The Thick of It didn’t run a full
season in 2007. Instead, it aired a
two-parter of hour-long specials. The
specials mark a shift in the series; while DoSAC and the characters there still
receive plenty of screentime, Malcolm begins taking on a much more pivotal role
in terms of storylines. From here on
out, we spend a lot more time in Malcolm’s world, viewing things from his
perspective. So, I’ve added “Starring
Role” to the tags for The Thick of It,
starting with this episode; I made that tag for The Love Child, the second day of Capaldi Fall, and this is my
first chance to use it again!
The
first special opens on Malcolm’s concerns about the extent of his
authority. We know from series 2 that
this is a sticking point with him, and in “The Rise of the Nutters,” he finds
himself suddenly out of the loop. As
director of communications, all media appearances within the party are supposed
to be run by him, but more and more decisions seem to be getting made without
his knowledge. Julius is better informed
than he is, and you can imagine how well that goes over.
Furthermore,
the prime minister has announced that he’ll be resigning within the year. (In British politics, prime ministers don’t
really have “terms.” The party in power
is the one with a majority in the House of Commons, and their party leader is made
prime minister. So if the PM resign from
their post while their party is still in power, a new leader is
appointed.) This means that the
supporters of the next most likely PM, derisively called “nutters” by the
current cabinet, have been coming out of the woodwork. Though Malcolm has no respect for them, he
knows that they’ll be steering the ship before long, and he’s anxious to know
that he’ll have enough time to make the necessary alliances to keep his place
when the regime changes.
Malcolm
is both relentless and ruthless when it comes to protecting his interests, but
things get out of hand in this special.
We see that his need for control has the potential to be his undoing; when
it looks like he may be put in a precarious position, he panics and winds up
torching a few bridges that might have been