" and Hilarity Ensues.
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The Thick of It / int_14b85a5f	type	Fat Idiot
The Thick of It / int_14b85a5f	comment	Ben Swain, who has written a book about "getting ahead in politics" titled "It's The Everything, Stupid". One wonders what on earth he would know on the subject.
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The Thick of It / int_14ed6ab7	type	Does This Remind You of Anything?
The Thick of It / int_14ed6ab7	comment	Does This Remind You of Anything?: Malcolm telling Nicola not to take a job in America sounds suspiciously like he is begging her not to leave him. But it's all for the good of the party, obviously, nothing personal.
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The Thick of It / int_15da4941	type	Badass Adorable
The Thick of It / int_15da4941	comment	Badass Adorable: Jamie. With his short stature, curly hair, boyish smile and gigantic blue eyes he doesn't look like the sort of man who threatens to push iPods up his enemies' penises:
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The Thick of It / int_1616e13	type	Ripped from the Headlines
The Thick of It / int_1616e13	comment	Ripped from the Headlines: Regularly inverted. The series has become infamous for predicting real life political policies and gaffes. However, played straight in Series 4 with the Goolding Inquiry, which is largely based off of the recent Leveson Inquiry which came as a result of the Phone Hacking Scandal.
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The Thick of It / int_16365fa0	type	You Fool!
The Thick of It / int_16365fa0	comment	Julius Nicholson: "You fools! These are good biscuits and they cost four pounds."
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The Thick of It / int_17501df2	type	Cool Old Guy
The Thick of It / int_17501df2	comment	Cool Old Guy: Completely averted—the older you are, the naffer everyone thinks you are. Poor Glenn.
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The Thick of It / int_1a3b588c	type	Suicide Is Shameful
The Thick of It / int_1a3b588c	comment	Suicide is Shameful: Phil believes this in regards to Mr. Tickel's death:
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The Thick of It / int_1ba17583	type	The Ghost
The Thick of It / int_1ba17583	comment	The Ghost: JB, who is only ever referred to by his initials, is the young, inexperienced, upper-class Leader of the Opposition in the Specials and Series 3. JB is a modernist and has hired Stewart Pearson to change his party's seemingly old-fashioned, backward image and broaden its appeal, which irritates members of the party old guard, such as Peter Mannion. He is reluctant to commit to firm policies before the election. According to Mannion, he and the members of his "Eton clique," despite ostensibly heading up the progressive wing of the party, enjoy texting offensive jokes to each other, something Stewart dismisses as "ironising". In Series 4, JB is now Prime Minister in a Coalition government that is overseeing austerity measures (referred to by Malcolm Tucker as "JB's barmy army"). He is a parody of David Cameron. "Fatty" is an MP who holds a ministerial post in the MOD, though survives the reshuffle at the start of Series 3. He is not held in particularly high regard by Malcolm or Jamie at Number 10, and is only referred to by his weight, having been rewarded with a hamper by Malcolm in Series 4. He evidently remains a senior figure within the party. Right after Nicola's resignation, however, Malcolm orders Ollie to show Fatty a picture (not shown on-screen but deemed extremely upsetting by Ollie) as a form of blackmail to ensure he shelves the leadership ambitions he still held up to that point. Pat Morrissey, referred to with epithets about her weight, such as "Fat Pat" or "Pumpkin Tits", plays a publicity or communications role with the office of the Prime Minister. It is not clear exactly what her position is, but she is a frequent competitor with Malcolm for power and influence within the party. Formerly worked for ITN, before becoming a "Nutter", a supporter of Tom Davis within the Number 10 press office. She remains part of the party communications team during Series 4, moving to the Norman Shaw Buildings. Douglas Tickel was a nurse that became homeless after his key-worker housing was sold off and refused alternative accommodation. He took up residence in a tent as a protest against the policy, committing suicide in episode 4.3. Tickel had intense mental health issues that became evident after the leaking of his confidential medical records. After Glenn and Terri's leak in episode 4.5, the media gains hold of a chain of offensive emails from members of the Government targeted towards Tickel's mental troubles, including such quotes such as "the fucker's a nutbag" from Emma. His death and the illegal leaking of his medical records later sparked the Goolding Inquiry into the "culture of leaking".
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The Thick of It / int_1bf3f4af	type	The Svengali
The Thick of It / int_1bf3f4af	comment	The Svengali: Malcolm Tucker fits the trope perfectly, although instead of mentoring a specific person like this, he obsessively controls his entire Party. His Villainous Breakdown in Series 4 even involves him screaming at someone objecting to his plan, because he is doing it all for the Party, and no-one should dare ever question what he would do for the Party.
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The Thick of It / int_1bf94a24	type	The Movie
The Thick of It / int_1bf94a24	comment	The Movie: In the Loop.
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The Thick of It / int_1c79ae8c	type	Those Two Guys
The Thick of It / int_1c79ae8c	comment	Those Two Guys: Glenn and Ollie fulfil this role as secondary aides to the central protagonist (initially Hugh, later Nicola). They almost always appear together and banter off one another, with an older/younger contrast. In season four, they are almost directly replaced by Fergus Williams MP and his special advisor Adam Kenyon, who are rarely seen apart from each other. Glenn and Ollie do reunite in the hospital in Episode 4, however.
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The Thick of It / int_1c9537cd	type	The Main Characters Do Everything
The Thick of It / int_1c9537cd	comment	The Main Characters Do Everything: In the same way as Yes, Minister, the series invented a similar department that could meddle in many different areas: the Department Of Social Affairs (or Department Of Social Affairs & Citizenship later on). It is hand waved in the show by the fact that even the department's own members don't seem to know what their primary job is. Beyond that it is clear that they mostly get the jobs that the rest of the government doesn't want.
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The Thick of It / int_1dfbbf31	type	Heterosexual Life-Partners
The Thick of It / int_1dfbbf31	comment	Heterosexual Life-Partners: Fergus and Adam seem to have this relationship going on. In an office environment where most of the time everyone hates each others guts, it notably sticks out how much they genuinely enjoy each other's company and always have each other's backs.
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The Thick of It / int_1e3a9a21	type	Angrish
The Thick of It / int_1e3a9a21	comment	"Spinners and Losers" provided a glorious example. In the chaos following the Prime Minister's resignation, everyone spies opportunities to better their position and all hell breaks loose: MPs launch leadership bids, spin doctors launch smear campaigns to derail those bids, aides suck up to the potential new leaders, everyone strives to keep their dastardly plots from everyone else and numerous spanners get thrown into the works. Rising tensions lead to paranoia, Angrish and even a Food Fight... before they discover that for all but one man, their plotting was for nothing.
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The Thick of It / int_1f6ec528	type	Would Not Shoot a Civilian
The Thick of It / int_1f6ec528	comment	Would Not Shoot a Civilian: Malcolm Tucker explicitly invokes this trope when asked, during the Goolding Inquiry whether he was involved in the leak of Mr. Tickel's illegally acquired medical records which ultimately led to the man's suicide. Tucker compares political power struggles to a combat environment, and vehemently denies any involvement with the leak, stating that while he's totally okay with the backstabbing and leaking that goes on behind the scenes, he would never do anything like that to someone who is not actively involved in politics. He is, of course, lying through his teeth.
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The Thick of It / int_1f799027	type	Obstructive Bureaucrat
The Thick of It / int_1f799027	comment	Obstructive Bureaucrat: Terri, who is a "blockage".
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The Thick of It / int_1f9fac06	type	You Know I'm Black, Right?
The Thick of It / int_1f9fac06	comment	You Know I'm Black, Right?: When Ollie suggests "making special needs kids clean up graffiti" as a policy idea, Hugh tries to make him feel some remorse, wrongly assuming that a complete prick like Ollie may be capable of feeling any:
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The Thick of It / int_203141e3	type	Cute and Psycho
The Thick of It / int_203141e3	comment	Cute and Psycho: The third series us to Steve Fleming, MP, who is a spectacularly unstable version of this trope; that cheerful grin, the slightly creepy compliments and the "call me Uncle Steve" attitude you see when you first meet him? Get him even slightly agitated and his Ax-Crazy side will come to the fore. The scary part comes when he desperately tries to suppress his insanity, swinging from Stepford Smiler to Unstoppable Rage and back again so violently you wonder he doesn't give himself whiplash.
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The Thick of It / int_21535375	type	Blonde Republican Sex Kitten
The Thick of It / int_21535375	comment	Blonde Republican Sex Kitten: Emma Messinger, except replace "Republican" with "Tory" (well, probably Tory): She's posh, she's blonde, she's ambitious and she's a conservative. Doesn't keep her from sleeping with (probable) Labour man Olly Reeder.
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The Thick of It / int_222dc873	type	Black Comedy
The Thick of It / int_222dc873	comment	Black Comedy: A grimly accurate portrayal of the self-serving political system and incredibly, impossibly funny. Even the suicide jokes. The series is notorious for its one liners, often chock-a-block with words unrepeatable pre-watershed.
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The Thick of It / int_2241cc1e	type	Passing Notes in Class
The Thick of It / int_2241cc1e	comment	Passing Notes in Class: In a meeting where Malcolm can't express his displeasure in the usual profane manner, he resorts to this.
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The Thick of It / int_22581cd3	type	Girly Run
The Thick of It / int_22581cd3	comment	Girly Run: Malcolm Tucker is an aggressive, foul-mouthed, violent alpha male...who runs like a girl.
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The Thick of It / int_22f5d1b9	type	Some of My Best Friends Are X
The Thick of It / int_22f5d1b9	comment	Some of My Best Friends Are X: Subverted briefly with Ben Swain at the end of "Spinners and Losers"; he says "one of my best friends is an Asian" but also knows, as does Ollie, that saying that makes him sound like a racist. Made worse by the fact that the offended person wasn't Asian. When Peter Mannion is told to go after "fat cats" he complains that some of his best friends are money-grabbing wankers.
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The Thick of It / int_23386799	type	Door Dumb
The Thick of It / int_23386799	comment	Door Dumb: Fergus manages to push a revolving door the wrong way, but to be fair he is desperately trying to escape the press. Glenn rescues him, but naturally gets no thanks for it.
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The Thick of It / int_23698fa8	type	Aborted Arc
The Thick of It / int_23698fa8	comment	Aborted Arc: In "Spinners and Losers", Adam vows to destroy Olly by making him the subject of the most malicious smear campaign in the history of the British media. When Adam joins the cast in season four, this is never brought up and the two never interact again.
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The Thick of It / int_24321e44	type	Only Sane Man
The Thick of It / int_24321e44	comment	Terri views herself as detached, professional and the only sane woman in the department, and also feels qualified to offer everyone around her relationship advice at the drop of a hat. She is viewed by everyone else as thoroughly annoying and useless but too much trouble to fire.
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The Thick of It / int_245a7c37	type	Enraged by Idiocy
The Thick of It / int_245a7c37	comment	Enraged by Idiocy: Part of Malcolm's daily routine involves berating everyone else for their incompetence.
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The Thick of It / int_2497e5b8	type	Atomic F-Bomb
The Thick of It / int_2497e5b8	comment	Atomic F-Bomb: Hugh's bollocking from Malcolm outside the goldfish bowl probably counts as an Atomic Cluster F Bomb. To add to the effect, the door of the theoretically (but not) soundproof glass room is opened just as Malcolm shouts the word "prick".
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The Thick of It / int_24b88e85	type	Unwanted Assistance
The Thick of It / int_24b88e85	comment	Unwanted Assistance: In retrospect, Malcolm's idea of turning Duggan's scrotum into a muppet and using it as the party mouthpiece would have worked a whole lot better than allowing Duggan to continue helping them, if only because the muppet might be able to function more effectively.
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The Thick of It / int_26eb6287	type	Funny Background Event
The Thick of It / int_26eb6287	comment	Funny Background Event: Ollie cluelessly wandering into shot during Terri's public apology over the e-mail fracas. Hugh's interview with Angela Heaney, interrupted by a furious Malcolm, who takes him outside to assault him with a barely-muted, Atomic Cluster F-Bomb bollocking. Meanwhile in the foreground, Angela and Terri calmly discuss tea and biscuits. Jamie is the king of this trope. In S1E4 he's often seen in the background tag-teaming victims with Malcolm, shoving people around (even women), and at one point becomes literally hopping mad. In the first special he entertains us by fellating his pen behind Julius Nicholson's back. Emma's brother Affers really is a very slow fucker-offer.
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The Thick of It / int_2764d432	type	Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
The Thick of It / int_2764d432	comment	Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: It's a paper-thin disguise in Steve Fleming's case.
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The Thick of It / int_27a42ebc	type	Spiritual Successor
The Thick of It / int_27a42ebc	comment	Spiritual Successor: To Yes, Minister.
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The Thick of It / int_28a5213a	type	Small Name, Big Ego
The Thick of It / int_28a5213a	comment	Small Name, Big Ego: Abounds, as this is a show about politics: A particularly egregious example is John Duggan who says: Ben Swain, who has written a book about "getting ahead in politics" titled "It's The Everything, Stupid". One wonders what on earth he would know on the subject. Terri views herself as detached, professional and the only sane woman in the department, and also feels qualified to offer everyone around her relationship advice at the drop of a hat. She is viewed by everyone else as thoroughly annoying and useless but too much trouble to fire. There is also something of a gulf between Ollie's opinion of himself and his abilities and everyone else's opinion of him and his abilities. Averted by Malcolm, who actually is as important and clever as he thinks he is. Cliff Lawton doesn't get a lot of screen time, but it's no doubt an Establishing Character Moment when in the middle of being sacked by Malcolm, he tries to insist Malcolm call him "Minister".
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The Thick of It / int_28ea0e57	type	Cock Fight
The Thick of It / int_28ea0e57	comment	Cock Fight: Fergus and Adam vying for the attentions of a hot economist in S04E03.
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The Thick of It / int_29d4ec8a	type	British Teeth
The Thick of It / int_29d4ec8a	comment	British Teeth: Peter Capaldi once referred to the series as "The West Wing with bad teeth and swearing."
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The Thick of It / int_29e6dc40	type	HypocriticalHumour
The Thick of It / int_29e6dc40	comment	Hypocritical Humour: Ben Swain: "I have been interviewed on television before..." Malcolm aggressively orders Robyn to ensure the next day's media coverage will make him look "FUCKIN' BENIGN". In the party conference episode Malcolm suggests that two people look anorexic, while he's looking thinner than ever. Malcolm on the phone to a journalist: ''That's an incredibly homophobic headline, you massive poof." Julius Nicholson on the crime stats enquiry: "I had to come down upon Steve Fleming like a ton of bricks, totally unfairly, just to protect my unimpeachable reputation for fairness!" One of Malcolm's Evil Plans leads to Steve Fleming being photographed discussing the crime stats enquiry with Julius Nicholson. One newspaper runs the photograph with the headline "Give us the bald facts", causing uber-bitch Terri to remark: "Oooh, it's very rude, that. I was always taught not to make personal remarks". Terri also calls Emma "a complete bitch" and reckons Phil "might be simple"... Adam mocks Phil for being Proud to Be a Geek, but refers Phil and Peter as "Malfoy and his Dad", and to the Government party as Slytherin. (Begging the question, does Adam see himself as a Gryffindor, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff?)
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The Thick of It / int_2a090d00	type	Lampshade Hanging
The Thick of It / int_2a090d00	comment	Lampshaded in Series 3:
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The Thick of It / int_2a7e7af1	type	Limited Wardrobe
The Thick of It / int_2a7e7af1	comment	Limited Wardrobe: In Series 3, all of Malcolm's suits are light grey, and sometimes he'll even pair a grey suit with a grey tie. When we see him in casual clothes we discover that practically every other item of clothing he owns is also grey. This could have been a deliberate attempt to match his wardrobe to his hair colour but the grey is also very fitting for a press officer who likes to hide in the background, never becoming the story.
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The Thick of It / int_2b5ab7c1	type	Analogy Backfire
The Thick of It / int_2b5ab7c1	comment	Analogy Backfire: Analogies often backfire and most spectacularly in the Drama Bomb episode where Malcolm gets fired. The script features a running theme of theatre-related metaphors:
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The Thick of It / int_2bc0fc4d	type	Ice-Cream Koan
The Thick of It / int_2bc0fc4d	comment	Ice-Cream Koan: "Time is a leash on the dog of ideas." "Knowledge is porridge". Stewart Pearson speaks almost entirely in meaningless PR buzzwords.
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The Thick of It / int_2d4d16d9	type	I Know You Know I Know
The Thick of It / int_2d4d16d9	comment	I Know You Know I Know: Malcolm and Nick Hanway during a tense game of Xanatos Speed Chess: Also, Hugh's bluffing game is tested during his Sweary Woman of Whitehall cock-up:
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The Thick of It / int_2d4fa515	type	Ax-Crazy
The Thick of It / int_2d4fa515	comment	Ax-Crazy: Jamie, the aggressive, foul-mouthed Scottish press officer who is even worse than Malcolm:
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The Thick of It / int_2d6f00e4	type	Psycho for Hire
The Thick of It / int_2d6f00e4	comment	Psycho for Hire: Jamie McDonald, Malcolm Tucker's lackey and attack dog whom Malcolm uses as much by reputation as by actual force. More than once he has convinced someone to get motivated by threatening to call Jamie over.
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The Thick of It / int_2dc0d2bf	type	Hidden Depths
The Thick of It / int_2dc0d2bf	comment	Hidden Depths: During the sixth episode of Season Three, Terri has balls big enough to point out a number of recent mistakes Malcom has made and that he is off his game. Asking for a private word (seemingly for a world-class bollocking) Malcom takes the opportunity to rage honestly about the sheer extent of stress he is under while apologizing to Terri and admitting she's right in him generally floundering. The scene and the "Reason You Suck" Speech delivered to Ollie in the final episode offer a rare glimpse of Malcom expressing weakness and the sheer pressure his job puts him under.
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The Thick of It / int_2de5077d	type	Power is Sexy
The Thick of It / int_2de5077d	comment	Power is Sexy: Parodied in-universe when Ollie and his then-girlfriend have some flirty banter about how he's gotten promoted and how the additional power makes him attractive. However, since Ollie is neither particularly powerful nor attractive, and both of them are fully aware of that, they are both clearly just joking. It's actually one of the few times where a genuinely light-hearted joke is made that both sides find funny, in comparison to the cock-ups and humiliations that are the usual source of humour.
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The Thick of It / int_2f36d97	type	Older Than They Look
The Thick of It / int_2f36d97	comment	Older Than They Look: Ollie is described as looking "about nine" in a newspaper photo by his girlfriend Emma Messinger, and Malcolm constantly makes jokes about his youthful appearance. Chris Addison, the actor who plays Ollie, was actually in his late thirties when filming the series. This carried over to one of Chris Addison's appearances on Have I Got News for You, when Tom Baker referred to him as "the boy": "I'm thirty-six! I'm thirty-six, Tom Baker!" Same goes for Phil; Will Smith (no, not that Will Smith), who plays him, was born the same year as Chris Addison.
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The Thick of It / int_2f69c343	type	Resigned in Disgrace
The Thick of It / int_2f69c343	comment	Resigned in Disgrace: The show begins with Cliff Lawton being forced to resign as Secretary of State for Social Affairs, having become the subject of an embarrassing screw-up; with the government not wanting to look weak in the face of media scrutiny, Malcolm Tucker arranges for Lawton to make it look as if he jumped instead of being pushed - arranging his farewell and letter of resignation twenty minutes before even telling Lawton. During the first season, Hugh Abbott becomes embroiled in a scandal when his clumsy attempts to sell his second home end up making him look prejudiced against Asian buyers, and it's not long before Malcolm floats the idea of having him resign to spare the government further trouble. Hugh refuses at first, only to realize that doing so would actually improve his reputation; by the time he gets around to trying, he finds that Dan Miller has already beaten him to it and gained a ton of brownie points as a result. In the final episodes of season three, Malcolm ends up in conflict with Steve Fleming, a chief whip out for revenge after becoming a victim of this trope. During a scandal over botched crime statistics, Fleming is able to use Malcolm as a scapegoat for the crisis and force him to resign — even recycling his own tactic of leaking the resignation to the media before telling him about it. However... ...in the season finale, Julius Nicholson reinstates Malcolm as Director of Communications in order to prevent Dan Miller's attempted takeover, promising to pardon him and Fleming of all wrongdoing in his official report...only for Malcolm to spread a rumour that the report is going to pin the blame entirely on Fleming, eventually prompting the ex-whip to confront Nicholson - not realizing that a journalist has been tipped off about their meeting and is photographing everything - making it look as if Fleming was trying to influence the report. Consequently, Fleming is scapegoated for the entire incident and forced to resign. As part of a scheme to replace Nicola Murray with a more competent Opposition Leader who can get the party back into power, Malcolm exploits the recent suicide of homeless nurse Douglas Tickel to shake things up: first, he baits the predictably overambitious Ben Swain into resigning in an effort to undermine Nicola's leadership; then he encourages her to call for an enquiry into Tickel's death so Swain's resignation will be overlooked by the media; finally, he has Glenn Cullen leak an email in which both Ben and Nicola voiced support for the housing act that resulted in Tickel becoming homeless in the first place. As a result, the inquiry is set to screw over the government and give the Opposition a chance to take over, Ben is left resigning in disgrace instead of in protest, and Nicola has no choice but to bow out with her career prospects in tatters. Having also supported the housing act, Peter Mannion attempts to take the dignified exit and resign before the media crucifies him. However, Emma and Phil talk him out of it, encouraging him to instead expand the scope of the inquiry to screw over the Opposition. Instead, they end up becoming the victim of another scandal when all the nasty things their department said about Mr Tickel are leaked to the media. As a result, Peter has to sit down his two advisors and demand to know why they shouldn't resign in disgrace.
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The Thick of It / int_304f9e0b	type	Flowery Insults
The Thick of It / int_304f9e0b	comment	Flowery Insults: The series is living proof that this trope and Cluster F-Bomb are perfectly capable of living together and having lots of inventively sweary babies.
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The Thick of It / int_30ed4f7d	type	Sleazy Politician
The Thick of It / int_30ed4f7d	comment	Sleazy Politician: A pretty huge aversion when you think about it. Hugh Abbot is an aversion in the manner of Yes, Minister as a Hacker-like self-serving coward. Nicola is also not at all sleazy. Incompetent and self-serving, but not sleazy. Peter Mannion isn't even particularly incompetent, although he makes up for that by being a bit backwards; nevertheless, the exact opposite of sleazy. Stewart and Malcolm are the sleaziest of the lot, with Stewart refusing to honour the idea that families are off-limits and Malcolm's constant near-villainous antics, but they are appointed Communications Directors and Press Secretaries, not, technically, politicians. This is hinted at in Peter Mannion's backstory, in which he had an affair with his housemaid which ended up producing a son. Though it is downplayed, in that this aspect of Peter's life is clearly long in the past by the time he appears on the series. Coupled with, well, compared to what what some of his contemporaries were getting up to it's downright tame.
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The Thick of It / int_3126c34a	type	Insufferable Genius
The Thick of It / int_3126c34a	comment	Averted by Malcolm, who actually is as important and clever as he thinks he is.
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The Thick of It / int_319e4a2f	type	Even Evil Has Standards
The Thick of It / int_319e4a2f	comment	In a later episode, one of the more seriously dramatic ones, someone who is totally unconnected to politics (and is indeed very sympathetic and admirable) has just had his career ruined thanks to Nicola. Notably, even Malcolm feels bad about this, and is trying (not particularly successfully) to be genuinely gentle and nice about it. While Nicola's trying not to break down with guilt, Malcolm tells her that this PR clusterfuck is a war with the Opposition, so she's going to have to fight. She responds with a short, but very accurate, rant about how all this trouble (plus virtually every other thing that's gone wrong in the series,) is the result of people like Malcolm being obsessed with fighting and power, and that this attitude is the reason people despise politics so much. Unfortunately, Malcolm isn't even vaguely impressed; after telling her to "Spare me your psycho-fanny" and telling her a series of lies about how the opposition are mocking her misfortune, he makes her an offer that makes her fling her priciples to the wind and turn the aforementioned PR clusterfuck into a war with the opposition.
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The Thick of It / int_31c87ac	type	I Call Him "Mister Happy"
The Thick of It / int_31c87ac	comment	I Call Him "Mister Happy": "Remember you and Mrs. Mannion on your doorstep, her never going to touch Little Peter again?"
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The Thick of It / int_31da1e24	type	Shipper on Deck
The Thick of It / int_31da1e24	comment	Shipper on Deck: Ollie tries to do this with Peter Mannion and Terri Coverley. It sucks, hard.
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The Thick of It / int_323f135b	type	Sorting Algorithm of Evil
The Thick of It / int_323f135b	comment	Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Over the series, Malcolm's enemies have become progressively more powerful, and his conflicts with them have become more interesting as a result. In the first series, Malcolm only had to contend with incompetent politicians and civil servants. By the third, he had gained a genuinely powerful Arch-Enemy.
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The Thick of It / int_32da548d	type	Arch-Enemy
The Thick of It / int_32da548d	comment	Ollie has to dance one in "Spinners and Losers", breaking up with his girlfriend and in the process, hilariously admitting he only stayed with her because Malcolm forced him to. He is then forced to make up with her so he can use her to leak a policy (which she sees through right away), before being reduced to the status of "cheese monitor" and mocked for it by Emma and his Arch-Enemy Phil.
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The Thick of It / int_3346f944	type	Not Worth Killing
The Thick of It / int_3346f944	comment	Not Worth Killing: Non-fatal variant - when Ollie informs his Malcolm that Glenn is here to see him, Malcolm rounds on Ollie, delivering him a metaphor about how when the Queen's butler sees a cockroach in the kitchen, he steps on it and she never knows. When Malcolm does eventually go and speak to Glenn, he treats him with weary contempt rather than his characteristic foul-mouthed ranting, suggesting he finds him beneath even a bollocking.
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The Thick of It / int_338905ec	type	Handshake Substitute
The Thick of It / int_338905ec	comment	Handshake Substitute: Adam and Fergus and their brofist hand bumping. It looks absolutely ridiculous.
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The Thick of It / int_33affa42	type	Government Agency of Fiction
The Thick of It / int_33affa42	comment	Government Agency of Fiction: The Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship (DoSAC), created on account of the Prime Minister's preference for "joined-up government" (a sly reference to some of the weirder departments cooked up by Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson).
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The Thick of It / int_33db913f	type	Open Mouth, Insert Foot
The Thick of It / int_33db913f	comment	Open Mouth, Insert Foot: In the last episode of season two, Hugh, while watching Malcolm bollocking someone, ponders whether it's worse to have him "slowly rumble towards you like prostate cancer, or him appearing suddenly out of nowhere like a severe stroke". Terri, who's father has just died of a stroke turns to him, prompting Hugh to pitifully ask how her father is.
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The Thick of It / int_33f1c576	type	Not Helping Your Case
The Thick of It / int_33f1c576	comment	Not Helping Your Case: After Peter and his colleagues return from Stewart's thought camp only to be informed that Adam and Fergus have set up a community bank for Â£2 billion in their absence, Adam tells them not to worry because it will be funded by taxes.
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The Thick of It / int_33f7b10e	type	Walk-In Chime-In
The Thick of It / int_33f7b10e	comment	Walk-In Chime-In: In "The Rise of the Nutters", Emma and Phil are discussing Olly. Phil brags that he's slept with three women, prompting Olly to interject with "In your life?"
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The Thick of It / int_34dcfc96	type	Kick the Dog
The Thick of It / int_34dcfc96	comment	Cal Richards is introduced with a Kick the Dog moment—"jokingly" telling Stewart Pearson he's been sacked—which immediately tells the viewer what a cruel sense of humour he has.
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The Thick of It / int_35022c20	type	No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup
The Thick of It / int_35022c20	comment	No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: The missing immigration figures in S03E02 is not backed up, apart from a memory stick at the bottom of Ollie's second best bag.
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The Thick of It / int_355e858b	type	Clothing Reflects Personality
The Thick of It / int_355e858b	comment	Clothing Reflects Personality: In season three, all of Malcolm's suits are light grey, and sometimes he'll even pair a grey suit with a grey tie. When we see him in casual clothes we discover that practically every other item of clothing he owns is also grey. This could have been a deliberate attempt to match his wardrobe to his hair colour but the grey is also very fitting for a press officer who likes to hide in the background, never becoming the story.
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The Thick of It / int_35a858b3	type	Cluster F-Bomb
The Thick of It / int_35a858b3	comment	Inverted with Malcolm Tucker. Given he practically speaks Cluster F-Bomb as a second language, it's when he STOPS swearing that we know a line has been crossed.
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The Thick of It / int_36135fb0	type	Official Couple
The Thick of It / int_36135fb0	comment	Official Couple: Ollie and Emma. Of course, this being The Thick of It, their relationship is ruthlessly exploited by the other characters as soon as it's acknowledged, to the point where by the end they're quite openly admitting that they would have broken up long before "if it had been up to them".
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The Thick of It / int_364b9be6	type	Flipping the Bird
The Thick of It / int_364b9be6	comment	Flipping the Bird: Done beautifully (if surreptitiously) by Glenn: Julius asks him to hold up his fingers to count something and while he's talking, Glenn slowly lowers his fingers except for the middle one and keeps flipping the bird to Julius's face for a while.
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The Thick of It / int_392372f9	type	Actor Allusion
The Thick of It / int_392372f9	comment	Actor Allusion: Malcolm's office is referred to as "The Lair of the White Worm". Bram Stoker's lesser known horror novel received a loose modern-day adaptation in 1988 and starred—yep, you guessed it—Peter Capaldi. In the second episode, Glenn can be seen drinking a can of orange Tango. James Smith once appeared in an advert for that very drink. Terri is referred to as "Nurse Ratched" by Fergus and Adam at one point. Joanna Scanlan played a Nurse Ratched Expy in an episode of Spaced which contained a Whole-Plot Reference to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. "He looks like a Lego policeman"- Ollie on spin doctor Steve Fleming, played by David Haig of The Thin Blue Line. Malcolm makes a couple of references to The Beatles. Capaldi played George Harrison in the 1985 Made-for-TV Movie John and Yoko: A Love Story.
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The Thick of It / int_3929e0db	type	You Need to Get Laid
The Thick of It / int_3929e0db	comment	You Need to Get Laid: Hugh and Ollie gang up on Glenn—"The last time you saw a snatch was..." "Basic Instinct!" Emma thinks this about Phil: "I'll put a sex grid on the fridge...so that you can have dates and stuff and I'll put an A4 piece of paper for me up, and maybe you could have half a Post-It note?" In a moment of panic, Phil himself admits to Mannion that his personal life is nonexistent and that he hasn't been laid in over 5 years. Adam tells Emma she needs to "get a boyfriend." (She tells him to "come out".)
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The Thick of It / int_3aca1515	type	I Like My X Like I Like My Y
The Thick of It / int_3aca1515	comment	I Like My X Like I Like My Y: Home Secretary Mary Drake states when threatening to subsume DOSAC and put them in charge of the tea run that "I like mine (tea) weak and white, like my men" then again, she was there in her 'angry capacity'.
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The Thick of It / int_3b0479f2	type	You Shall Not Pass!
The Thick of It / int_3b0479f2	comment	You Shall Not Pass!: Phil utters this exact phrase when trying to keep Adam from talking to Peter. Naturally, Adam ignores him.
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The Thick of It / int_3b113b7	type	Character Development
The Thick of It / int_3b113b7	comment	Character Development: A lot of characters are becoming gradually more and more politically savvy, the most noticeable being Ollie in Series 4. Bear in mind that this simply means they're not idiots anymore.
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The Thick of It / int_3bad6ba6	type	Two of Your Earth Minutes
The Thick of It / int_3bad6ba6	comment	Two of Your Earth Minutes: Stewart asks his colleagues for "thirty of your Earth seconds" before making an announcement. Though strictly speaking Stewart's not an alien, just an obnoxious PR hack.
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The Thick of It / int_3c0a4666	type	Noodle Incident
The Thick of It / int_3c0a4666	comment	Noodle Incident: Emma in the Opposition Special: "They're going to elect a man who can count his friends on the fingers of my father's right hand." Malcolm on Nicola: "She's a nice lady. Especially when she's drunk." Considering this came from the same episode where he joked about her photocopying her arse, one wonders exactly what has been going on in office parties... While visiting Ollie in hospital, Glenn declares it to be the worst lunch hour he's had since the time Stuart took everyone out for sushi. The scandal involving Baroness Sureka is obliquely referred to by Glenn offering his sympathies for her during the enquiry, Robyn recognising her from the papers (much to her embarrassment) and indicated by her absence during one of the inquisitions.
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The Thick of It / int_3cb1d38d	type	Bad Boss
The Thick of It / int_3cb1d38d	comment	Bad Boss: Good luck trying to find a moment in the show where Malcolm himself is in a good mood, and isn't insulting the co-workers he's speaking to. Except that he does treat his assistant, Sam, well. He's even protective of her when he's sacked at the end of series three.
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The Thick of It / int_3cb68bd3	type	Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon
The Thick of It / int_3cb68bd3	comment	Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: "You breathe a word of this to anyone, you mincing fucking CUNT and I will tear your fuckin' skin off, I will wear it to your mother's birthday party and I will rub your nuts up and down her leg whilst whistling Bohemian fuckin' Rhapsody, right? Now get out of my fucking sight..." Malcolm is particularly good at dishing out this kind of threat... ...and so is Jamie. This trope is pretty much Jamie's job description: Lampshaded in Series 3:
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The Thick of It / int_3d038b36	type	Rhetorical Question Blunder
The Thick of It / int_3d038b36	comment	Rhetorical Question Blunder: During the Golding Inquiry, Glenn is asked if any of his colleagues have lied in the process. He replies, "Does a cow drink milk?" He gets the question thrown back at him, to which he replies, "Probably".
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The Thick of It / int_3d5c5deb	type	Flat Character
The Thick of It / int_3d5c5deb	comment	Flat Character: As Glenn observes of Emma, she's "just your standard-issue insipid posh bitch - that's all!"
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The Thick of It / int_3ed17fe0	type	Wide-Eyed Idealist
The Thick of It / int_3ed17fe0	comment	Nicola arrives at DoSAC as a wide-eyed, naive MP who only reluctantly agreed to become a Cabinet minister. After being introduced to Malcolm, she attempts to emulate him, swearing more in front of him ("You are so wanking with the wrong crowd!") and trying to imitate his signature method of issuing threats ("Do we go after him with... a bum-dildo of vengeance?"). By the end of the series she becomes power-hungry to the point of considering a leadership bid, and swears so much that even Steve Fleming is shocked ("You're quite the potty-mouth, aren't you?").
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The Thick of It / int_3eee0728	type	Captain Obvious
The Thick of It / int_3eee0728	comment	Captain Obvious: Done quite frequently when making official comments to avoid misinterpretation, such as when Stewart says he hopes there will be no more Mr. Tickels, then follows up by explaining he means that in terms of preventing other people from ending up in Tickel's situation, not in terms of wiping out the Tickel family line.
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The Thick of It / int_3f89452c	type	Sad Clown
The Thick of It / int_3f89452c	comment	Sad Clown: Malcolm started simply as highly-strung and terrifyingly funny, but his characterization eventually developed into this as the series progressed. It soon becomes apparent that jokes come out of him constantly in all situations, he doesn't care whether or not they make people laugh, and it's entirely a cover for a yawning pit of stress and existential horror.
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The Thick of It / int_40bb59d0	type	Blatant Lies
The Thick of It / int_40bb59d0	comment	Blatant Lies: The first episode had them deciding to announce a policy, believing they had permission. When it turned out they didn't, they had to call all the journalists they'd already told about it and claim it had been leaked by a disgruntled civil servant. After they managed to not announce the policy during a press conference, the Prime Minister then decided to support the policy. They then had to convince the journalists that they had announced it at the press conference (and that the journalists just didn't notice) and that the story about the policy being leaked by a disgruntled civil servant, was in fact leaked by a disgruntled civil servant...
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The Thick of It / int_4133a8bc	type	Forgets to Eat
The Thick of It / int_4133a8bc	comment	Forgets to Eat: Being a total workaholic, Malcolm seems to do this. Adam in "Spinners and Losers". Angela tells him to eat something because "your blood sugar's low, it makes you very irritable."
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The Thick of It / int_43a46119	type	Surrounded by Idiots
The Thick of It / int_43a46119	comment	Surrounded by Idiots: Malcolm is the only character who seems competent at his job. His hapless colleagues never seem to learn that they ignore his advice at their peril, and often leave him to mop up the ensuing hurricanes of piss.
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The Thick of It / int_443f9d8a	type	Ask a Stupid Question...
The Thick of It / int_443f9d8a	comment	Ask a Stupid Question...: Jamie does this deliberately in an attempt to wind Malcolm up. It works:
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The Thick of It / int_447d9e50	type	Xanatos Speed Chess
The Thick of It / int_447d9e50	comment	Xanatos Speed Chess: Malcolm starts off "Spinners and Losers" in the cold and completely out of the loop, when his boss the Prime Minister resigns. After an ongoing succession of white lies, innocuous power plays and complicated gambits, the episode ends with Malcolm being welcomed to Tom's inner leadership team, and utterly destroying his rival Nick Hanway's career in the process.
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The Thick of It / int_44f6517d	type	Beach Episode
The Thick of It / int_44f6517d	comment	Beach Episode: The party conference episode in series three. Being The Thick of It, and being set in Eastbourne, this episode is just as unglamorous as the rest. We see Terri in her cagoule, but no-one in their swimsuits, which is probably for the best. Although we do get to see Malcolm in black tie, for no apparent reason.
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The Thick of It / int_45007296	type	Metaphorgotten
The Thick of It / int_45007296	comment	Metaphorgotten: Dan Miller: "If you're gonna make an omelette, you're going to have to have some frank and honest discussion with the eggs". Nicola's "self-eating cake" speech.
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The Thick of It / int_45de345c	type	The Peter Principle
The Thick of It / int_45de345c	comment	The Peter Principle: Endemic, but Nicola's elevation to Party Leader may be the standout case. Poor Nicola.
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The Thick of It / int_46ee4d3	type	Eye Take
The Thick of It / int_46ee4d3	comment	The look in Malcolm's eyes after Steve Fleming asks him "Can I have a quick word? Just five minutes..."
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The Thick of It / int_4766ca14	type	Volleying Insults
The Thick of It / int_4766ca14	comment	Volleying Insults: Surprisingly, the series doesn't have as many as you'd think. Arguments frequently occur, but they're usually about something that needs to be dealt with quickly and so seldom become simple insult contests. Also, the fact that most of the arguments involve Malcolm Tucker, who can steamroller most opposition fairly easily, means that the shouting matches don't drag on for as long as a fight between equals would.
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The Thick of It / int_47fea76b	type	Butt-Monkey
The Thick of It / int_47fea76b	comment	Butt-Monkey: Glen Cullen is a pretty extreme example of this trope. He's regarded as an aging, irrelevant joke despite all his attempts to claim his 'experience' (read: age) has given him connections, sex-starved to the point where even his friends don't hesitate to point out "the last time you saw snatch was Basic Instinct" and scapegoated numerous times for the screw-ups of other people in the department. By the second series, it's become enough to give him a pitiable but quite hilarious mental breakdown. In "Spinners And Losers", the less sympathetic Ollie Reeder gets bullied left and right by Malcolm, sucking up to the various Smug Snakes, forced into embarrassing himself trying to rekindle a relationship he just broke off and then reduced to the status of cheese monitor while his ex-girlfriend and Arch-Enemy laugh at him. Peter Mannion as well, particularly by series three. It's quite obvious the man is well-meaning, but he's constantly surrounded by people who want to make him look like a tosser, or people who think he's a tosser. Phil has gone from being Emma's enemy in the Specials and Series 3, to being universally detested by everyone at DoSAC. Terri seems to be speaking for everyone when she says "That boy is a simpleton. Two hundred years ago, they wouldn't have let him milk a cow." However, he's so arrogant and obnoxious that it's hard to feel sorry for him. Ben Swain's first appearance has him unexpectedly ending up in an interview with Jeremy Paxman, which was accurately described as "like watching a lion raping a sheep, but in a bad way." Later on, Malcolm forces him into another one with the same man and leaves him with nothing to talk about. Then he spends a happy half-hour being told he might be the next Prime Minister, only to be left "standing in the House, alone, with your big, flaccid dick hanging out with a Vote-for-Me sticker on the end." And then there's the events of Season 4, Episode 4, though to be fair that was his own fault. Nicola was never the most competent minister, but in series four, when she's become Leader of the Opposition, each episode seems to just be one long Humiliation Conga for her.
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The Thick of It / int_483152c4	type	The Resenter
The Thick of It / int_483152c4	comment	Making tea seems to be Robyn's entire purpose in life, even though her job title is Senior Press Officer. We find out in S4E6 she is extremely miffed about this.
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The Thick of It / int_499499e6	type	Written-In Absence
The Thick of It / int_499499e6	comment	Written-In Absence: While the specials were in production, Chris Langham was on trial for child pornography, so Hugh is said to be in Australia.
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The Thick of It / int_4a3e547f	type	Leaning on the Fourth Wall
The Thick of It / int_4a3e547f	comment	Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In Series 3 we get to see inside Malcolm's house, and find out his DVD collection includes... The Thick of It. Malcolm's take on the state of the election, with typical Tucker flair, in The Guardian. Nicola becomes head of her party during the time skip between seasons 3 and 4 with no explanation. In the third episode of the season Stewart Emma share a joke about not remembering how that happened.
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The Thick of It / int_4a4d6f7c	type	Comedic Sociopathy
The Thick of It / int_4a4d6f7c	comment	Comedic Sociopathy: The writers seriously love to mock the actors' physical characteristics. The scripts lay into everything from Alex MacQueen's lack of hair to Justin Edwards' nervous blink:
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The Thick of It / int_4ae690ca	type	Laughing Mad
The Thick of It / int_4ae690ca	comment	Laughing Mad: Steve Fleming has an annoying habit of breaking into laughter whenever he loses his temper, which happens frequently. It fools no-one.
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The Thick of It / int_4bdbca25	type	Irregular Series
The Thick of It / int_4bdbca25	comment	Irregular Series: The first two series aired in 2005, followed by specials in 2007, a third series in 2009, then a fourth and final series in 2012.
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The Thick of It / int_4d044580	type	Motive Rant
The Thick of It / int_4d044580	comment	Motive Rant: Season 4, Episode 7 has Ollie growing a pair and pointing out that Malcolm's methods and attitude are outdated. Malcolm responds by really laying bare what his job has done to him, and how "Malcolm" hardly even exists any more, there is only the job which has sucked him dry.
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The Thick of It / int_4e3d253b	type	Downer Ending
The Thick of It / int_4e3d253b	comment	Downer Ending: Malcolm is about to be locked up and Glenn might follow him, Ollie's taking Malcolm's job just after we find out how emotionally and spiritually draining it is, Nicola's doomed to a backbench position, Stewart's been sacked, nothing has changed in politics whatsoever and Terri can't start up her tea shop.
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The Thick of It / int_4e4ea654	type	Workaholic
The Thick of It / int_4e4ea654	comment	Workaholic: Much is made of Hugh never really seeing his family. This is Truth in Television, as many politicians spend most of their time at Whitehall and don't spend a lot of time with their families: Series 3 sees Malcolm take his first holiday in ten years. He spends it in his house with a bunch of journalists:
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The Thick of It / int_4e7c4536	type	Wham Line
The Thick of It / int_4e7c4536	comment	Series 4, Episode 6. With a Wham Line just before the closing credits, to boot.
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The Thick of It / int_4f4372e9	type	Early-Installment Weirdness
The Thick of It / int_4f4372e9	comment	Early-Installment Weirdness: Glenn loudly calls Terri a cunt in the first episode. It seems incredibly jarring compared to his fuddy-duddy demeanour in later episodes and series. Ollie and Glenn smoke outside while pondering their potential resignations at the end of series one. They're never shown to be smokers otherwise. In the first two seasons, Terri is a quietly competent employee who simply can't be arsed to care about party politics (and the whole department fell apart when Robyn had to cover for her). From season 3 onward she's just a complete idiot.
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The Thick of It / int_4f62bde6	type	Kavorka Man
The Thick of It / int_4f62bde6	comment	Kavorka Man: Olly Reeder is a weaselly, pale, bespectacled prick who looks like a twelve-year-old...and over the course of the series beds Angela Heaney, Emma Messinger from the Opposition, and is also depicted as something of a womanizer. This is really very good going in a series that seldom bothers to look at anyone's private lives (because most of them don't have private lives). This does just apply to the character rather than Chris Addison, the actor who plays him. Chris Addison is quite handsome and something of a Bishounen.
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The Thick of It / int_4f84cdef	type	Smug Snake
The Thick of It / int_4f84cdef	comment	Smug Snake: Julius Nicholson. "I'm the new Che Guevara. I just need a new moustache and some laser correction eye treatment." Nick Hanway is a bit too convinced that he's headed for the upper echelons of government, and spends most of Spinners and Losers gleefully taking credit for Malcolm's ideas. It proves to be his downfall. Steve Fleming, Malcolm's elected arch-nemesis, but with about a millionth of the charm.
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The Thick of It / int_5009999d	type	Painting the Medium
The Thick of It / int_5009999d	comment	Painting the Medium: The Goolding Inquiry is entirely shot at a faster frame rate than the rest of the series, similar to a televised news report.
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The Thick of It / int_50ca4422	type	Unresolved Sexual Tension
The Thick of It / int_50ca4422	comment	Unresolved Sexual Tension: There's a lot between Malcolm Tucker and Nicola Murray. Her poor relationship with her husband is alluded to frequently, whereas he sees her a lot to deal with the latest PR disaster, and shifts between giving her truly Olympian bollockings for some of them and showing an uncharacteristic level of sympathy for others. Emma and Phil also, with their childish verbal slanging matches they have against each other in almost every episode. The sexual tension is lampshaded by several different characters. Glenn even refers to them as "Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips".
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The Thick of It / int_50f66629	type	Crazy-Prepared
The Thick of It / int_50f66629	comment	Crazy-Prepared: Parodied by Jamie: "I do keep a balaclava and gaffer tape in my car".
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The Thick of It / int_51a3ba7	type	We Used to Be Friends
The Thick of It / int_51a3ba7	comment	We Used to Be Friends: Throughout the series, Glenn and Ollie spend most of their time playfully insulting each other. Then, during season four, Glenn switches over to the Coalition and hates it so much that he tries to rejoin, only to be cruelly rebuffed by Malcolm and Ollie does nothing. At the Goolding Inquiry, Glenn even apologises for bringing Ollie into the world of politics, calling him a spineless worm. This implies that they had a mentor/student relationship at one point, which just makes Ollie's betrayal worse.
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The Thick of It / int_51d3ca9b	type	Hates Being Nicknamed
The Thick of It / int_51d3ca9b	comment	Hates Being Nicknamed: Inverted with Steve Fleming, when Julius Nicholson refers to him as "Stephen", Fleming yells back "Steve!"
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The Thick of It / int_51d8f2e3	type	Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering
The Thick of It / int_51d8f2e3	comment	Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: The Shadow Cabinet meeting of S04E02.
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The Thick of It / int_532f8e61	type	Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!
The Thick of It / int_532f8e61	comment	Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: An outtake from the party conference episode shows Malcolm dashing away from a Daily Telegraph live podcast. Naturally, it gets put on their website with the headline "Tucker Spurns Our Man On The Ground". Ollie and Nicola gleefully take the piss whilst watching it.
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The Thick of It / int_53c3fa83	type	Granola Girl
The Thick of It / int_53c3fa83	comment	Stewart Pearson is another example, avoiding swearing in order to preserve his touchy-feely Granola Girl image. His profanity in the wake of Tickel's death presses home just how screwed his department is.
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The Thick of It / int_53f5119f	type	The Dragon
The Thick of It / int_53f5119f	comment	Generally speaking, being The Dragon to a minister is a very tricky proposition. Sure, there's the chance of using your boss as a springboard into "the political fuckoffosphere," but that level of closeness comes with a worrying array of hazards. Among other things, if you've hitched your horse too closely to a specific minister, your career might end up permanently stalled if they're forced off the job - as is the case with Glenn Clullen; they might end up taking you down with them into disrepute or failure - as was the case with Ollie during "Spinners And Losers"; you can even be used as a scapegoat in order to take the heat off the minister.
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The Thick of It / int_5490360d	type	Foodfight!
The Thick of It / int_5490360d	comment	Food Fight: Julius Nicholson gets helplessly pelted with food by the Caledonian Mafia. Probably slightly more one-sided than the trope suggests.
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The Thick of It / int_54bb502b	type	Nobody Poops
The Thick of It / int_54bb502b	comment	Nobody Poops: Averted: a great deal of the political process seems to go on in toilets. Taking a dump is Hugh's special treat. That's what his life has come to. Jamie does this a lot: "It's, eh, smoking and a fast metabolism." Malcolm claims to have done this in The White House.
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The Thick of It / int_5535bb82	type	Centipede's Dilemma
The Thick of It / int_5535bb82	comment	Centipede's Dilemma: Nicola is unable to remember which foot to start with when walking to the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday. She ends up totally frozen, as her staff watch on television in horror.
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The Thick of It / int_56240281	type	Country Matters
The Thick of It / int_56240281	comment	Glenn loudly calls Terri a cunt in the first episode. It seems incredibly jarring compared to his fuddy-duddy demeanour in later episodes and series.
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The Thick of It / int_566f1565	type	10-Minute Retirement
The Thick of It / int_566f1565	comment	Steve Fleming. At first his colleagues are happy to see the back of Malcolm Tucker but when they realize how creepy, charmless and bad-tempered his replacement is they decide they want their jerk to come back from his 10-Minute Retirement.
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The Thick of It / int_56b8b4f1	type	Lean and Mean
The Thick of It / int_56b8b4f1	comment	Lean and Mean: Malcolm keeps his weight down by running everywhere, being permanently stressed out, and living on a diet consisting mainly of coffee. Olly Reader likens him to "a thin white Mugabe".
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The Thick of It / int_581f6468	type	Hero of Another Story
The Thick of It / int_581f6468	comment	Hero of Another Story: If Julie Price from S3E4 were in a Ken Loach film, she'd be the hero and main character. Unfortunately for her, she's a character in a Armando Iannucci comedy, and is therefore doomed to be a minor character. Claire Ballentyne MP, who appears to have wandered in from some sort of UK version of The West Wing, where politicians are clever, caring and responsible. Until it turns out she's unelectable as leader because of her ongoing online gambling addiction, anyway.
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The Thick of It / int_5860c090	type	Sitcom Arch-Nemesis
The Thick of It / int_5860c090	comment	Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Peter and Stewart. Phil and Ollie in the Specials and Series 3, though as of Series 4, Adam seems to be Phil's new worst enemy. (Presumably it's handier for Phil, having his enemy in the office.) Also, when Adam was a journalist, he once decreed to Ollie that he was "going to spend the rest of my life dedicated to persecuting you in the most poisonous vendetta ever known in the British media!" It's like a Love Triangle for people who hate each other. Which would be a Hate Triangle, presumably. Oddly enough, Malcolm doesn't appear to have one, as basically everyone is his enemy. However, he reserves a particular hatred for Steve Fleming, and Fleming for him.
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The Thick of It / int_588d766f	type	BlackAndGreyMorality
The Thick of It / int_588d766f	comment	Black-and-Grey Morality: Hardly any character is without their flaws, and are all depicted to be varying degrees of cowardly, grubbing, backstabbing, manipulative, self-centred and ultimately more concerned with simply keeping their jobs than with doing the right thing.
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The Thick of It / int_58970413	type	Coincidental Broadcast
The Thick of It / int_58970413	comment	Coincidental Broadcast: When the Prime Minister resigns, Malcolm, Jamie, Ben and Ollie are immediately able to watch a news item about it. The Prime Minister resigning would be pretty big news, and would certainly take over the rolling news channels almost immediately. And such offices would usually have at least one TV constantly switched to rolling news (probably either BBC News or BBC Parliament), if only for the look of the thing (and it's as reliable a news feed as any for most things), but simultaneously Played for Laughs by another group dashing around desperately looking for a television, and then arguing about how to plug it in.
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The Thick of It / int_59f0de2a	type	Not Himself
The Thick of It / int_59f0de2a	comment	In one episode we see Malcolm wearing a snuggly fleece, smiling at the DoSAC staff and making tea for everyone. Somehow the new "Nice Malcolm" is even more frightening than "YesterMalcolm".
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The Thick of It / int_5b565147	type	Meaningful Background Event
The Thick of It / int_5b565147	comment	Meaningful Background Event: Malcolm's PA, Sam, can be seen among the extras in the background throughout the entire Goolding Inquiry. This may be an indication of how closely Malcolm is monitoring the inquiry itself.
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The Thick of It / int_5bdffefe	type	Jitter Cam
The Thick of It / int_5bdffefe	comment	Jitter Cam: Especially in the first season.
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The Thick of It / int_5ce2c9c6	type	Suddenly Shouting
The Thick of It / int_5ce2c9c6	comment	Suddenly Shouting: Surprisingly little, considering how much time the characters do spend shouting, but Malcolm Tucker does provide an amusing Bait-and-Switch when asked by a nameless extra to stop cursing so much: Arguably one of the most spectacular is the dressing-down of Hugh Abbot outside the goldfish bowl. Because there's a journalist in said conference room, Malcolm is trying to speak as quietly as possible so nothing ends up on the record, but he can't quite stop his anger at Hugh from boiling over; as such, half the conversation is conducted in deathly-quiet murmuring rendered almost inaudible by the conference room windows, and the other half, well...
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The Thick of It / int_5e6a495	type	The Problem with Pen Island
The Thick of It / int_5e6a495	comment	The Problem with Pen Island: Nicola falls victim to a variation when out campaigning for by-election candidate Liam Bentley: when standing in the middle of his poster on TV, the stray letters appeared to spell "I AM BENT".
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The Thick of It / int_5fcedca	type	Big Eater
The Thick of It / int_5fcedca	comment	Big Eater: Julius Nicholson: "You fools! These are good biscuits and they cost four pounds." Nicholson has a constant food motif. When he isn't munching biscuits, buying sandwiches or eating takeaways, he's feeding the ducks. He even tries to go through Malcolm's stomach when he wants Malcolm to come back after his sacking. However, he will not eat the pissy biscuit, or THE FUCKIN' CHEEEEEEESE... Ben Swain is another big eater, with his "Magic Drawer" full of chocolate:
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The Thick of It / int_60194b82	type	Spanner in the Works
The Thick of It / int_60194b82	comment	Spanner in the Works: "Do you know what it's like to clean up your own mother's piss?"
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The Thick of It / int_6159beb1	type	It Tastes Like Feet
The Thick of It / int_6159beb1	comment	It Tastes Like Feet: Malcolm describes the coffee he makes for his house guests as "so thick and black, it'll be like fucking drinking plimsolls".
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The Thick of It / int_61b576af	type	I Take Offense to That Last One
The Thick of It / int_61b576af	comment	Jamie is accused of being "a pint-pot Judas" by Malcolm. Jamie retorts with the wholly unconvincing claim that he is actually five-foot-ten.
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The Thick of It / int_61c2f627	type	Break the Motivational Speaker
The Thick of It / int_61c2f627	comment	Break the Motivational Speaker: Stewart, a PR manager and adviser for one of the political parties, speaks in an infuriating combination of PR slogans and buzzwords that are actually meaningless Ice Cream Koans overlaid with a false Granola Girl-style cheerfulness and enthusiasm. Peter, a minister who detests the entire culture of spin but nonetheless has to deal with Stewart regularly, constantly snarks at him and relishes every opportunity to undermine or humiliate him.
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The Thick of It / int_62663d88	type	Men Don't Cry
The Thick of It / int_62663d88	comment	Men Don't Cry: Played straight with Malcolm. Throughout series three there are several points where he is almost, but not quite, driven to tears. In one episode, an Eye Take reveals his red-rimmed eyes, and we can assume he saved his crying for an off-camera moment. When asked about that episode, Armando Iannucci said Peter Capaldi played Malcolm "like someone who's been crying for two weeks".
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The Thick of It / int_627264e0	type	Death Glare
The Thick of It / int_627264e0	comment	Ollie isn't above these either. There's the time where mocks special needs children...in front of Glenn, who has a special needs child. And keeps going after Hugh calls him out. When he mocks Glenn over Malcolm punching him in Season Three, saying Glenn being "not technically a woman." Malcolm shoots Ollie a Death Glare and tells him to zip it.
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The Thick of It / int_62907b90	type	Bottle Episode
The Thick of It / int_62907b90	comment	Bottle Episode: Series 3 Episode 6 takes place almost entirely in the DoSAC offices, which Malcolm has placed on "lockdown" with nobody allowed to leave. The only exception is a short scene out the front of those same offices.
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The Thick of It / int_634a768	type	Dead Man Walking
The Thick of It / int_634a768	comment	Dead Man Walking: Malcolm in "The Rise of the Nutters", to Ben Swain, who self-destructed on television:
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The Thick of It / int_63b02752	type	Hair-Trigger Temper
The Thick of It / int_63b02752	comment	Hair-Trigger Temper: Malcolm and Jamie are both possessors of very, very short fuses for anger. Jamie might have the edge, however; generally, Malcolm's anger is usually focussed and prompted by other people's incompetence and stupidity, whereas Jamie just seems perpetually on the edge of snapping into loud, violent anger even at merely hypothetical provocations.
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The Thick of It / int_63b12059	type	Villainous Friendship
The Thick of It / int_63b12059	comment	Villainous Friendship: Fergus and Adam are two of the most odious wankers in the show, yet ironically, they seem to get along better than almost anyone else. They're practically the only relationship that isn't destroyed by the end of the series.
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The Thick of It / int_644eca71	type	Rich Bitch
The Thick of It / int_644eca71	comment	Rich Bitch: Emma Messinger. In fact, when Glenn Cullen decides to resign and delivers his extremely bitter "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the entire department, he specifically singles Emma out as a "standard-issue insipid posh bitch."
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The Thick of It / int_663f35c0	type	Only One Name
The Thick of It / int_663f35c0	comment	Only One Name: Jamie. Although he was given a surname - MacDonald - for In the Loop. Julius calls him "James" in Rise of the Nutters, so apparently Jamie is his nickname. Another example is Malcolm's PA, Sam. Her surname is given as "Cassidy" in The Missing DoSAC Files, but it's debatable how far this is canon. (The same book gives Terri a different middle name than the one stated in the show, for example.)
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The Thick of It / int_664bc28f	type	British Brevity
The Thick of It / int_664bc28f	comment	British Brevity: The first two series had only three episodes each.
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The Thick of It / int_67fe4b8e	type	Ship Sinking
The Thick of It / int_67fe4b8e	comment	Ship Sinking: As a political satire, the series isn't exactly famous for exploring personal relationships, yet the tensions between Nicola Murray and Malcolm Tucker in Series 3 led to shipping by many fans. In series 4, however, Nicola Murray goes from a minister to Opposition Leader, where she is awful. The ship-sinking happens when Malcolm's irritation with Nicola messing up (yet still ultimately appreciating her work as a minister) is replaced with utter contempt and hatred for her incompetence dooming the entire party, and culminates in him orchestrating her political downfall. It is VERY clear that the love/hate relationship between the two is now just hate.
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The Thick of It / int_68a171b6	type	Sadist Show
The Thick of It / int_68a171b6	comment	Sadist Show: The show focuses on dirty cowards and a near Villain Protagonist. The characters who aren't self-serving and malicious are hideously incompetent, and they all inhabit a realm where idealism goes to die. Oh, and it's about politics. But we repeat ourselves.
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The Thick of It / int_68e501cd	type	Gay Bravado
The Thick of It / int_68e501cd	comment	Gay Bravado: Malcolm Tucker loves this, and uses it with practically every other male character, often combined with No Sense of Personal Space.
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The Thick of It / int_69391768	type	Expecting Someone Taller
The Thick of It / int_69391768	comment	Expecting Someone Taller: Ollie had been expecting someone taller than Steve Fleming.
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The Thick of It / int_69fb91e8	type	Chewing the Scenery
The Thick of It / int_69fb91e8	comment	Chewing the Scenery: The role of Malcolm Tucker involves plenty of Death Glares and Eye Takes, not to mention countless bollockings and all of that Baroque swearing. Peter Capaldi says he finds the role "cathartic", and who can blame him? He also says he finds the role exhausting: it requires him to act so damn hard his temple veins start throbbing. This is occasionally lampshaded, as is his stressed-out and sleep-deprived appearance in the show. The latter is apparently not entirely down to acting, and this seems to be confirmed by the fact that he looks about ten years younger in Torchwood: Children of Earth. Between Series 1 and Series 3 of The Thick of It he also managed to go completely grey, which may or may not be a coincidence. In Ianucci's own words (about In the Loop):
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The Thick of It / int_6b05b601	type	Jerkass Has a Point
The Thick of It / int_6b05b601	comment	Jerkass Has a Point: "Is that the two billion pounds we keep in the biscuit tin?"
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The Thick of It / int_6b983bf7	type	Unstoppable Rage
The Thick of It / int_6b983bf7	comment	During their first day together, Malcolm has been getting progressively more aggravated with Nicola Murray's general incompetence, but most of his rants have sailed just below the "Unstoppable Rage" line. Then, Nicola declines to enter a lift with him on the grounds of claustrophobia, and he finally lets loose.
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The Thick of It / int_6d332aea	type	Driven to Suicide
The Thick of It / int_6d332aea	comment	Driven to Suicide: Tickel, the nurse who was forced out of his home by government policies, kills himself in Episode 3 of Season 4.
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The Thick of It / int_6d871385	type	Villainous BSoD
The Thick of It / int_6d871385	comment	Villainous BSoD: Malcolm is finally driven to one in series 3: "I USED TO BE THE FUCKIN' PHARAOH!"
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The Thick of It / int_6dd49338	type	Invisible President
The Thick of It / int_6dd49338	comment	Even from the little we hear of them, we can gather that the two invisible party leaders of series 1- 3 resemble their Real Life counterparts.
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The Thick of It / int_6e37c196	type	Once Done, Never Forgotten
The Thick of It / int_6e37c196	comment	Once Done, Never Forgotten: Paula Radcliffe's unfortunate case of runner's diarrhoea is this.
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The Thick of It / int_6ec4232f	type	Casting Gag
The Thick of It / int_6ec4232f	comment	Casting Gag: Armando Iannucci admitted he cast Tom Hollander as Cal "The Fucker" Richards partly as an in-joke for fans who'd seen him playing Simon Foster in In the Loop.
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The Thick of It / int_6eec6377	type	Soapbox Sadie
The Thick of It / int_6eec6377	comment	An episode later, Nicola fucks up: her department has lost seven months worth of files, nobody has any idea where the backup went, Nicola has succeeded in making herself look like a Soapbox Sadie Granola Girl in a conference with the press, and ultimately ended up revealing the scandal about the lost files to an on-the-record journalist. And naturally, Malcolm lets her have it:
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The Thick of It / int_6eef5fc6	type	Temporary Substitute
The Thick of It / int_6eef5fc6	comment	Temporary Substitute: In season two, Robyn fills in for Terri due to her father having a stroke, which he later dies of.
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The Thick of It / int_6ef9d3fe	type	Christmas Episode
The Thick of It / int_6ef9d3fe	comment	Christmas Episode: Averted: Although the Specials show some of the characteristics of a Christmas Episode, they take place shortly after Christmas and the Christmas decoration gradually disappears from the office, leaving only one sad little bit of tinsel by the time the second Special begins.
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The Thick of It / int_704a3bbb	type	Real Men Cook
The Thick of It / int_704a3bbb	comment	Real Men Cook: Malcolm can cook ghee. Ollie can't manage lamb shanks. Make of this what you will...
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The Thick of It / int_711714da	type	Opposites Attract
The Thick of It / int_711714da	comment	Opposites Attract: Although in this case, it's more "Opposites Go Out To Dig Dirt On Each Other's Parties And Nick Policy Ideas."
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The Thick of It / int_71329e49	type	Turn in Your Badge
The Thick of It / int_71329e49	comment	Turn in Your Badge: "Actually I'm gonna need that, that's an official Blackberry..."
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The Thick of It / int_716c0b1b	type	And the Adventure Continues
The Thick of It / int_716c0b1b	comment	And the Adventure Continues: Despite the changes wrought by the Goolding Inquiry (which include Malcolm's arrest and resignation, Nicola's career lying in ruins, Glenn walking out and Stuart being sacked) life goes on as usual for DoSAC - there's a fresh scandal to try and take care of and everyone quickly descends into the usual bickering and insults. Peter's final line (and the series epitaph) of "What a shit day!" pretty much sums up the series as a whole.
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The Thick of It / int_723be11b	type	Villain Has a Point
The Thick of It / int_723be11b	comment	Villain Has a Point: "There's no happiness without order" is a Nazi quote, but according to Phil, it "nonetheless stands the test of time."
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The Thick of It / int_7302acc9	type	Ermine Cape Effect
The Thick of It / int_7302acc9	comment	Ermine Cape Effect: Played with by Julius Nicholson when he is made Lord Nicholson of Arnage. He laments that he won't be allowed to wear his ceremonial robes—including an actual ermine cape—on the Tube or the bus, "but I would, it would be great larks!"
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The Thick of It / int_733e007a	type	Unwitting Pawn
The Thick of It / int_733e007a	comment	Unwitting Pawn: Nick Hanway. The spin doctor is convinced that the appointment of a new Prime Minister will also require a new chief spin doctor, but he seriously underestimates Malcolm Tucker...
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The Thick of It / int_74f57438	type	Cell Phones Are Useless
The Thick of It / int_74f57438	comment	Cell Phones Are Useless: There's almost no mobile coverage at the country hotel where Stewart's ghastly "Thought Camp" is being held. Stewart and Peter are forced to stand at the top of the children's slide in order to get reception. Needless to say, there's someone with a Twitter account, a camera phone, and (one assumes) a grudge to bear, in the vicinity.
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The Thick of It / int_754df088	type	Put on a Bus
The Thick of It / int_754df088	comment	Put on a Bus: Hugh Abbott goes on holiday to Australia off-screen in between series 2 and the specials. He spends a lot of time on the other end of the phone to Glenn in the specials, but ultimately never returns. Terri removing Hugh's nameplate from his office door in the first episode of series 3 may constitute a Bus Crash. "Hugh's out!" early in the episode is the most that is ever spoken of it.
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The Thick of It / int_75c952bf	type	Our Presidents Are Different
The Thick of It / int_75c952bf	comment	Our Presidents Are Different: The series has two invisible PMs, at least one of whom is also Unmodified (Tom Davis is pretty obviously Gordon Brown). The other one went almost totally unmentioned, but given the circumstances, is also more or less Unmodified (for Tony Blair). There was yet another invisible PM in series 4 (which it took place after a general election and change of government) - probably a more or less Unmodified version of David Cameron.
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The Thick of It / int_75d6bf40	type	Belligerent Sexual Tension
The Thick of It / int_75d6bf40	comment	Belligerent Sexual Tension: Peter Mannion, overhearing Emma and Phil bickering, once asks them: "What is this? sexual tension?" Their (apparently sincere) response is less than enthusiastic:
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The Thick of It / int_762b9223	type	Played for Laughs
The Thick of It / int_762b9223	comment	Played for Laughs when Malcolm receives in one episode a birthday cake with the words "Happy Birthday Cnt" written on the icing. His reaction?*
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The Thick of It / int_76a5eaf8	type	Spotlight-Stealing Squad
The Thick of It / int_76a5eaf8	comment	Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Malcolm from the Specials onwards. Justified to a large extent in that he was one of the two original main characters, and since the other one suddenly exited the series off-screen with nothing but a Handwave focus was naturally shifted to him, even if the show was technically re-tooled as more of an ensemble piece following Hugh's departure.
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The Thick of It / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
The Thick of It / int_76cde6e	comment	Peter Mannion openly hates Stewart Pearson, but even he's not sure about The Fucker replacing him - or as Stewart tells him: "Better the Devil You Know, eh?"
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The Thick of It / int_775a1af6	type	Married to the Job
The Thick of It / int_775a1af6	comment	Married to the Job: Nearly everyone. Very little about Malcolm's personal life is revealed. This is deliberate: a sub-plot about Malcolm's partner leaving him for journalist Simon Hewitt was cut, and on the DVD commentaries the cast and writers agree that no-one really needs (or wants) to know about his life outside work. He probably doesn't have one. This is confirmed by Malcolm himself in the last episode of the series, in a haunting yet amazing speech to Ollie. Malcolm wears a wedding ring for most of the run of the series; it's gone by the time he gives evidence to the Goolding Inquiry at the end of Series 4, although it's never referred to. Peter Capaldi does not like to take off his own wedding ring, whatever role he's playing. At the end of Series 3 Episode 7 as Malcolm is returning to his home after 'resigning', there is a small child looking out of the downstairs window. In the last episode of series 4 Malcolm's speech to Ollie includes the words "no kids" so the child at the window evidently wasn't his. Some scenes in Malcolm's office in the same series show that he has what is obviously a small child's artwork taped to the wall. Considering that he refers to himself as having "no children" during his rant to Ollie in the final episode of Series 4, this one's a bit of a puzzler—either he was being metaphorical (since he never sees his kids due to the pressures of his job) or the child in Series 3 is actually a niece/nephew or other relative. (He does mention a young niece he's apparently quite close to in an earlier episode.) A piece of wildly implausible but fun-to-believe fanon holds the Malcolm Tucker's previous life was as Sid Jenkins' pyschotic-but-loving-in-his-own-special-way father. Presumably Hell spat him back out. Hugh Abbott is married with children, but by his own admission he virtually never sees them, and his life has reached a point where taking a dump is treasured personal time. Malcolm's opposite number, Stewart Pearson, also has issues with work-life balance: "I'm an extraordinarily precise man, that's why my wife left me." Nicola Murray's unseen husband seems to get annoyed about her absence from the home. Her children—especially her daughter Ella—are frequently pawns in the power struggle between her and Malcolm, but we never actually meet any of them. Similarly Peter Mannion's unseen wife is annoyed about his work schedule. In Phil's mortifying Heroic BSoD in S04E05, he admits he has nothing else in his life but work. John Duggan claims the reason his marriage broke up was because his ex-wife was not in politics. "She was a Muggle." It's doubtful Nicola and Helen believe him.
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The Thick of It / int_77aae115	type	Hated by All
The Thick of It / int_77aae115	comment	Hated by All: Malcolm receives a birthday cake with the message "Happy birthday, cnt" on it. He wryly notes that "this could be from anybody."*
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The Thick of It / int_77dd4ff0	type	Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty
The Thick of It / int_77dd4ff0	comment	Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Played with in the contrast between the unglamorous offices of DoSAC and the modern glass-and-chrome design of Opposition HQ. With all of the characters being slaves to PR, there is also much debate about how shiny the MPs are allowed to look in public, under the guidance of the parties' spin doctors:
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The Thick of It / int_786bf97f	type	Real Life Writes the Plot
The Thick of It / int_786bf97f	comment	Real Life Writes the Plot: Hugh Abbot left the department because his actor Chris Langham went to prison. Nicola Murray is claustrophobic and gets nauseous at the thought of using a lift, which leaves her colleagues perturbed and slightly amused. Actor Rebecca Front is a Real Life claustrophobe.
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The Thick of It / int_7a2d9301	type	Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure
The Thick of It / int_7a2d9301	comment	Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: To show how out of touch Hugh is, Malcolm asks him who the only gay in the village is. Hugh replies, Eddie Grundy. He even gets the EastEnders theme wrong. He doesn't even know what a chav is, a fairly basic bit of British slang. Nicola somehow manages to confuse Jeremy Paxman with Jeremy Clarkson. Malcolm makes several pop-culture references, yet somehow Star Wars eluded him. In a moment of stress, he attributes "It's the End of the World as We Know It" to The Bangles, prompting Ollie to meekly correct him that it was R.E.M.. A deleted scene from the final episode reveals that Peter has no idea who Will & Grace are.
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The Thick of It / int_7a3dd888	type	Real Men Wear Pink
The Thick of It / int_7a3dd888	comment	Real Men Wear Pink: At work Malcolm seems assured enough of his own sexuality to be entirely comfortable flirting with men, while the scenes in Malcolm's house show him to have pride in his cooking skills and an eye for interior design. He also got rather alarmed at the thought of journalists damaging his hedge. However he gains the most pink points for coming out with the wonderfully fey "DON'T TOUCH THAT SCARF, THAT'S PAUL SMITH!". During a fight. He is also played by a Real Life Real Man Who Wears Pink.
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The Thick of It / int_7a8f4dac	type	Adminisphere
The Thick of It / int_7a8f4dac	comment	Adminisphere: The British government is basically depicted as this to the rest of the country, being a mostly out-of-touch cloister of career politicos, technocratic policy wonks and nepotism-boosted weirdos who would be utterly unemployable anywhere else, who are all both scathingly contemptuous towards and simultaneously a bit frightened of actually dealing with the general public they're supposed to be representing.
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The Thick of It / int_7ad2c23d	type	ShoutOutToShakespeare
The Thick of It / int_7ad2c23d	comment	Shout-Out to Shakespeare: In the second episode of season two, Malcolm tells Hugh that the Prime Minister's wife has been putting poison in her husband's ear about him. In the third episode of season four, Glenn compares him and Phil to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
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The Thick of It / int_7b8b3def	type	Celebrity Paradox
The Thick of It / int_7b8b3def	comment	Celebrity Paradox: In the second episode, Malcolm and Hugh watch The Bill. James Smith appeared on the show, both in guest roles and the recurring role of Clive Inverdale in 2003. Have I Got News for You exists in the ThickVerse. Peter Capaldi, Rebecca Front, Chris Addison, Miles Jupp and Armando Iannucci have all appeared on HIGNFY. (None of them cracked unkind jokes about Peter Mannion's wife, however.) Phil is a keen Game of Thrones fan, asking Adam if he's seen Season Two, and referring to himself as "the King's Hand". Roger Allam (Peter Mannion) played Illyrio Mopatis in that series. One wonders if Phil has noticed the resemblance. Nicola refers to Doctor Who at one point in Series Three. One can only imagine Nicola's reaction to watching Series Eight of DW and seeing Malcolm walk out of the TARDIS calling himself the Doctor.
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The Thick of It / int_7c52ea03	type	The White House
The Thick of It / int_7c52ea03	comment	Malcolm claims to have done this in The White House.
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The Thick of It / int_7c862b8a	type	Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
The Thick of It / int_7c862b8a	comment	Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Everyone. In every episode. Malcolm in particular seems to spend at least half his time sabotaging people from HIS party.
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The Thick of It / int_7d163c9c	type	Dating Catwoman
The Thick of It / int_7d163c9c	comment	Dating Catwoman: Emma and Olly. Well. He's working for the Secretary of State for Social Affairs and Citizenship, she's working for the shadow Dosac secretary. But then their bosses know about their relationship and his at least actively encourages it -just so Olly can leak policies to Emma, or know of hers. It also works the other way round. However, it's not clear that they actually even like each other...
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The Thick of It / int_7d4a47d1	type	Let Us Never Speak of This Again
The Thick of It / int_7d4a47d1	comment	Let Us Never Speak of This Again: In the sixth episode of season three, Ben Swain accidentally walks in on Nicola while she's changing clothes for an interview.
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The Thick of It / int_7d89315b	type	"The Reason You Suck" Speech
The Thick of It / int_7d89315b	comment	"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Nicola Murray's first day starts going downhill when she finds herself on the receiving end of one of these speeches from Malcolm Tucker — specifically, when he learns that she's supporting the improvement of state schools while sending her daughter to a private school. An episode later, Nicola fucks up: her department has lost seven months worth of files, nobody has any idea where the backup went, Nicola has succeeded in making herself look like a Soapbox Sadie Granola Girl in a conference with the press, and ultimately ended up revealing the scandal about the lost files to an on-the-record journalist. And naturally, Malcolm lets her have it: In a later episode, one of the more seriously dramatic ones, someone who is totally unconnected to politics (and is indeed very sympathetic and admirable) has just had his career ruined thanks to Nicola. Notably, even Malcolm feels bad about this, and is trying (not particularly successfully) to be genuinely gentle and nice about it. While Nicola's trying not to break down with guilt, Malcolm tells her that this PR clusterfuck is a war with the Opposition, so she's going to have to fight. She responds with a short, but very accurate, rant about how all this trouble (plus virtually every other thing that's gone wrong in the series,) is the result of people like Malcolm being obsessed with fighting and power, and that this attitude is the reason people despise politics so much. Unfortunately, Malcolm isn't even vaguely impressed; after telling her to "Spare me your psycho-fanny" and telling her a series of lies about how the opposition are mocking her misfortune, he makes her an offer that makes her fling her priciples to the wind and turn the aforementioned PR clusterfuck into a war with the opposition. In Series 4, Nicola has ended up becoming Leader of the Opposition between seasons. However, when it turns out that she's about the weakest possible leader the party could have been saddled with, Malcolm orchestrates a scheme to force her out of the job. And as a final insult to injury, when Nicola tries to suck up to the new Opposition Leader, Malcom delivers one last magnificent speech explaining just how little standing she has. Glenn's quitting scene in the final episode comes complete with an epic one that calls out everyone in the Do SAC department:
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The Thick of It / int_7eb73553	type	Bullying a Dragon
The Thick of It / int_7eb73553	comment	Bullying a Dragon: In Episode 4 of Season 4, Malcolm needs Ben Swain to resign in order for him to depose Nicola, and has (with no intention of screwing him over,) offered him the Foreign Office in return. Ben then starts playing both sides against each other, demanding they raise their offers, and relishing the fact that (for once), he holds all the cards. And, indeed, he does hold the cards, right up until he's committed too far to back out, and Malcolm shows him exactly why he really should have accepted the original offer...
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The Thick of It / int_7efd2e30	type	Expository Hairstyle Change
The Thick of It / int_7efd2e30	comment	Expository Hairstyle Change: Malcolm's hair is white in the final season. This was Capaldi's own hair, but was left in as it reflected how the character had experienced a mental breakdown before then - it serves to remind the audience that even though he's functional now, the experience has left him permanently scarred.
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The Thick of It / int_7f298d3d	type	Lame Comeback
The Thick of It / int_7f298d3d	comment	Lame Comeback: Phil is notably deficient in wit compared to other special advisers like Ollie or Adam.
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The Thick of It / int_7f933d43	type	Claustrophobia
The Thick of It / int_7f933d43	comment	Claustrophobia: Nicola Murray (like actress Rebecca Front) is claustrophobic. Judging by his reaction to being locked in Peter Mannion's bathroom as the result of a prank in the Opposition special, Stewart Pearson may also be.
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The Thick of It / int_7febc23b	type	Establishing Character Moment
The Thick of It / int_7febc23b	comment	Cliff Lawton doesn't get a lot of screen time, but it's no doubt an Establishing Character Moment when in the middle of being sacked by Malcolm, he tries to insist Malcolm call him "Minister".
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The Thick of It / int_8042e814	type	Actually Pretty Funny
The Thick of It / int_8042e814	comment	Actually Pretty Funny: Malcolm insults everyone constantly but gets away with it by being audacious, charming, ...and funny: Ollie has to admit that leaving a pair of flip-flops on Angela Heaney's desk after she filed multiple contradictory stories about a proposed DoSAC policy is funny...the porn picture with the caption "Angela Swallows Anything" less so.
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The Thick of It / int_808cbaeb	type	Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking
The Thick of It / int_808cbaeb	comment	Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Emma asks Olly what he's been saying about her at the office: "Have you been at Number 10 recently? It's like the break-up of The Beatles, during the fall of The Roman Empire. While fucking...Jordan's splitting up with that bloke."
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The Thick of It / int_80ae159c	type	Informed Deformity
The Thick of It / int_80ae159c	comment	Informed Deformity: Geoff Holhurt's tiny head.
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The Thick of It / int_813f4eec	type	Humble Pie
The Thick of It / int_813f4eec	comment	Humble Pie: Mentioned by name: after Nicola has "laid [her] first great, big egg of solid fuck", Malcolm explains that there actually is a way to limit the fallout from her incredibly stupid mistake, but it would involve her "eating an entire concrete mixer full of humble pie". While Nicola clearly didn't enjoy having to give an interview to the smug journalist who was causing the trouble, this particular humiliation was pretty mild compared to the things the characters normally end up doing on this show.
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The Thick of It / int_816a4e80	type	Star Wars (Franchise)
The Thick of It / int_816a4e80	comment	Malcolm makes several pop-culture references, yet somehow Star Wars eluded him. In a moment of stress, he attributes "It's the End of the World as We Know It" to The Bangles, prompting Ollie to meekly correct him that it was R.E.M..
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The Thick of It / int_81bdc398	type	He's Back!
The Thick of It / int_81bdc398	comment	In the same episode, it's a source of some frustration to Jamie that Cliff's own attempts at such a speech to announce that He's Back! and standing for the leadership of the party just end up becoming endless moaning and whining about how Malcolm Tucker fired him from DoSAC.
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The Thick of It / int_820ac351	type	It Amused Me
The Thick of It / int_820ac351	comment	It Amused Me: Part of Ben Swain's "Holy Trinity of Why," as explained to Nicola:
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The Thick of It / int_82384b1	type	Never Hurt an Innocent
The Thick of It / int_82384b1	comment	Never Hurt an Innocent: In a non-violent example, Malcolm Tucker states that he never targets "real people", although his actions at one point inadvertently cause Mr. Tickel to commit suicide.
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The Thick of It / int_82b4f38e	type	Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist
The Thick of It / int_82b4f38e	comment	Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Everyone. The two primary ministers, Hugh Abbott in Series 1 and Nicola Murray in Series 3, actually tend to be more sympathetic due to them being basically good people broken over time by the political machine.
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The Thick of It / int_830343d8	type	We Will Use WikiWords in the Future
The Thick of It / int_830343d8	comment	We Will Use WikiWords in the Future: Not if Ollie has anything to do with it, though. "Don't say ShadCab...it's like saying SpagBol."
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The Thick of It / int_835cd59b	type	No Theme Tune
The Thick of It / int_835cd59b	comment	No Theme Tune: The series doesn't have a theme tune...or any music, really. The show flashes a title card on screen and gets on its way.
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The Thick of It / int_83f3983b	type	Necessarily Evil
The Thick of It / int_83f3983b	comment	Necessarily Evil: Malcolm occasionally reminds people that he's working to ensure the Party stays in power, and that the alternative to following his orders would be the Opposition getting in. He tends to do this when he's particularly exasperated, and even then his efforts are usually unappreciated.
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The Thick of It / int_85557b38	type	Reality Is Unrealistic
The Thick of It / int_85557b38	comment	Reality Is Unrealistic: Word of God claims that Whitehall insiders say there's not enough swearing to be realistic.
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The Thick of It / int_85f0f0fb	type	World of Snark
The Thick of It / int_85f0f0fb	comment	World of Snark
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The Thick of It / int_863fa679	type	What Happened to the Mouse?
The Thick of It / int_863fa679	comment	What Happened to the Mouse?: Jamie, after playing a fairly prominent role in the post season 2 specials, vanishes without explanation for seasons 3 and 4. Given the he was last seen siding against Malcolm in the leadership contest, though, it seems safe to assume that he probably doesn't have a job any more.
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The Thick of It / int_863fac26	type	Jerk Jock
The Thick of It / int_863fac26	comment	Adam tells Emma she needs to "get a boyfriend." (She tells him to "come out".)
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The Thick of It / int_86bbf6b5	type	Newscaster Cameo
The Thick of It / int_86bbf6b5	comment	Newscaster Cameo: "Rise of the Nutters" uses spliced Stock Footage of Jeremy Paxman and Newsnight for Ben Swain's interview, and in series three Richard Bacon guest-stars as himself hosting a debate between department ministers on Radio 5 Live.
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The Thick of It / int_87504252	type	The Big Board
The Thick of It / int_87504252	comment	The Big Board: Opposition aide Phil uses one for his DoSAC Implementation Matrix.
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The Thick of It / int_875615dd	type	Truth in Television
The Thick of It / int_875615dd	comment	Much is made of Hugh never really seeing his family. This is Truth in Television, as many politicians spend most of their time at Whitehall and don't spend a lot of time with their families:
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The Thick of It / int_87decdec	type	Disorganized Outline Speech
The Thick of It / int_87decdec	comment	Disorganized Outline Speech:
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The Thick of It / int_88472ef3	type	Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life
The Thick of It / int_88472ef3	comment	Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Malcolm in his futile attempts to adjust to life outside politics:
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The Thick of It / int_88ab3310	type	Proud to Be a Geek
The Thick of It / int_88ab3310	comment	Proud to Be a Geek: Phil Smith.
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The Thick of It / int_88cee6e2	type	Abhorrent Admirer
The Thick of It / int_88cee6e2	comment	Abhorrent Admirer: John Duggan makes seedy overtures to Helen Hatley only minutes after meeting her. Terri Coverley has a crush on Peter Mannion, even openly referring to him as Peter Man-yum.
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The Thick of It / int_890d4ef2	type	Humiliation Conga
The Thick of It / int_890d4ef2	comment	Humiliation Conga: Ollie has to dance one in "Spinners and Losers", breaking up with his girlfriend and in the process, hilariously admitting he only stayed with her because Malcolm forced him to. He is then forced to make up with her so he can use her to leak a policy (which she sees through right away), before being reduced to the status of "cheese monitor" and mocked for it by Emma and his Arch-Enemy Phil. Series 4, Episode 5. Nobody is safe from the monumental screwup.
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The Thick of It / int_89a17726	type	Spell My Name with an S
The Thick of It / int_89a17726	comment	Spell My Name With An S: Early episodes credit Chris Addison as playing "Olly Reeder", which is later changed to "Oliver Reeder", while The Missing DoSAC Files has him sign himself as Ollie. Toyed with in the first episode of Series 3, where he offers that he's 'Oliver' or 'Ollie' as Nicola prefers; when she leans toward 'Oliver', he then insists on 'Ollie' anyway.
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The Thick of It / int_89ed9b94	type	Gentleman Snarker
The Thick of It / int_89ed9b94	comment	"I'm not talking above you. Neither am I talking down to you." Perhaps Malcolm's only foray into Gentleman Snarker territory.
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The Thick of It / int_8b68d9a7	type	Stalker with a Crush
The Thick of It / int_8b68d9a7	comment	Stalker with a Crush: Terri to Peter.
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The Thick of It / int_8c55e307	type	Ultimate Job Security
The Thick of It / int_8c55e307	comment	Ultimate Job Security: Jamie. How someone this close to being feral was even allowed into Number 10 is never explained. As a member of Her Majesty's Civil Service, Terri is practically unsackable. This is Truth in Television: civil servants aren't impossible to sack, but nearly so; troublesome, ineffective or surplus civil servants tend to be Kicked Upstairs or persuaded to take voluntary redundancy. This is taken to extremes in the first episode of the fourth series, where she deliberately tries to get herself fired and still manages to keep her job. Robyn is pretty useless but her job security will be assured for as long as Glenn is in charge of sacking people.
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The Thick of It / int_8cd96e6c	type	Nasal Trauma
The Thick of It / int_8cd96e6c	comment	Nasal Trauma: During one of the few genuinely violent confrontations in the show, Malcolm Tucker impulsively punches Glen Cullen in the nose. Though it's not actually broken, it does bleed pretty spectacularly and ends up getting Malcolm in hot water with the media.
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The Thick of It / int_8e20979	type	Wham Episode
The Thick of It / int_8e20979	comment	Wham Episode: Episode 7, series 3 starts off like any other episode before it turns into several people outright attacking Malcolm and culminates in him getting sacked in the last couple of scenes. Series 4, Episode 6. With a Wham Line just before the closing credits, to boot.
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The Thick of It / int_8e3980c7	type	Mistaken Nationality
The Thick of It / int_8e3980c7	comment	Mistaken Nationality: One of the insulting posts to Peter's blog is "I don't trust you, you Cypriot crook." Prompting the rather obviously upper middle class Peter to say "Cypriot??"
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The Thick of It / int_8fe6b348	type	Sir Swears-a-Lot
The Thick of It / int_8fe6b348	comment	Sir Swearsalot: Malcolm Tucker is robustly famous/infamous for being a man whose favourite word started with a capital "F" and cropped up in nearly every sentence he spoke. His second-favourite word starts with a "C", so much so that when Peter Capaldi did a PSA for Macmillan in-character, he said he was talking "about the big C, and not my usual big C!"
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The Thick of It / int_90e31482	type	Laser-Guided Karma
The Thick of It / int_90e31482	comment	Laser-Guided Karma: Glenn slams a door in Ollie's face, only to have to same done to him by Malcolm moments later. In series four, Fergus intervenes to block Terri being made redundant, in large part to wind up Peter due to her Stalker with a Crush tendencies towards him. This bites Fergus in the arse several episodes later when Terri's bungling leads to a highly embarrassing leak that implicates him personally in the mess surrounding Tickel.
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The Thick of It / int_952d21ec	type	Bus Crash
The Thick of It / int_952d21ec	comment	Terri removing Hugh's nameplate from his office door in the first episode of series 3 may constitute a Bus Crash. "Hugh's out!" early in the episode is the most that is ever spoken of it.
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The Thick of It / int_957e5fc2	type	Villainous Breakdown
The Thick of It / int_957e5fc2	comment	Villainous Breakdown: "I'M NOT FUCKING WORRIED, MATE! Fuck him-fuck-him-fuck-him-FUCK HIM!" "I AM GOING TO JOIN DAN MILLER'S TEAM, AND WE ARE GOING TO TAKE YOU DOWN! WE ARE GOING TO TAKE YOU DOWN TO FUNKY TOWN! FUNKY TOWN CENTRE, HERE YOU COME! CHOO-FUCKING-CHOO!" Episode 3 of Series 4 sees Stewart howl in fury, smash a phone and collapse onto the floor when he finds out about the final disaster in what has been a really bad day. Episode 4.06 sees Malcolm undergoing one right in the middle of the Inquiry, starting with a rant on how everyone leaks not just in the government but all over the country, then bitterly declaring that everything about the culture of spin and leaking has been 'laid on his doorstep' because of who he is and 'you can't arrest a country'...and saying he's 'finished anyway' before quietly getting up and leaving.
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The Thick of It / int_959f08aa	type	Vetinari Job Security
The Thick of It / int_959f08aa	comment	Vetinari Job Security: Malcolm has worked very hard to put himself in this position, though his grip on things is slipping in series three. However, when he's fired, we get glimpses of a government without Malcolm: Steve Fleming is creeping around being a creepy creep and scaring everyone, a handful of cabinet ministers revolt and Dan Miller's cabal apparently see it as an opportunity to launch a leadership bid. Needless to say, Malcolm is quickly called back.
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The Thick of It / int_95b7c400	type	Faux Affably Evil
The Thick of It / int_95b7c400	comment	Faux Affably Evil: Malcolm Tucker is perfectly capable of being very polite when it suits him. It usually suits him as the setup for a string of abuse so painful you may find it psychologically impossible to move for several minutes afterward. On the rare occasions he tries charm rather than screaming, Jamie's even worse, since he's unable to effectively conceal his seething, abusive nature. Ollie can appear quite charming and good-natured - but he'll have no trouble cheerfully betraying you in a bid for power.
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The Thick of It / int_95bca4c9	type	Tuckerization
The Thick of It / int_95bca4c9	comment	Tuckerization: On the series one DVD commentary the character names are discussed, and it emerges that several of them came from writer Jesse Armstrong's five-a-side football team. These Tuckerizations include...Malcolm Tucker.
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The Thick of It / int_970c790a	type	Big Bad
The Thick of It / int_970c790a	comment	Cal "The Fucker" Richards, Malcolm's counterpart in the opposition, is the real Big Bad, even if he only appears in one scene.
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The Thick of It / int_973d220f	type	Never My Fault
The Thick of It / int_973d220f	comment	Never My Fault: Everyone. All the time. The only exceptions being Glenn in season 4 and Peter Mannion.
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The Thick of It / int_97fa0a10	type	Mass "Oh, Crap!"
The Thick of It / int_97fa0a10	comment	Mass "Oh, Crap!": At the end of Series 4 Episode 5, everyone on both sides is horrified at the announcement of a full enquiry into the whole culture of leaking. In a lesser example, Hugh and his colleagues freak out after Hugh discovers that their focus-group-of-one (upon whose advice a disastrous policy was approved) was actually an actor.
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The Thick of It / int_984c1906	type	Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults
The Thick of It / int_984c1906	comment	Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults: In a deleted scene, Malcolm reveals that he sends junior press officers to the toilets to spy on people, obtaining what he calls "Urinal Intelligence" while harnessing "the power of The Third Eye".
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The Thick of It / int_9a032f08	type	Giver of Lame Names
The Thick of It / int_9a032f08	comment	Giver of Lame Names: Nicola describing reliable members of the community as "Quiet Bat People". It makes Ollie's suggestion of "Wombles" sound sensible.
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The Thick of It / int_9ae42b50	type	I Have Just One Thing to Say
The Thick of It / int_9ae42b50	comment	I Have Just One Thing to Say: Various characters are forced to resign throughout the series, and usually exit with a standard The Reason You Suck" Speech (deserved or otherwise) or a "fuck you" of some kind to their former allies/enemies, but Malcolm Tucker himself goes with one of these. After his lawyer informs the baying press-pack that his client won't be making a statement, Malcolm then says "No, I want to say something," and looks like he's gearing himself up for one of his trademark rants - but he says, "It doesn't matter," in a tone of voice that is more exhausted than anything else, and walks off without another word. Possibly played with, because in some ways, that is actually the most devastating condemnation of his line of work and the people in it in the series; it perfectly shows the sheer disgust, weariness and contempt he feels for everything, coupled with demonstrating that he knows nothing he would say would make a difference, and he cares so little that he's not even going to try any more, or even bother thinking up a final insult.
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The Thick of It / int_9ae8eea9	type	Character Tics
The Thick of It / int_9ae8eea9	comment	Character Tics: A really cringeworthy one with "blinky dork" Ben Swain. Jamie calls his nervous blinking "epilepsy of the eyes."
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The Thick of It / int_9af54b9d	type	Double Take
The Thick of It / int_9af54b9d	comment	Double Take: Malcolm does an especially priceless one when he discovers Hugh eating biscuits in the pantry. Ollie does another during Nicola's Fourth Sector launch, when he notices Malcolm Death Glaring at him through a glass wall.
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The Thick of It / int_9b54d536	type	Evil Counterpart
The Thick of It / int_9b54d536	comment	Evil Counterpart: While calling anyone on this show more evil than anyone else is a matter of semantics at best, Season 3 Episode 8 shows The Fucker is basically Malcolm's.
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The Thick of It / int_9bcd82c0	type	Took a Level in Badass
The Thick of It / int_9bcd82c0	comment	Took a Level in Badass: Season 4 has several characters suddenly become much more competent. Emma has risen from being Phil's equal to a level where she can openly bark at Stewart and Peter, and, much to his own surprise, Ollie becomes Malcolm's new dragon, and actually snarks back and argues with him.
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The Thick of It / int_9c8701b5	type	A Day in the Limelight
The Thick of It / int_9c8701b5	comment	A Day in the Limelight: The Number 10 press office gets this in series two, episode one. It's also technically Malcolm's, as this was before he became a one-man Spotlight-Stealing Squad.
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The Thick of It / int_9cb5e4bb	type	Evil Costume Switch
The Thick of It / int_9cb5e4bb	comment	And after he marches down the stairs again, barking orders, Sam walks into his office holding his suit, freshly dry-cleaned. It gets a close-up.
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The Thick of It / int_9cbf01d6	type	Stay in the Kitchen
The Thick of It / int_9cbf01d6	comment	Stay in the Kitchen: "Emma, the men are talking." (Unfortunately for Phil, Stewart actually prefers Emma.)
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The Thick of It / int_9fb64a13	type	Cluster Bleep-Bomb
The Thick of It / int_9fb64a13	comment	Cluster Bleep-Bomb: The series aired on BBC America with the swearing bleeped out. The result was described by one of the writers as having "sounded like a lorry reversing into a heart monitor."
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The Thick of It / int_9fbe06a5	type	Badass in a Nice Suit
The Thick of It / int_9fbe06a5	comment	Badass in a Nice Suit: When we see Malcolm in casual clothes he seems strangely vulnerable and emasculated, if frightening in a whole other way. He reverts to his usual imposing self the minute he gets back into his suits. And after he marches down the stairs again, barking orders, Sam walks into his office holding his suit, freshly dry-cleaned. It gets a close-up.
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The Thick of It / int_9fe35833	type	Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas
The Thick of It / int_9fe35833	comment	Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The published script book includes a section entitled "Malcolm's Sent Items". Among the threats of sexual violence sent to DoSAC staff there is one very polite email addressed to "Isobel Tucker" and beginning "Dear Mam..."
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The Thick of It / int_a10775b7	type	Mean Boss
The Thick of It / int_a10775b7	comment	Mean Boss: Malcolm Tucker - foul-mouthed, foul-tempered, brilliantly gifted at his job, and absolutely merciless with the politicians he manages, who compare him to Goebbels.
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The Thick of It / int_a1b141f4	type	My God, What Have I Done?
The Thick of It / int_a1b141f4	comment	My God, What Have I Done?: Malcolm after punching Glenn. Rather than try to joke or bully his way clear, Malcolm seeks Glenn out and profusely apologizes, culminating in a small but effective Pet the Dog moment.
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The Thick of It / int_a280f130	type	Take This Job and Shove It
The Thick of It / int_a280f130	comment	Take This Job and Shove It: In the final episode, Glenn has finally had enough of the atmosphere and lack of morals of DoSAC and the fact that he's been given nothing worthwile to join and resigns, giving his co-workers a lengthy rant about how much he hates them.
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The Thick of It / int_a2f44405	type	IAmTheTrope
The Thick of It / int_a2f44405	comment	I Am The Fucking Trope: Malcolm has a thing for making these wild proclamations.
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The Thick of It / int_a31c79f3	type	Paparazzi
The Thick of It / int_a31c79f3	comment	Paparazzi: A significant antagonizing force. For instance, one manages to get a photo of a sheet on which the Opposition were brainstorming policy names, resulting in the dreadful end product of a Wiki Walk ("quiet Bat-people") being broadcasted out of context across all of the papers. Another one corners Nicola attempting to get a shot of her next to a protester in a pork chop costume. Another one gets a shot of Stuart and Peter standing on children's play equipment at a party conference, attempting to get signals on their phones, but instead looking like they're playing like kids on the day a significant disaster happened. These all happen in one season.
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The Thick of It / int_a33b90b2	type	Improv
The Thick of It / int_a33b90b2	comment	Improv: The series was composed from several takes: in the first, the script was followed exactly, and later the actors would improvise around the original script. The final scene is pieced together from the funniest elements of both (which is why the camerawork sometimes looks jumpier than the usual Jitter Cam).
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The Thick of It / int_a39d6056	type	Nice to the Waiter
The Thick of It / int_a39d6056	comment	Nice to the Waiter: Played with. The MPs and their aides suck up to more powerful government figures, media types and anyone else they consider useful, while walking all over the junior staff and civil servants who do all their actual work. By contrast Malcolm and Jamie have nothing but contempt for MPs, civil servants, journalists and rival spin doctors, but are polite to cleaners and secretaries. One scene that illustrated Jamie's tendency towards this was a deleted scene from the special "Spinners and Losers", when he helps a cleaning lady out in a heated argument with Ben Swain: Somewhat subverted in the actual episode — Malcolm is only polite to the cleaning lady in order to stop her going to the press. Unlike Stewart, who, in S04E03, actually goes to the effort of insulting a receptionist who'd only interrupted Stewart's frivolous "Yes-And-Ho" game to deliver an urgent message. More contrast emerges in the very next episode, in which Malcolm is seen chatting amiably with one of the nurses at the hospital—before bursting in on Ollie and returning to his usual domineering routine. In Season 4, Episode 6, Malcolm says that he wouldn't do anything to "real people", those who aren't in politics. He was lying, of course: he did leak Tickel's medical records and telephone number to the press and, like everybody else, used his death for his own ends. Although to Malcolm's mind Tickel lost his "real person" immunity by campaigning against the government. This wasn't quite a lie when it came to Tickel, though. Malcolm, remember, was in Opposition at the time Tickel was protesting the Government's policies. Therefore their interests were aligned. Malcolm's target in leaking Tickel's medical records WAS the government, not Tickel... Malcolm wanted to make the Government look bad, and the leak showed that they had been "picking on a man with a history of depression."
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The Thick of It / int_a3eb0c53	type	Confusing Multiple Negatives
The Thick of It / int_a3eb0c53	comment	Hugh and the Select Committee: "I categorically did not knowingly not tell the truth. Even though unknowingly I might not have done."
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The Thick of It / int_a49f4fb2	type	How Did You Know? I Didn't
The Thick of It / int_a49f4fb2	comment	How Did You Know? I Didn't: Hugh Abbott accidentally sends an e-mail saying "Christ! What a cunt!" to a little girl using Terri's PC. Terri calls him out on this, claiming that she saw him use the PC. Hugh promptly admits that he did send the e-mail, before Terri says that she was bluffing and she didn't see them. Hugh then says that he knew she didn't know, and was only admitting because it was the right thing to do.
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The Thick of It / int_a5cfe2ac	type	And There Was Much Rejoicing
The Thick of It / int_a5cfe2ac	comment	And There Was Much Rejoicing: Everyone is elated when Malcolm resigns in 3.7, with Terri popping the wine out. Naturally, it deosn't last.
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The Thick of It / int_a62e50b8	type	Scandalgate
The Thick of It / int_a62e50b8	comment	Scandalgate: Flatgate, despite Terri pointing out that Notting Hill-Gate would be a lot cleverer.
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The Thick of It / int_a65288e2	type	Ascended Extra
The Thick of It / int_a65288e2	comment	Ascended Extra: Adam Kenyon makes a one-off appearance in Spinners and Losers as the sweary, frustrated editor of The Mail. He reappears in Series 4, no longer at The Mail but as a special adviser to Fergus Williams, and one of the show's main characters.
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The Thick of It / int_a6c69bd	type	MacGuffin
The Thick of It / int_a6c69bd	comment	MacGuffin: Nicola's flagship "Fourth Sector Pathfinders" policy initiative. Nobody, both in-universe and out, ever finds out what the hell it means or stands for, other than some mealy-mouthed analogies about cake slicing. A Running Gag is Nicola constantly getting interrupted by phone calls or Terri whenever she attempts to explain. "He is not gettin' anywhere near ma fuckin' pantry..." The kerfuffle over the missing immigration data is basically an excuse to show how un-media savvy Nicola is.
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The Thick of It / int_a7fa2fa4	type	Crossing the Burnt Bridge
The Thick of It / int_a7fa2fa4	comment	Crossing the Burnt Bridge: A mild case: Hugh has decided that resigning would be better for his long-term political career, and on his way to make the announcement, he says a few unpleasant things about his department and the staff. Predictably, his resignation is no longer necessary and he comes back, but nobody really bears any grudge because (a) while he was honest, he didn't say anything too hurtful or spiteful, and (b) most of them hate each other anyway and they all know it, and consequently everyone has a lot of experience with swallowing their dislike and working together to brace themselves for the next stage in the eternal Humiliation Conga which makes up their lives.
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The Thick of It / int_a806691d	type	Casanova Wannabe
The Thick of It / int_a806691d	comment	Casanova Wannabe: Glen and his pitiful attempts at flirting with Robyn.
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The Thick of It / int_a89b3504	type	Irrevocable Message
The Thick of It / int_a89b3504	comment	Irrevocable Message: In one episode, Hugh takes a guess at Glenn's personal email address and sends him some humorous vulgarity of the sort used between mates. This leads to Terri being forced to issue a public apology: "I promise that I will never call an eight-year-old girl a cunt again."
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The Thick of It / int_a8b964b3	type	Legacy Seeker
The Thick of It / int_a8b964b3	comment	Legacy Seeker: "Rise Of The Nutters" features the (unseen) Prime Minister is trying to leave a suitable legacy in the form of a new immigration programme before he leaves office; unfortunately, thanks to a mixture of backroom politicking and sheer incompetence, it's not long before the whole thing begins spiralling out of control. Among other things, Malcolm Tucker wants to ensure that he remains in a cosy position with the next government in office, so he tries to delay the legacy project in the hope that the PM won't leave until it's done, even resorting to a leak so he can eventually have the programme scrapped and replaced so he can buy more time. To his shock, the PM gives up on the whole thing and resigns, leaving Malcolm and the others struggling to gain a foothold in the political chaos that ensues.
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The Thick of It / int_aa42306e	type	Totally Radical
The Thick of It / int_aa42306e	comment	Totally Radical: The second episode shows how out-of-touch Hugh is by having his say things like "funky", "with it" and "daddy-o". Malcolm even tells him to never say "with it".
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The Thick of It / int_aaece264	type	Rousing Speech
The Thick of It / int_aaece264	comment	Rousing Speech: Jamie gives this one to Cliff Lawton: In the same episode, it's a source of some frustration to Jamie that Cliff's own attempts at such a speech to announce that He's Back! and standing for the leadership of the party just end up becoming endless moaning and whining about how Malcolm Tucker fired him from DoSAC. Malcolm and The Fucker both deliver Patton-style pep talk speeches to their underlings at the climax of season three. Malcolm's is met with rousing applause and celebration, while The Fucker's ends in silence and gloom. Compare them yourself:
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The Thick of It / int_ab0a1453	type	Prematurely Grey-Haired
The Thick of It / int_ab0a1453	comment	Prematurely Grey-Haired: Malcolm suffered a mental breakdown at the end of the third series. He returns for the fourth one back together, but with a head of steel grey hair. This happened naturally to Capaldi over time, but serendipitously evoked this trope.
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The Thick of It / int_abe0f934	type	Dissimile
The Thick of It / int_abe0f934	comment	Dissimile: "I'm going to need you to make like a tree and go fuck yourselves" from Malcolm.
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The Thick of It / int_ac09dc0f	type	Alas, Poor Villain
The Thick of It / int_ac09dc0f	comment	Alas, Poor Villain: Malcolm himself being forced out of a job by someone even more villainous than himself. Stewart Pearson gets a moment like this in the third season finale, when Cal "The Fucker" Richards tells him he's been fired as a joke. Sure, Stewart is an unlikeable, power-tripping master of meaningless PC hypocrisy, but he looks so...broken.
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The Thick of It / int_ac4fcf2b	type	Work Com
The Thick of It / int_ac4fcf2b	comment	Work Com: Virtually the entire show occurs within the confines of Whitehall. We never see Hugh's wife and kids, or see Malcolm and Jamie at the pub, for example. We do get to see Ollie with his girlfriend at her flat, but only because she works for the Opposition.
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The Thick of It / int_ad1db87c	type	Oh, Crap!
The Thick of It / int_ad1db87c	comment	Oh, Crap!: Hugh's look of horror in the very first episode when, on the way to publicly announce a policy that he thinks he has the Prime Minister's complete approval for (and with the nation's media waiting for him), Malcolm angrily phones him to tell him that "should" does not, in fact, mean "yes". The look in Malcolm's eyes after Steve Fleming asks him "Can I have a quick word? Just five minutes..." And again in 4.06 when the Goolding Inquiry reveals that Malcolm had a file with Mr. Tickel's phone number, NHS details and the unlisted number of his ex-wife, which was then leaked to the media in the photo that headlined the 'Quiet Batpeople' fiasco. It's the first time ever in the series that Malcolm is completely at a loss for words.
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The Thick of It / int_ad40d85	type	I Can't Believe I'm Saying This
The Thick of It / int_ad40d85	comment	I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: In season four, Emma convinces Peter not to resign, but rather widen the inquiry to look into PFI. Phil actually agrees with her.
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The Thick of It / int_ae3d6438	type	Deadpan Snarker
The Thick of It / int_ae3d6438	comment	Deadpan Snarker: Most characters to some extent: Glenn Cullen. "The new administration? Listen to The First Lady!" Peter Mannion snarks for the Opposition: Nicola Murray stands out in her introduction, when she bites back at Malcolm's probing into her personal life.
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The Thick of It / int_af3ea0e3	type	Faceâ€“Heel Turn
The Thick of It / int_af3ea0e3	comment	Ollie Reeder progressively becomes more and more of a jerk over the course of the series. In Season Four it enters Faceâ€“Heel Turn territory.
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The Thick of It / int_afd181c7	type	Xtreme Kool Letterz
The Thick of It / int_afd181c7	comment	Xtreme Kool Letterz: Emma wonders why people leaving hate mail on Peter's blog spell "hate" as "h8". "If you're going to leave a message, at least spell it correctly."
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The Thick of It / int_b06bbf4b	type	Be Careful What You Wish For
The Thick of It / int_b06bbf4b	comment	Be Careful What You Wish For: A recurring theme is that, while MPs are scrambling over each other for cabinet posts, holding high political office is terrible. You're under constant scrutiny from hack journalists who will leap on any little mistake or past shame; you're essentially required to publically live like a pauper, which will wreck your family life; party enforcers like Malcolm Tucker hang over you like the Sword of Damocles; and you can be chucked back into the backbench wilderness at a moment's notice.
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The Thick of It / int_b1ff5bba	type	Offscreen Karma
The Thick of It / int_b1ff5bba	comment	Offscreen Karma: At the end of Spinners and Losers, Malcolm hints at a meeting with Tom, where he gleefully gets to pin all of the blame for the episode's drama squarely on Nick Hanway.
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The Thick of It / int_b2cb7993	type	Brains and Brawn
The Thick of It / int_b2cb7993	comment	Brains and Brawn: Malcolm and Jamie are an Evil Duo who fit this trope. This is actually an extremely intelligent decsion by Malcolm, by having a strong ally that is less intelligent, he protects himself from his ally turning on him and doing any damage.
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The Thick of It / int_b4a6fef1	type	Tough Room
The Thick of It / int_b4a6fef1	comment	Tough Room: While the series does use Actually Pretty Funny quite a lot, too—it's set in a very aggressive environment where being funnier than everyone around you is both a survival strategy and proof of dominance—it's worth pointing out that even characters treated by everyone else as stupid (like Manchild Phil) or annoying (Beleaguered Bureaucrat Terri) are all far, far funnier, wittier and quicker than anyone could possibly be in real life. This comes under Acceptable Breaks from Reality in that these characterizations are expressed instead by the quality of their observations, rather than not having them make them (for instance, the other Coalition politicians disgustedly remark that all of Phil's clever references and comparisons are to fiction, usually fantasy fiction (The Lord of the Rings), fiction aimed at children (Doctor Who), or both (Harry Potter). It's also played within that even though Malcolm is acknowledged in-universe as an incredibly funny person, most other characters are far too terrified of him to dare laugh at anything he does most of the time. There's one scene where the name of Ollie's favourite film temporarily slips Malcolm's mind and so he describes it as "the one about the fucking hairdresser, the space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin. His father's a robot and he's fuckin' fucked his sister. LEGO, they're all made of fucking LEGO." Even after Ollie figures out what the film is (Star Wars), he reacts with bewilderment and mild annoyance instead of the hysterical laughter this would more likely cause.
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The Thick of It / int_b4dcdf5b	type	Antagonist in Mourning
The Thick of It / int_b4dcdf5b	comment	Glenn on Malcolm's sacking: "Is this good? I mean, it feels good, but are you sure it's good?" The situation sends Nicola into a state of Antagonist in Mourning.
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The Thick of It / int_b53077b3	type	Take That!
The Thick of It / int_b53077b3	comment	Take That!: The second episode has Malcolm and Hugh watch The Bill. When Hugh says "Oh, shit" in reaction to seeing the woman from the focus group in an episode, Malcolm replies, "Yeah, I know, but people watch it. This gets 6,000,000". The season 3 episode in which Nicola and Peter are interviewed by Richard Bacon contains references to two other Five Live broadcasters, Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode. The reference to Kermode is only an off-hand, blink-and-you'll-miss-it comment about his supposedly "massive" hands by Ollie, but it seems to have taken on a memetic life of its own around Kermode. The show takes fairly regular potshots at Top Gear (UK), especially Phil being disparagingly compared to James May and Malcolm saying Richard Hammond needs a punch in the face. In another episode, Malcolm says that he hates Steve Fleming "as much as James May presumably hates himself." Jamie excoriates Ollie after he not only fails to find out opposition secrets from Emma, but actually spills government secrets to her: Steve Fleming claims that people refer to him and Malcolm as "The Gallagher Brothers of politics". Malcolm's response: Malcolm tells Steve Fleming that nobody has an opinion of him, like Special K or The Moody Blues. When they no longer have Andy Murray to front a campaign, various other famous athletes are considered: In the longer version of the scene where Glenn tries to rejoin Malcolm, the latter replies, "Well, unfortunately, that ship has sailed, hit a fucking iceberg, sunk, and Julian Fellowes has written a fucking shit drama about it". A deleted scene from the final episode reveals that Peter has never heard of Will & Grace. Phil tells him that it's better that way. In a series where everybody is a terrible person on some level, it's hard not to see a little Writer on Board when Glenn (a slightly better person than most) calls former Daily Mail editor Adam "the single most loathsome person I've ever met".
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The Thick of It / int_b5c56995	type	Corrupt the Cutie
The Thick of It / int_b5c56995	comment	Corrupt the Cutie: Nicola arrives at DoSAC as a wide-eyed, naive MP who only reluctantly agreed to become a Cabinet minister. After being introduced to Malcolm, she attempts to emulate him, swearing more in front of him ("You are so wanking with the wrong crowd!") and trying to imitate his signature method of issuing threats ("Do we go after him with... a bum-dildo of vengeance?"). By the end of the series she becomes power-hungry to the point of considering a leadership bid, and swears so much that even Steve Fleming is shocked ("You're quite the potty-mouth, aren't you?"). Ollie Reeder, to the point of ultimately taking Malcolm's place by the end of Series 4.
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The Thick of It / int_b7e0c5ff	type	Love Triangle
The Thick of It / int_b7e0c5ff	comment	Phil and Ollie in the Specials and Series 3, though as of Series 4, Adam seems to be Phil's new worst enemy. (Presumably it's handier for Phil, having his enemy in the office.) Also, when Adam was a journalist, he once decreed to Ollie that he was "going to spend the rest of my life dedicated to persecuting you in the most poisonous vendetta ever known in the British media!" It's like a Love Triangle for people who hate each other. Which would be a Hate Triangle, presumably.
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The Thick of It / int_b84491a3	type	Wrong Insult Offence
The Thick of It / int_b84491a3	comment	Wrong Insult Offence:
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The Thick of It / int_b999f0a4	type	Overused Running Gag
The Thick of It / int_b999f0a4	comment	Overused Running Gag: Defied. The reason "Tucker's Law" was cut is because the writers feared the temptation to turn it into one of these.
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The Thick of It / int_ba236071	type	It Makes Sense in Context
The Thick of It / int_ba236071	comment	In "Spinners and Losers", when it looks like Ben Swain has a slight chance of becoming the next Prime Minister, Ollie—who has been positioning himself as Swain's right-hand man—decides it's time to start throwing his weight around with Malcolm. It lasts about a minute before Malcolm shoots him down and bluntly orders him to go and buy some cheese. And in any case, events soon prove that Ollie really should have made sure Swain had more than what turned out to be a very slight chance of becoming PM.
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The Thick of It / int_ba311c7c	type	Slip into Something More Comfortable
The Thick of It / int_ba311c7c	comment	Slip into Something More Comfortable: Parodied by Malcolm Tucker: "I'd rather slip into something a bit more comfortable â€” like a fuckin' coma..."
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The Thick of It / int_ba753dc9	type	Wangst
The Thick of It / int_ba753dc9	comment	Wangst: In-universe: in "Spinners and Losers", it's a source of some frustration to Jamie that all of Cliff Lawton's attempts at writing a comeback speech seem to degenerate into whining about how Malcolm Tucker got him sacked.
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The Thick of It / int_ba911a9a	type	You Did Everything You Could
The Thick of It / int_ba911a9a	comment	You Did Everything You Could: Abused by Malcolm. He tells Glenn and Olly "you tried, you really tried" when they fail to steer Nicola Murray out of an embarrassing photo opportunity...which Malcolm had deliberately steered her into as part of his latest scheme. His reassuring words were just a means of covering it up.
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The Thick of It / int_bbe740e2	type	Tyrant Takes the Helm
The Thick of It / int_bbe740e2	comment	Tyrant Takes the Helm: Steve Fleming. At first his colleagues are happy to see the back of Malcolm Tucker but when they realize how creepy, charmless and bad-tempered his replacement is they decide they want their jerk to come back from his 10-Minute Retirement. Cal "The Fucker" Richards, who replaces Stewart Pearson as Opposition campaign manager in the Season Three finale. His openly psychotic demeanour terrifies everyone, even the usually unflappable Peter Mannion. Fortunately Cal's only around for one episode, but things can't have been pleasant.
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The Thick of It / int_bc00493f	type	Precision F-Strike
The Thick of It / int_bc00493f	comment	Precision F-Strike: Played straight with Julius Nicholson. An infuriatingly polite, formal and chipper man who often self-censors himself (e.g. once demanding that Malcolm tell him "what the F-word is going on"), he has to be pushed very far before he'll swear. His first F-Strike occurs during the Prime Minister's sudden, unannounced resignation and it comes across as unusually harsh and bitter: Stewart Pearson is another example, avoiding swearing in order to preserve his touchy-feely Granola Girl image. His profanity in the wake of Tickel's death presses home just how screwed his department is. Inverted with Malcolm Tucker. Given he practically speaks Cluster F-Bomb as a second language, it's when he STOPS swearing that we know a line has been crossed.
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The Thick of It / int_bc03c871	type	Child Hater
The Thick of It / int_bc03c871	comment	Child Hater: Peter, who says "I hate school children. They're volatile and stupid and they haven't got the vote. Might as well be talking to fucking geese."
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The Thick of It / int_bc502e4b	type	You Are What You Hate
The Thick of It / int_bc502e4b	comment	You Are What You Hate: Ollie Reeder eventually usurps his hated, bullying "mentor" Malcolm Tucker and takes his job.
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The Thick of It / int_bc74ef27	type	Berserk Button
The Thick of It / int_bc74ef27	comment	Berserk Button: "He loves Al Jolson." Opposition spin doctor Stewart Pearson really doesn't like being locked in small rooms. Glenn does not care for people mocking someone who has just committed suicide. Nicola gets unusually snappy whenever people use patronising, endearing nicknames on her, like Nicky or Sweetheart.
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The Thick of It / int_bd0d6395	type	No Social Skills
The Thick of It / int_bd0d6395	comment	No Social Skills: Olly, himself book-smart but not streetwise, asks hapless press officer John Duggan "I'm not being horrible, but are you actually autistic?" Further along the autism spectrum is unseen Prime Minister Tom Davis, whose social skills are so lacking that the press officers doubt that they should let him out in public.
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The Thick of It / int_bdbfd01c	type	Perfectly Cromulent Word
The Thick of It / int_bdbfd01c	comment	Perfectly Cromulent Word: In addition to the usual stream of creative insult combinations, the single word "omnishambles", which has since been used repeatedly in Real Life.
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The Thick of It / int_be102b6a	type	GÃ¶tterdÃ¤mmerung
The Thick of It / int_be102b6a	comment	GÃ¶tterdÃ¤mmerung: S04E07, Malcolm and Stewart Pearson lose their jobs, signalling the end of 'the age of spin', at least with regards their management styles.
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The Thick of It / int_be6f7ae7	type	Brief Accent Imitation
The Thick of It / int_be6f7ae7	comment	Brief Accent Imitation: Characters occasionally do bad imitations of Malcolm's Glaswegian accent. Never to his face, of course. Phil does this to express his opinion of Malcolm as an non-threatening comedy Scotsman. Then he meets him... Malcolm does a brief imitation of John Duggan's English accent, and it is genuinely disturbing. Ollie briefly does a Scottish accent, a Yorkshire accent and a Scouse accent, all saying, "I hate you!", when describing Nicola's cross-country meet-the-people tour.
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The Thick of It / int_be8416ea	type	Shrouded in Myth
The Thick of It / int_be8416ea	comment	Shrouded in Myth: Cal Richards. "The Fucker, he comin'. He comin' to your town."
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The Thick of It / int_beb9a361	type	Anti-Hero
The Thick of It / int_beb9a361	comment	While his boss was more of an Anti-Hero than a full on villain, Jamie functions as a rather competent Dragon for Malcolm. That said, he did have some ambitions of his own, which may account for his absence in the third series.
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The Thick of It / int_bfc2ec8a	type	That Makes Me Feel Angry
The Thick of It / int_bfc2ec8a	comment	That Makes Me Feel Angry: Played for Laughs.
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The Thick of It / int_c02f148d	type	Both Sides Have a Point
The Thick of It / int_c02f148d	comment	Both Sides Have a Point: In one later episode, Nicola is asked to publish crime data "up to the last quarter," and so publishes the data up to and including the latest quarter. A furious Steve Fleming insists that he told her to publish up to but not including the last quarter. Nicola argues that being told to count "up to twenty" includes twenty, and Steve counters that the events leading up to World War II don't include World War II itself. Depending on the view, either could be correct.
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The Thick of It / int_c0594195	type	Through His Stomach
The Thick of It / int_c0594195	comment	Nicholson has a constant food motif. When he isn't munching biscuits, buying sandwiches or eating takeaways, he's feeding the ducks. He even tries to go through Malcolm's stomach when he wants Malcolm to come back after his sacking. However, he will not eat the pissy biscuit, or THE FUCKIN' CHEEEEEEESE...
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The Thick of It / int_c19bdbe1	type	Good Cop/Bad Cop
The Thick of It / int_c19bdbe1	comment	Good Cop/Bad Cop: Averted. Malcolm and Jamie have been referred to as a Bad Cop/Bad Cop double-act. Referenced by Nicola Murray in a later scene: while being "gang-bollocked" by Malcolm and Steve Fleming, she calls them "Good Cock/Bad Cock" respectively.
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The Thick of It / int_c25c7890	type	Fun with Acronyms
The Thick of It / int_c25c7890	comment	Fun with Acronyms: "He says he wants you at Number 10 ASAFP". As this order came from Malcolm the F probably didn't stand for "feasibly" as Glenn innocently suggests. The Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship itself of course: "I've got no fuckin' idea what that means either but it spells 'SAC'." NOMFuP: "N-O-M-F-P. Not My Fucking Problem. I quite like that. Did you like that? I'll use that quite a lot today."
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The Thick of It / int_c2e2a445	type	Jade-Colored Glasses
The Thick of It / int_c2e2a445	comment	Jade-Colored Glasses: Hugh wore them, Malcolm tries to get Nicola to try a pair on, acting as the Tall, Silver and Snarky foil to her Wide-eyed Idealist:
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The Thick of It / int_c3648b87	type	Teeth-Clenched Teamwork
The Thick of It / int_c3648b87	comment	Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Virtually every character seems to think they're the lone isle of sanity in a sea of idiots, blowhards and knobheads. This is especially evident with the coalition in Series 4, where it's common knowledge that the two parties hate each other despite their attempts to present a united front:
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The Thick of It / int_c3debc8e	type	V-Sign
The Thick of It / int_c3debc8e	comment	V-Sign: Malcolm has a little message for the journalists who follow him home after his sacking. He has another for Ollie when he fails to answer his phone: "That's for you, Cack Efron."
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The Thick of It / int_c3fbac64	type	Bestiality Is Depraved
The Thick of It / int_c3fbac64	comment	Bestiality Is Depraved: Mentioned when Malcolm gives Olly a bollocking for questioning one of his more unscrupulous schemes: "Don't start with the moral objections, you fuckin' Blue Peter badge-wearing ponce! Go and make a contribution to fuckin' Amnesty International! Go and buy a goat that a whole village can fuck!" Later on, Phil compares Olly to "the man who fucked the monkey that gave us AIDS", in the sense that he has created a runaway problem and is now moaning about its scale.
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The Thick of It / int_c4c4a411	type	Baddie Flattery
The Thick of It / int_c4c4a411	comment	Baddie Flattery: One of Malcolm's favourite tactics. It usually works too.
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The Thick of It / int_c4db6423	type	Yank the Dog's Chain
The Thick of It / int_c4db6423	comment	Yank the Dog's Chain: Peter Mannion does an emphatically decent thing by refusing to use Nicola's daughter's school troubles to his side's advantage. As he maintains to Stewart that they'll conduct themselves honourably, Malcolm is over at Number 10 convincing Nicola that there's no such thing as honour, which culminates in Nicola calling Mannion to tell him that nothing in his personal life is off-limits. Cue gloating from Stewart. Poor Peter. Glenn's intention to stand for election, scoped and dropped by Nicola's latest PR disaster.
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The Thick of It / int_c5ef2d50	type	Cringe Comedy
The Thick of It / int_c5ef2d50	comment	Cringe Comedy: Blinky" Ben Swain's Newsnight interview: "Like watching a lion rape a sheep, but in a bad way." Nicola's Guardian meeting from series 3 may be the show's most cringe-inducing moment to date, although the radio interview with Mannion and Richard Bacon comes close. Peter Mannion's "I call app Britain" speech at the school in episode 1 of season 4.
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The Thick of It / int_c6074d96	type	I Am Spartacus
The Thick of It / int_c6074d96	comment	I Am Spartacus: "It was me. I leaked it." Poor Glenn.
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The Thick of It / int_c631f304	type	We Want Our Jerk Back!
The Thick of It / int_c631f304	comment	We Want Our Jerk Back!: Glenn on Malcolm's sacking: "Is this good? I mean, it feels good, but are you sure it's good?" The situation sends Nicola into a state of Antagonist in Mourning. In one episode we see Malcolm wearing a snuggly fleece, smiling at the DoSAC staff and making tea for everyone. Somehow the new "Nice Malcolm" is even more frightening than "YesterMalcolm". Peter Mannion openly hates Stewart Pearson, but even he's not sure about The Fucker replacing him - or as Stewart tells him: "Better the Devil You Know, eh?"
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The Thick of It / int_c660bc15	type	Fan Disservice
The Thick of It / int_c660bc15	comment	Fan Disservice: The (thankfully) deleted scene from season three in which Glenn pulls. Although Ollie and Nicola's running commentary while spying on Glenn and the woman is pure gold and deserves to be enjoyed.
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The Thick of It / int_c675d08c	type	Compliment Backfire
The Thick of It / int_c675d08c	comment	Compliment Backfire: "You're like a female John Major." Ouch.
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The Thick of It / int_c67af1b0	type	Big Bad Wannabe
The Thick of It / int_c67af1b0	comment	Big Bad Wannabe: Steve Fleming MP, who takes up a prominent cabinet communications role in series 3, and briefly succeeds in getting his arch-nemesis Malcolm Tucker humiliatingly sacked from the government. However, Steve's time in power is brief. Chessmaster Malcolm Out-Gambits him, despite being unemployed; he succeeds in making Steve the fall guy for a series of cock-ups and forces him to resign. Cal "The Fucker" Richards, Malcolm's counterpart in the opposition, is the real Big Bad, even if he only appears in one scene.
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The Thick of It / int_c6b8d37a	type	Cliffhanger
The Thick of It / int_c6b8d37a	comment	Cliffhanger:
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The Thick of It / int_c75df49a	type	Shout-Out
The Thick of It / int_c75df49a	comment	A Shout-Out to The West Wing acknowledges the two shows' polar opposite depictions of politics:
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The Thick of It / int_c7f96bce	type	Especially Zoidberg
The Thick of It / int_c7f96bce	comment	Especially Zoidberg:
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The Thick of It / int_c8146364	type	Portmanteau Couple Name
The Thick of It / int_c8146364	comment	Portmanteau Couple Name: In-universe example: Robyn is rather distressed by the existence of the term "Glebyn."
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The Thick of It / int_c819533b	type	Rage Breaking Point
The Thick of It / int_c819533b	comment	Rage Breaking Point: Almost exclusively Malcolm Tucker, though we see lesser examples from Glenn and Stewart. During their first day together, Malcolm has been getting progressively more aggravated with Nicola Murray's general incompetence, but most of his rants have sailed just below the "Unstoppable Rage" line. Then, Nicola declines to enter a lift with him on the grounds of claustrophobia, and he finally lets loose. In Nicola's second episode, Malcolm lets her have it again after a very trying day ends with Nicola accidentally blabbing the details of the latest DoSAC scandal to an on-the-record journalist. For good measure, it was because of Nicola's claustrophobia. His rage is a sight to behold, especially since he's sat in a car with the subject of his ire mere inches away. Terri and Nicola look like they're trapped in a box with a rabid tiger. And again in the fifth episode: during the escalting BBC radio fiasco, Malcolm has been trying to deal with the issue with his usual level of sanity- even enjoying a brief moment of triumph when it's revealed that the Opposition has been recieving donations from a sweatshop... only for the whole thing to come crashing down thanks to Stewart Pearson, the radio producers, and a text from "Tim in Ruislip" informing the listeners that his own party recieves donations from the sweatshop too. Others get in on this too to a lesser degree. Stewart and Glenn in particular both reach their point after Tickel's suicide; Glenn because of the lack of respect his colleagues are showing for a man's death, Stewart because of the colossal amount of pressure placed on him in so short a time.
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The Thick of It / int_c83cd6b8	type	The Nicknamer
The Thick of It / int_c83cd6b8	comment	Malcolm is the most habitual nicknamer, but most of the characters are nicknamers to some extent.
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The Thick of It / int_c83f40d8	type	Bystander Syndrome
The Thick of It / int_c83f40d8	comment	Bystander Syndrome: Malcolm Tucker calls this trope NoMFuP: "Not My Fucking Problem".
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The Thick of It / int_c8ed7020	type	Volatile Second Tier Position
The Thick of It / int_c8ed7020	comment	Volatile Second Tier Position: The Minister for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship. Gathering together all the miscellaneous tasks that no other department wants to deal with, DoSaC's rather nebulous status means that it gets the least funding and its minister wields almost zero influence - or as one put it, "as much real power as those twats who sit either side of Alan Sugar." Add to that a reputation for screwing up absolutely everything it touches, and by series 3, nobody wants to assume leadership of DoSaC in case it ends up doing the same to their careers, to the point that only the most cowardly, naive or obscure ministers can be pressured into it... a fact that doesn't exactly help their popular image. Worse still, career damage is as inevitable as feared: of all the heads of the department encountered on the show, only one ever managed ascended to higher office, namely Leader of the Opposition - and that was only due to a technicality. Finally, DoSaC's gaffe-prone nature has resulted in a comparatively High Turnover Rate among its ministers: Cliff Lawton's eighteen-month tenure was considered "a good innings" by department standards! Generally speaking, being The Dragon to a minister is a very tricky proposition. Sure, there's the chance of using your boss as a springboard into "the political fuckoffosphere," but that level of closeness comes with a worrying array of hazards. Among other things, if you've hitched your horse too closely to a specific minister, your career might end up permanently stalled if they're forced off the job - as is the case with Glenn Clullen; they might end up taking you down with them into disrepute or failure - as was the case with Ollie during "Spinners And Losers"; you can even be used as a scapegoat in order to take the heat off the minister.
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The Thick of It / int_c91bf297	type	Iron Lady
The Thick of It / int_c91bf297	comment	Iron Lady: One-Scene Wonder Mary "Ironblouse" Drake, of the Home Office.
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The Thick of It / int_c9597a03	type	Self-Deprecation
The Thick of It / int_c9597a03	comment	This was nicely referenced in Peter Capaldi's self-deprecating ad for MacMillan Cancer Support, in which he discussed "The Big C--and not my usual Big C..."
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The Thick of It / int_cb0743c0	type	Lame Pun Reaction
The Thick of It / int_cb0743c0	comment	Lame Pun Reaction: In the penultimate episode of season three, Geoffrey, one of the journalists at Malcolm's house makes a "currying favour" pun. Malcolm's repsonse:
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The Thick of It / int_cd8aa3e8	type	Smoking Is Glamorous
The Thick of It / int_cd8aa3e8	comment	Smoking Is Glamorous: Terri tries to invoke this when flirting with Peter Mannion. Unfortunately for her, she's so inept, he doesn't notice. This is not surprising as Terri is inept at everything.
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The Thick of It / int_cdb45c07	type	No Sense of Personal Space
The Thick of It / int_cdb45c07	comment	No Sense of Personal Space: Space invader extraordinaire Malcolm Tucker. Whether it's engaging in conspiratorial conversations in the narrow corridors of power (or the gent's lavatories), using intimidation to get what he wants or simply flirting with his colleagues, the "Thin White Mugabe" gets in close. Cornering seems to be the favoured tactic. A similar example is Jamie, who gets just as close (sometimes manhandling people) and is even more likely to shout obscenities right in your face. A very different example is Malcolm's nemesis Steve Fleming. Like Malcolm, Fleming gets much too close to people and has no aversion to touching them. Unlike Malcolm, Fleming is actually trying to be friendly, but fails miserably and comes across as a creepy slimy perv (especially with Nicola).
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The Thick of It / int_cdd676a3	type	Hyper-Competent Sidekick
The Thick of It / int_cdd676a3	comment	Hypercompetent Sidekick: Malcolm Tucker is this to the ENTIRE Labour Party. He's the only character in the series who is competent.
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The Thick of It / int_cdd835ce	type	Dude, Not Funny!
The Thick of It / int_cdd835ce	comment	Dude, Not Funny!: Steve Fleming's ill-advised Josef Fritzl joke goes down like a lead balloon. When Ollie is making the "eeeesh" face at you, you know you've gone too far. Similarly, Adam shushing Phil's bad taste remarks after the news of Mr Tickel's suicide. Adam wasn't above mocking Mr Tickel when he was alive, but clearly considers Phil's behaviour to be a bit beyond the pale. Ollie isn't above these either. There's the time where mocks special needs children...in front of Glenn, who has a special needs child. And keeps going after Hugh calls him out. When he mocks Glenn over Malcolm punching him in Season Three, saying Glenn being "not technically a woman." Malcolm shoots Ollie a Death Glare and tells him to zip it. In "Rise of the Nutters", Terri snaps at Ollie for using the term "nutters" as her sister works in mental health.
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The Thick of It / int_ce104b8e	type	Serial Escalation
The Thick of It / int_ce104b8e	comment	Serial Escalation: How much darker can satire get? How much harder can Malcolm's veins throb? How much more baroque can the swearing get? How much more shit can we pile on every single character?
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The Thick of It / int_ce2969d8	type	Spiritual Antithesis
The Thick of It / int_ce2969d8	comment	Spiritual Antithesis: The series can perhaps best be described as "The West Wing's evil British twin". Both shows have essentially the same premise, as they're both political Dramedies detailing the day-to-day struggles of the frequently overlooked staffers in the ranks of government, but they're as far apart from one another on the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism as it's possible to be. The West Wing is a famously optimistic portrayal of American politics focusing on smart, idealistic young staffers trying to reconcile their principles with political realities; The Thick of It is a cynical portrayal of British politics focusing on morally bankrupt people who will do absolutely anything to get ahead. The West Wing gives us an idealized American President in Josiah "Jed" Bartlet, a fearless intellectual who stands by his ideals at any cost; The Thick of It never even shows us the British Prime Minister, but makes it clear that he's an unreliable Slave to PR with no real power in the grand scheme of government. Interestingly, The West Wing almost used the same technique in its portrayal of the President: he originally wasn't supposed to be shown at all, then Aaron Sorkin decided that he should be a recurring character (with about three to four appearances per season), then he was made the show's protagonist after Martin Sheen unexpectedly stole the show in the pilot episode. If the writers of The West Wing had gone ahead with their original plan, the two shows would be even more similar.
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The Thick of It / int_ce9da072	type	Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic
The Thick of It / int_ce9da072	comment	Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: The series emphasises that it isn't The West Wing with all the stumbling, repetition, hesitation, waffling, dragging out speech, people talking over and interrupting each other mentioned in the description. Some of the more driven and/or sociopathic characters such as Malcolm Tucker avert it to some degree, though.
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The Thick of It / int_cead2a47	type	Cassandra Did It
The Thick of It / int_cead2a47	comment	Cassandra Did It: The Inquiry pinned all the blame on Malcolm for Tickel's suicide in Season 4, but it could have been avoided if anyone had paid attention to his advice and warnings. Earlier, he had urged Nicola to "embrace our friend Mr. Tickle" and criticize the Government's mistreatment of him, but she refused to even mention it publicly until Tickel was already dead and Malcolm had her cornered). He leaked Tickel's medical records to show that the Government was persecuting someone vulnerable and courting disaster, but the Government wouldn't back down from their policy and the Opposition never called them out for it. So even if he deserved some blame, Malcolm was the only one who'd been right about Tickel and didn't deserve to be the Inquiry's scapegoat.
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The Thick of It / int_cfdb9e17	type	Cerebus Syndrome
The Thick of It / int_cfdb9e17	comment	Cerebus Syndrome: The series went through this, partly because of changes in the Real Life political climate it reflects, and partly because of its own fractured production history. As the UK went into recession, news of the MPs' expenses scandal broke, and New Labour began losing their grip on power, the storylines in the show's third series became less comedic and more dramatic. The third series was also the first complete series commissioned by the BBC (the other episodes had been pilot episodes, short runs or hour-long specials) and gave the writers their first chance to toy with story arcs, resulting in the the third series being much less episodic than the first.
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The Thick of It / int_cffafc80	type	You, Get Me Coffee
The Thick of It / int_cffafc80	comment	You, Get Me Coffee: Glenn seems spend half his time in Series 4 offering to make tea for people. It doesn't get him any love or respect. Indeed, people use it as an excuse to sidle out of the room when he's not looking. Poor Glenn. Making tea seems to be Robyn's entire purpose in life, even though her job title is Senior Press Officer. We find out in S4E6 she is extremely miffed about this.
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The Thick of It / int_d01cffbc	type	Badass Longcoat
The Thick of It / int_d01cffbc	comment	Badass Longcoat: Malcolm wears a flowing black coat, most notably when vowing to his Number 10 colleagues "YOU WILL SEE ME AGAIN" and then walking out of Number 10 as it billows after him.
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The Thick of It / int_d080f396	type	The Napoleon
The Thick of It / int_d080f396	comment	The Napoleon: Cal Richards. Jamie is accused of being "a pint-pot Judas" by Malcolm. Jamie retorts with the wholly unconvincing claim that he is actually five-foot-ten.
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The Thick of It / int_d148b019	type	Mundane Made Awesome
The Thick of It / int_d148b019	comment	Mundane Made Awesome: The events of the party conference episode in series three play out like a Spy Drama, even though it's just Malcolm and Nicola squabbling over who gets to introduce a conference guest.
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The Thick of It / int_d1595d9f	type	Windbag Politician
The Thick of It / int_d1595d9f	comment	Windbag Politician: Nicola's speeches are legendarily terrible.
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The Thick of It / int_d2c4c6f5	type	Hey, That's My Line!
The Thick of It / int_d2c4c6f5	comment	Hey, That's My Line!: Whilst lacking a specific catchphrase,Malcolm Tucker is known for his frequent use of extremely coarse language when criticizing his colleagues, to the point when MP Nicola Murray uses a similarly colorful phrase on him, he responds appropriately:
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The Thick of It / int_d41a6617	type	Wandering Walk of Madness
The Thick of It / int_d41a6617	comment	Wandering Walk of Madness: Played for Laughs: after a harrowing first-time bollocking from Malcolm Tucker, Opposition aide Phil Smith wanders off in a traumatized daze and, according to a deleted scene, actually left the building altogether; he was so terrified that he didn't stop walking until he reached Greenwich - a good ten kilometres away!
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The Thick of It / int_d45c0b86	type	Refuge in Audacity
The Thick of It / int_d45c0b86	comment	Refuge in Audacity: During an inquiry into politicians illegally leaking information to the media, Malcolm is called as a witness and uses the opportunity to blatantly leak information to the investigators and the press to score political points.
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The Thick of It / int_d485cb13	type	Psychotic Smirk
The Thick of It / int_d485cb13	comment	Psychotic Smirk: Malcolm gets in quite a few, with several in the final episode of Series 3.
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The Thick of It / int_d52d28b6	type	Hypocrite
The Thick of It / int_d52d28b6	comment	Nicola Murray's first day starts going downhill when she finds herself on the receiving end of one of these speeches from Malcolm Tucker — specifically, when he learns that she's supporting the improvement of state schools while sending her daughter to a private school.
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The Thick of It / int_d5dfb30a	type	Professional Butt-Kisser
The Thick of It / int_d5dfb30a	comment	Professional Butt-Kisser: Opposition MP Peter Mannion's top aide Phil Smith: "You're such a bumlicker, Phil!"
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The Thick of It / int_d6707631	type	Waxing Lyrical
The Thick of It / int_d6707631	comment	Waxing Lyrical: In the first episode, Malcolm confronts Hugh about an announcement he didn't make. Hugh explains that he killed the story, to which Malcolm responds by quoting Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire". In the second episode, Hugh meets with a woman from a focus group who claims to be "every woman", prompting Ollie to chime in with "It's all in me", in reference to the Chaka Khan song. Surprisingly, Hugh has heard of it. In the first episode of season two, Malcolm tells Olly to "Bring me sunshine". In the second episode of season four, when motivating Nicola, Malcolm says "She's got Bette Davis eyes", in reference to the song by Kim Carnes. A deleted scene from "The Rise of the Nutters" has Peter answer if he likes people by quoting "People" by Barbra Streisand.
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The Thick of It / int_d7472e4f	type	Kicked Upstairs
The Thick of It / int_d7472e4f	comment	Kicked Upstairs: Julius Nicholson tries to get involved in the government's public relations activities, treading on the toes of the press officers whose job it is and who actually know what they're doing. He antagonises everyone with his mad policy ideas, to the point where they start to believe he is actually unhinged and dangerous. He is promoted to the position of "Blue-Sky Thinker" to the Prime Minister... a meaningless job title given to him to make him think he has some actual power and to keep him quiet.
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The Thick of It / int_d7b34c31	type	Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"
The Thick of It / int_d7b34c31	comment	Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Opposition communications director Cal Richards, colloquially and scarily referred to as simply "The Fucker".
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The Thick of It / int_d7fc9fd0	type	Vitriolic Best Buds
The Thick of It / int_d7fc9fd0	comment	Vitriolic Best Buds: Ollie and Glenn developed shades of this as in season three. Seems to have been genuine in at least one direction; Glenn's excoriation of Ollie's character to the Inquiry after he's stabbed Glenn in the back reveals a sense of utter betrayal.
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The Thick of It / int_d839c530	type	The Unfettered
The Thick of It / int_d839c530	comment	The Unfettered: Malcolm keeps his Party in power by any means necessary: blackmail, physical threats, and violence are all in his arsenal. Total lack of scruples is a job requirement, with his more idealistic opposite number, Stewart Pearson, playing just as dirty as him.
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The Thick of It / int_d9fe8277	type	I'm Standing Right Here
The Thick of It / int_d9fe8277	comment	I'm Standing Right Here: "Watch my lips: Cal Richards is not here- Cal!" In season four, Fergus and Adam berate Glenn for not redracting an incriminating email he and Terri leaked. Adam starts ranting about Terri.
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The Thick of It / int_da0eeab5	type	Breakout Character
The Thick of It / int_da0eeab5	comment	Breakout Character: For the show's first two seasons, Hugh Abbott was clearly the main character and focus. After his departure at the end of Season 2, several previously secondary characters saw their roles significantly increased to fill the gap. Malcolm Tucker became more and more prominent as the show went on.
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The Thick of It / int_dae3844e	type	Hidden Disdain Reveal
The Thick of It / int_dae3844e	comment	Hidden Disdain Reveal: When Glenn resigns, he lets his colleagues know how much he hates them, including Terri, who he had been close to throughout the series. Judging by the look on her face, she's utterly hurt.
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The Thick of It / int_dca97045	type	Just Following Orders
The Thick of It / int_dca97045	comment	Just Following Orders: Hugh Abbot is about to introduce a new bill about special needs schooling, and gets uncomfortable around an aide who opposes it because he thinks the bill will fail his own child. It continues in Series 3 with incompetent new press officer John Duggan:
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The Thick of It / int_dcbe8a6e	type	Chekhov's Gunman
The Thick of It / int_dcbe8a6e	comment	Chekhov's Gunman: Steve Fleming mostly wars against Malcolm at the end of Series 3, but Nicola's attitude towards him ends badly for her in Series 4. Fleming makes the front page of the Guardian in episode 4 with claims that Nicola is unelectable, which causes Malcolm to realise that the time is right for her political demise. By the end of the episode, she's gone. Tara Strachan, the economist Adam and Fergus talk to in episode 3 of Series 4. There's a couple of blink-and-you'll-miss-it shots of her with a concerned look on her face as she takes a phonecall and looks into the office in which the group are reacting to the news of Tickel's death. She quickly ends the call when they come out, which doesn't come up again until the enquiry. It turns out she was reporting the inappropriate response (including elation from Phil), which bites the group hard when they're called on it.
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The Thick of It / int_dceccabf	type	Cat Fight
The Thick of It / int_dceccabf	comment	Cat Fight: In a deleted scene from "Spinners and Losers", Robyn and Terri have a squabble...while Jamie chants "fight, fight, fight" and starts pushing their jackets off their shoulders.
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The Thick of It / int_dd45df38	type	Unfortunate Names
The Thick of It / int_dd45df38	comment	Unfortunate Names: "Elvis... sorry, Cliff!" Poor Cliff Lawton's parents probably didn't envisage their son going into politics. Mr. Tickel, sometimes pronounced "Tickle". Mr. Men jokes ensue.
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The Thick of It / int_de613f81	type	Hauled Before a Senate Subcommittee
The Thick of It / int_de613f81	comment	Hauled Before a Senate Subcommittee: Hugh and the Select Committee: "I categorically did not knowingly not tell the truth. Even though unknowingly I might not have done." The Goolding Inquiry into the "culture of blame" hauls the entire cast in for investigation.
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The Thick of It / int_de9047ac	type	Gambit Pileup
The Thick of It / int_de9047ac	comment	Gambit Pileup: "Spinners and Losers" provided a glorious example. In the chaos following the Prime Minister's resignation, everyone spies opportunities to better their position and all hell breaks loose: MPs launch leadership bids, spin doctors launch smear campaigns to derail those bids, aides suck up to the potential new leaders, everyone strives to keep their dastardly plots from everyone else and numerous spanners get thrown into the works. Rising tensions lead to paranoia, Angrish and even a Food Fight... before they discover that for all but one man, their plotting was for nothing. The latter half of Series 3 shows Malcolm butting heads with rival communications man Steve Fleming. Both men attempt to stamp their own authority and agendas onto DoSAC, and both plunge the department into embarrassment and chaos, as they make badly-planned, spontaneous, ad-hoc decisions in reaction to one another.
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The Thick of It / int_df410b77	type	Decoy Protagonist
The Thick of It / int_df410b77	comment	Decoy Protagonist: Non-death example: The series begins with a minister entering his office, greeting his staff, and getting ready for a meeting with Malcolm. Then, in the meeting, Malcolm suddenly forces him to resign. Quick cut, and Hugh Abbott appears. Basically, rather than Anyone Can Die, this is Anyone Can Be Sacked. Hugh Abbot was arguably the main character of the first two seasons before the focus shifted towards Malcolm.
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The Thick of It / int_df582b0b	type	Continuity Snarl
The Thick of It / int_df582b0b	comment	Continuity Snarl: While the series maintains unusually high amounts of continuity for a Brit Com, details of Malcolm Tucker's home life are somewhat inconsistent. "Spinners and Losers" reveals he has a niece, but Series 3 shows him spending his birthday alone in his office. The Series Finale, in addition, has him state he has no children, which is potentially contradicted that same episode, when a young boy is seen looking out of the window of his home.
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The Thick of It / int_dfa40c1b	type	Didn't See That Coming
The Thick of It / int_dfa40c1b	comment	Didn't See That Coming: A regular occurrence, due to every character's Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and resultant Gambit Pileups. Of note: The end of "Spinners and Losers". Malcolm failing to predict the Goolding Enquiry.
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The Thick of It / int_dfdcd12d	type	2 + Torture = 5
The Thick of It / int_dfdcd12d	comment	2 + Torture = 5: In the first episode, Malcolm tries to "persuade" journalists that minister Hugh Abbott did make an important announcement at an earlier press conference (though he did no such thing) - it's just that journalists missed it.
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The Thick of It / int_e031b7ef	type	Slave to PR
The Thick of It / int_e031b7ef	comment	Slave to PR: The department, and pretty much the entire Government and Opposition.
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The Thick of It / int_e12670cd	type	Freudian Threat
The Thick of It / int_e12670cd	comment	Freudian Threat: Comes up when Malcolm is castigating hapless press aide John Duggan.
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The Thick of It / int_e2d457	type	The Ditz
The Thick of It / int_e2d457	comment	The Ditz: Robyn. "I've leaked nothing! Other than accidentally, obviously." John Duggan manages to make Robyn look like a Hypercompetent Sidekick in comparison:
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The Thick of It / int_e2f13529	type	World of Jerkass
The Thick of It / int_e2f13529	comment	World of Jerkass: This being the world of politics, everyone is a terrible person to various degrees (with the exceptions of Glenn and Sam), being either amoral or motivated by self-interest.
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The Thick of It / int_e34400ab	type	Ambiguously Gay
The Thick of It / int_e34400ab	comment	Ambiguously Gay: Julius "Screaming Lord Crutch" Nicholson.
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The Thick of It / int_e3585b3d	type	No Party Given
The Thick of It / int_e3585b3d	comment	No Party Given: We have the government and the opposition. Neither is ever identified by name or policy as being Labour or Conservative. But, well, you'd have to be an idiot to not realise the main characters are Labour and the Opposition are Tories. The fourth series also introduces the other party in the coalition, who are pretty obviously based on the Liberal Democrats but never identified as such. Also as described above, the characters mostly have real-life counterparts which correspond with the parties they represent in the show. The first explicit hints start emerging during the specials, as Ollie's Opposition girlfriend is referred to as a right-winger and Peter praises the '80s for being a time when his party was in power. If not before then, in Season 4's Coalition government is clearly Conservative/Lib Dem, not just because that's what's happening IRL but because of the sorts of blunders the parties make- Nicola is naive and idealistic, wants to ban toys and spends far too much time worrying about sounding prejudiced in any way, which was just what the Labour government seemed to do. Peter Mannion, though altogether trying his best, comes off vaguely prejudiced because he's out of touch, and hates youth, or at least doesn't know how to address them. Stewart Pearson also notes how he has worked for ten years to "detoxify" the party by removing racists, homophobes and sexists, a very real concern for a Conservative Party that has been desperately trying to shed its image as a party for casual bigots and only barely succeeding by somewhat ineffectually keeping a lid on its own back bench. Stewart then goes on to say that the whole project was doomed to fail from the start since the whole thing is rotten from the ground up. The fact that Northerner Ollie resents his (ex-)girlfriend Emma's apparent class privilege—even flat-out calling her a "rich bitch" when they break up—and that they deride each other for being stereotypical members of their respective parties makes it pretty clear that he's with Labour, she's Conservative. The series also plays with the various clashing ideologies within the parties, again without quite naming them; Peter, for example, is very clearly an old-school "One Nation"-style conservative who's forced to co-exist within a party dominated by neo-liberal Thatcherite types. And of course, part of the point of the series is that for all the ideological differences that can be named between the parties, ultimately the problem is that they're all ultimately staffed and run by self-interested, power-hungry and cowardly hypocrites who usually end up prioritising what's best for them over what's best for the country, meaning that for all practical purposes the differences between them don't end up mattering all that much.
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The Thick of It / int_e3b0cd87	type	Morality Pet
The Thick of It / int_e3b0cd87	comment	Morality Pet: Malcolm's PA, Sam.
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The Thick of It / int_e5a9f2b9	type	While You Were in Diapers
The Thick of It / int_e5a9f2b9	comment	While You Were in Diapers: In a deleted scene from "The Rise of the Nutters", Ollie calls Malcolm homophobic after a string of gay jokes. Malcolm shuts him up:
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The Thick of It / int_e5e6640b	type	Flanderization
The Thick of It / int_e5e6640b	comment	Flanderization: Throughout the first two series and the Specials, Terri is a reasonably motivated and competent civil servant. By the third series she becomes noticeably stupider, lazier and more useless, to the the point where even the Opposition refer to her as "the useless one". She also becomes one hell of a lot bitchier. However, it's revealed in the fourth season that she's actually trying to get out with a redundancy package. Same goes for Phil. In his first appearances during the first special (and the Opposition Extra that runs concurrent with the second special), he's an inexperienced and easily-jangled but fairly savvy worker with a desire to pony up to Peter Mannion and an obsession with the 80s. However, during the third series, he starts behaving very unprofessionally in his attempts to mess with Ollie, and in the finale, he's judged useless enough to be delegated to coffee duties. By the fourth series, he's little more than a useless, immature "8-year-old trapped in the body of a 12-year-old," about whom every interaction ends with either a punchline about how much he loves sci-fi and fantasy or something about him sucking up to Peter; admittedly, the worst of his uselessness is partly due to the fact that he's no longer teamed up with Emma. Glenn Cullen's age is played up more as the series progresses. He goes from being the more overtly harsh advisor to Hugh, to being an out-of-touch old man in later seasons.
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The Thick of It / int_e66e9bfb	type	New Era Speech
The Thick of It / int_e66e9bfb	comment	After Malcolm's sacking, Steve Fleming delivers what might be the creepiest New Era Speech ever by comparing everyone present to the Fritzl children emerging from the cellar.
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The Thick of It / int_e83f211c	type	O.O.C. Is Serious Business
The Thick of It / int_e83f211c	comment	O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Malcolm Tucker stops swearing and speaks in a measured, reasonable tone, tremble. When Malcolm Tucker admits that things aren't going so well for him...run.
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The Thick of It / int_e851b5	type	The Plan
The Thick of It / int_e851b5	comment	The Plan: The way Malcolm ruthlessly takes his job back is definitely one.
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The Thick of It / int_e88e8a8f	type	Writer on Board
The Thick of It / int_e88e8a8f	comment	In a series where everybody is a terrible person on some level, it's hard not to see a little Writer on Board when Glenn (a slightly better person than most) calls former Daily Mail editor Adam "the single most loathsome person I've ever met".
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The Thick of It / int_e8cae797	type	Freudian Trio
The Thick of It / int_e8cae797	comment	Freudian Trio: Malcolm is the Ego, Ollie is the Id, Glenn is the Superego.
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The Thick of It / int_e9db9908	type	Younger Than They Look
The Thick of It / int_e9db9908	comment	Younger Than They Look: Actor Alex MacQueen is in his mid-thirties (and is actually younger than Chris Addison), but his character, Julius Nicholson, looks much older, thanks to his massive shiny head. Old enough to play a life peer, at least:
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The Thick of It / int_e9e35e8f	type	Exact Words
The Thick of It / int_e9e35e8f	comment	Exact Words: In the first episode, Hugh Abbot's first day as Secretary of State for Social Affairs gets off to a bad start when he goes to launch his new policy, under the impression that he has received the Prime Minister's enthusiastic approval. On his way to the launch, Malcolm rings him up and angrily tells him what the P.M. actually meant.
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The Thick of It / int_eaf5a1ac	type	Groin Attack
The Thick of It / int_eaf5a1ac	comment	Groin Attack: When Phil gleefully tells Ollie Emma has dumped him before Emma can break the news herself, Ollie assaults him with a cup of hot coffee to the groin.
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The Thick of It / int_eb6912	type	Pretty Fly for a White Guy
The Thick of It / int_eb6912	comment	Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Oxbridge-educated posh boy Olly sometimes tries to put on a humourous Jafakean accent. The effect is ludicrous:
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The Thick of It / int_eb8856	type	The X of Y
The Thick of It / int_eb8856	comment	The X of Y: Rise of the Nutters.
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The Thick of It / int_eb8ec7c8	type	Jerkass
The Thick of It / int_eb8ec7c8	comment	Jerkass: Instead of listing down the many, many moments Malcolm himself goes round insulting his co-workers, try counting the number of times where he has a conservation without insulting the person he's speaking to, we'll wait and see. Nutter Nick Hanway is a bit of an unlikeable cock — happy to steal Ollie's (actually Malcolm's) ideas and take credit, and gleeful in the possibility that he might replace Malcolm in the next reshuffle. Ollie Reeder progressively becomes more and more of a jerk over the course of the series. In Season Four it enters Faceâ€“Heel Turn territory. Season Four introduces Fergus and Adam. Glenn considers Adam the most loathsome person he has ever met. Jamie Macdonald, Malcolm's psychotic sidekick. Ben Swain can also be a jerk, particularly when he's jealous. Dan Miller. It would probably be quicker to list the characters who appear in the series and aren't colossal dicks to the people around them in some way, shape or form.
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The Thick of It / int_ec993b17	type	Leaning on the Furniture
The Thick of It / int_ec993b17	comment	Leaning on the Furniture: Olly tries this in Malcolm's Number 10 office. It does not go down well: "Feet off the furniture, you Oxbridge twat. You're not on a punt now." Jamie does this habitually but gets away with it because most people are terrified of him.
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The Thick of It / int_ed353b39	type	Geeky Analogy
The Thick of It / int_ed353b39	comment	Geeky Analogy: Attempted by Malcolm Tucker. Trying to convince resident ''Star Wars fan Ollie Reeder to support his plan to get rid of Opposition Leader Nicola Murray, he uses perhaps the worst analogy in history.
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The Thick of It / int_eda30d58	type	0% Approval Rating
The Thick of It / int_eda30d58	comment	0% Approval Rating: Played for Laughs when Malcolm receives in one episode a birthday cake with the words "Happy Birthday C*nt" written on the icing. His reaction? As powerless as she was during her time as head of DoSAC, Nicola at least had the support of her staff. After becoming Leader of the Opposition, Nicola ended up earning the disrespect and mockery of almost everyone she encountered on a day-to-day basis: members of public openly deride her attempts at securing power; journalists hound her at every turn, accompanied by the dreaded "Chop"; her assistants openly insult her; the rest of the shadow cabinet laugh at her ideas... even Steve Fleming went out of his way to publicly state that she was un-electable.
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The Thick of It / int_edeafb2e	type	Malicious Misnaming
The Thick of It / int_edeafb2e	comment	Malicious Misnaming: A reasonable chunk of both parties call Mr Tickel (pronounced 'ti-KELL') "Mr Tickle". This comes back to bite them when the emails in which they call them this get leaked.
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The Thick of It / int_edf0331d	type	Of Course I Smoke
The Thick of It / int_edf0331d	comment	Of Course I Smoke: Terri has a cigarette with hapless Opposition MP Peter Mannion, in order to flirt with him. (He doesn't notice either the flirting or that she is rather obviously not a smoker.) One quick scene from "The Rise of the Nutters" shows Malcolm Tucker, of all people, having a cough attack over a cigar. The waiter seems amused.
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The Thick of It / int_ee7fca3d	type	Silver Fox
The Thick of It / int_ee7fca3d	comment	Silver Fox: Adam. Apparently he's aware of it, too; he says he entered politics "for the pussy." Malcolm Tucker in the later seasons counts too. Neither is very nice, but that doesn't seem to faze their following.
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The Thick of It / int_eedee4d	type	The Starscream
The Thick of It / int_eedee4d	comment	"I AM GOING TO JOIN DAN MILLER'S TEAM, AND WE ARE GOING TO TAKE YOU DOWN! WE ARE GOING TO TAKE YOU DOWN TO FUNKY TOWN! FUNKY TOWN CENTRE, HERE YOU COME! CHOO-FUCKING-CHOO!"
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The Thick of It / int_eef90616	type	Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick
The Thick of It / int_eef90616	comment	Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Malcolm demonstrates his low opinion of Julius:
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The Thick of It / int_ef255df8	type	High Turnover Rate
The Thick of It / int_ef255df8	comment	High Turnover Rate: The Minister for Social Affairs (and Citizenship). Terri remarks that she has served under five different ministers, or, as she puts it, "a box-set". She said this in the very first episode, and she has now served under eight. The show chronicles the careers of four of these ministers - Cliff Lawton, Hugh Abbott, Nicola Murray and Peter Mannion.
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The Thick of It / int_f06b07ff	type	Locked Out of the Loop
The Thick of It / int_f06b07ff	comment	Locked Out of the Loop: In "The Rise Of The Nutters" and "Spinners and Losers", Malcolm Tucker is constantly kept out of the loop despite being the Prime Minister's spin doctor.
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The Thick of It / int_f165cf2c	type	Last-Second Word Swap
The Thick of It / int_f165cf2c	comment	Last-Second Word Swap: Ollie does a great one while talking about how to kill Julius Nicholson. Malcolm is somewhat less concerned about offending people, and prefers to swap a final word for something more offensive: Similarly subverted when Nicola complains about John Duggan's ineptitude: "All he's doing is depriving a village somewhere of a twat". From Series 4, Episode 2:
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The Thick of It / int_f16da697	type	Undying Loyalty
The Thick of It / int_f16da697	comment	Undying Loyalty: Sam and Malcolm to each other; their relationship highlights the fact that Malcolm isn't just a Glaswegian thug in a suit, but a professional that acts like he does because he's all but forced to by the incompetent sycophants he must tolerate daily. Sam is GOOD at her job, and he rewards this effort by treating her with genuine respect and deference. She, in turn, stays on as his PA for at least the eight-year run of the show, during which every other professional relationship and alliance portrayed within the series is destroyed completely at least once. This includes her crossing over into opposition with him after his party loses the election, and she even bursts into tears when he is temporarily sacked (at which he immediately attempts to console/defend her).
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The Thick of It / int_f1d3f0c9	type	Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness
The Thick of It / int_f1d3f0c9	comment	Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Posh and over-polite Julius Nicholson: Stewart Pearson is a political media strategist, who seems to have absolutely no communication skills, and whose speech consists entirely of buzzwords and nonsense. In the penultimate episode, it's revealed that he isn't doing this on purpose; he really thinks he's speaking in plain English, and using simple words and clear phrases requires real physical effort on his part.
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The Thick of It / int_f2877d9e	type	IncrediblyLamePun
The Thick of It / int_f2877d9e	comment	Incredibly Lame Pun: Abbot congratulating Ollie on his (nonexistent) "MA Lchievellian" tactics.
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The Thick of It / int_f2d8e3c2	type	Evil Plan
The Thick of It / int_f2d8e3c2	comment	One of Malcolm's Evil Plans leads to Steve Fleming being photographed discussing the crime stats enquiry with Julius Nicholson. One newspaper runs the photograph with the headline "Give us the bald facts", causing uber-bitch Terri to remark: "Oooh, it's very rude, that. I was always taught not to make personal remarks".
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The Thick of It / int_f47bdd2a	type	Violent Glaswegian
The Thick of It / int_f47bdd2a	comment	Violent Glaswegian: Malcolm and Jamie epitomise this trope. Malcolm gets called the "Gorbals Goebbels", suggesting he came from a rough part of Glasgow. Jamie is actually from Motherwell. "Just because you two were raised by Scotch wolves." This show proves that threats sound more menacing in Glaswegian. Ironically, Paul Higgins hates this trope.
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The Thick of It / int_f4bd2a7b	type	Forgotten Anniversary
The Thick of It / int_f4bd2a7b	comment	Forgotten Anniversary: Well, Peter's wife Tina thinks he's forgotten. Actually, he says he left a card on the kitchen table; it's in his pocket.
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The Thick of It / int_f50995d	type	Hoist by His Own Petard
The Thick of It / int_f50995d	comment	Hoistby His Own Petard: A double version occurs in the final season. Malcolm manipulates Nicola Murray, the Party's incompetent leader, into calling for an enquiry into the death of a mentally ill nurse who killed himself after becoming homeless due to a policy the Opposition introduced when they took power. After calling for the enquiry, Murray remembers that she herself supported the policy when the Party was in power, and resigns in disgrace, with Malcolm telling her that the enquiry will probably result in her suffering serious consequences, which he sees as fitting punishment for her dragging the Party down for two years. However, the PM expands the scope of the enquiry to cover the culture of leaking in Westminster. By the time Nicola is called, she is so far beneath their notice they don't even listen to her testimony, while the enquiry discovers that Malcolm leaked the nurse's private medical records to the media, and he is eventually arrested.
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The Thick of It / int_f5a3e496	type	Suspiciously Similar Substitute
The Thick of It / int_f5a3e496	comment	Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Nicola Murray replacing Hugh Abbot. Her only points of difference with her predecessor are that she's a woman, and that she's not best friends with her main ministerial advisor. This is entirely justified, as the premise of the show is that all politicians are the same.
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The Thick of It / int_f6d73bdf	type	Obsolete Mentor
The Thick of It / int_f6d73bdf	comment	Obsolete Mentor: "I may be needed. I've been needed in the past." Poor Glenn, no-one's wanted his opinion or advice on anything since Series 2. It's now so long ago that Hugh being deeply interested in his opinion practically counts as Early Instalment Weirdness.
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The Thick of It / int_f6f2ff1	type	Insult Backfire
The Thick of It / int_f6f2ff1	comment	Insult Backfire: Most insults aimed at Malcolm backfire as he is already fully aware of his bastardry. The tables are turned however when he finds himself in a meeting at The BBC, trying to offend two TV producers with inappropriate comments. One tells him "that's exactly the sort of banter we're looking for!": Unused to such butt-kissing, he responds by looking absolutely terrified.
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The Thick of It / int_f74f567f	type	Bastard Understudy
The Thick of It / int_f74f567f	comment	Defied with Jamie: Malcolm specifically chose a Bastard Understudy too batshit to pull off a successful betrayal. Eventually he does make a rather pathetic attempt, which fails horribly.
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The Thick of It / int_f818b637	type	Dude, Where's My Respect?
The Thick of It / int_f818b637	comment	Dude, Where's My Respect?: Malcolm has fought so hard for the party. If The Missing DoSAC Files are to be believed, however, no one has an ounce of respect for him after the election. The e-mail exchange regarding the titular missing files is also indicative that people aren't taking Malcolm very seriously any more. The replies are snarky almost down to the last man. It's still hard to picture the characters saying any of those things to his face, however... and Ollie seems appropriately scared piss-less.
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The Thick of It / int_f945dff4	type	Facepalm
The Thick of It / int_f945dff4	comment	Facepalm: Terri does this during Nicola's speech at The Guardian lunch. Glenn does it in the sixth episode of season three when Terri talks back to Malcolm. Adam does it during the Golding Enquiry when Phil compares him and Adam to silverbacks and when his offensive emails are read out.
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The Thick of It / int_fabef10f	type	Don't Explain the Joke
The Thick of It / int_fabef10f	comment	Don't Explain the Joke: Someone desperately needs to explain this concept to press officer John Duggan. After Hugh asks "What's a circle jerk?" Ollie gets most of the way through explaining before realizing this was a bad idea.
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The Thick of It / int_fb3576b2	type	The Dog Bites Back
The Thick of It / int_fb3576b2	comment	The Dog Bites Back: In "Spinners and Losers", when it looks like Ben Swain has a slight chance of becoming the next Prime Minister, Ollie—who has been positioning himself as Swain's right-hand man—decides it's time to start throwing his weight around with Malcolm. It lasts about a minute before Malcolm shoots him down and bluntly orders him to go and buy some cheese. And in any case, events soon prove that Ollie really should have made sure Swain had more than what turned out to be a very slight chance of becoming PM. Through Series 4, Helen remains loyal to Nicola despite an increasing torrent of abuse in her direction. After Nicola's firing, Helen uses her loyalty to trick Nicola into an utterly humiliating video interview with the hack in a pork chop costume who has been harassing her most of the series. A subtle example in episode 3 of Series 4. The receptionist of the hotel in which Stewart is holding his thought camp responds to his obnoxiousness by being obsfucating when it comes to returning his phone shortly afterwards. She also directs him to the children's slide (leading to embarassing photos on Twitter), claiming that it's the best place to get reception - Emma being able to take a call elsewhere suggests it wasn't his only option.
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The Thick of It / int_fb9e0265	type	Team Dad
The Thick of It / int_fb9e0265	comment	Team Dad: Malcolm Tucker is Her Majesty's Government's Team Dad. The scariest, most abusive one imaginable.
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The Thick of It / int_fc151e9d	type	Department of Redundancy Department
The Thick of It / int_fc151e9d	comment	Department of Redundancy Department: In one of his arguments with Phil, Ollie remarks: "I hope your blog gets done for libel and you get knobbed in prison by men." And in "Spinners and Losers": Jamie:
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The Thick of It / int_fc45bac0	type	Wouldn't Hit a Girl
The Thick of It / int_fc45bac0	comment	Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Malcolm claims he wouldn't hit a woman. Of course, this doesn't stop him from punching Glenn.
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The Thick of It / int_fc4f5f19	type	Go-Karting with Bowser
The Thick of It / int_fc4f5f19	comment	Go-Karting with Bowser: In The Missing DoSAC Files, it's revealed that Malcolm occasionally plays tennis with Cal Richards, the Opposition's emergency PR man, and that he's on good terms with Richards' family. Malcolm considers himself and Richards to be "the only sane ones left". Deadly enemies Peter and Stewart have a friendly bonding moment, watching Fergus give a press conference, and talking about how much they hate him.
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The Thick of It / int_fd4f8299	type	Well-Intentioned Extremist
The Thick of It / int_fd4f8299	comment	Well-Intentioned Extremist: Beneath the buzzwords and self-righteousness, Stewart is genuinely a social liberal who believes in gender equality, environmentalism and inclusiveness. He really does want to modernise the party and make it kinder and less regressive. Unfortunately he seems to underestimate the size of the task, praising the unseen Premier as "genuinely progressive" despite other characters hinting he is anything but. It's likely he is being manipulated by his employers, who say they want to make the party less conservative, but are actually just indulging in a public relations exercise to seem less conservative. Whatever the case, long before his extremely bitter final speech though, he realizes it's a lost cause.
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The Thick of It / int_fdbd6162	type	With Friends Like These...
The Thick of It / int_fdbd6162	comment	With Friends Like These...: There are no friends in politics indeed. By the end of the series, the only relationships that are intact are Malcolm and Sam and Fergus and Adam. Just because Hugh is friends with Glenn doesn't mean he won't cheerfully betray him in a bid to make himself look good. By his final appearance, his actions have destroyed the friendship between the two. Just about every character will throw each other under the bus to save their own skin, but Olly really takes the cake. By the end, every relationship he's had is destroyed thanks to his ambition and machinations.
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The Thick of It / int_fdc1e848	type	Will They or Won't They?
The Thick of It / int_fdc1e848	comment	Will They or Won't They?: Malcolm and Nicola. They never will. And it is wonderful.
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The Thick of It / int_fea27091	type	Buffy Speak
The Thick of It / int_fea27091	comment	Buffy Speak: While overlooking their new office at the end of season two: The infamous "Quiet Bat People".
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The Thick of It / int_ff7f34c5	type	Pet the Dog
The Thick of It / int_ff7f34c5	comment	Pet the Dog: Malcolm proudly claims during the enquiry that he never attacks "civilians" i.e ordinary people who are outside the political sphere. Even Jamie seems to abide by Malcolm's code, as he is instantly polite and apologetic to a cleaner that he bumps into, seconds after chewing out DoSAC. Malcolm's relationship with Sam, his PA, is genuinely heartwarming; she's one of the only people he treats with true respect and camaraderie. After he gets (temporarily) sacked, she bursts into tears and Malcolm immediately goes to her defence even though she was forced to hang up on him earlier. In the book they sign emails to each other as M x and S x. There's a nice one at the end of "Spinners and Losers", after Glenn has a dramatic nervous breakdown over his uselessness and obsolescence. Malcolm invites Glenn to come interrogate Dan Miller with him, despite not really needing him. Ollie and Terri encourage him too, and Robyn offers Glenn a chocolate bar for blood sugar. Such scenes become almost non-existent as the series progresses. Ollie very warmly tells Glenn that he feels proud of him when the latter tells Ollie he plans on standing for Parliament. The moment is one of total sincerity, notwithstanding that Ollieâ€™s quick to mock when the plan falls through due Glennâ€™s association with Nicola.
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The Thick of It / int_ff933645	type	Evil Duo
The Thick of It / int_ff933645	comment	Evil Duo: Malcolm and Jamie have unique ways of controlling their enemies. Malcolm uses his frightening degree of charm to manipulate them. Jamie threatens to push iPods up their penises. Except when they're beneath Malcolm's dignity to manipulate, in which case he just shouts a lot. With rather colourful turns of phrase. Jamie is Malcolm without the people skills.
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The Thick of It / int_ffad4e9f	type	Shown Their Work
The Thick of It / int_ffad4e9f	comment	Shown Their Work: The series displays a very extensive and realistic documentation of the inner workings of the offices of Whitehall, and has many fictional counterparts for real politicians. Politicians themselves have commented on the realism, noting that the only thing unrealistic about it is the show's infamous amount of profanity. In real life, it's worse.
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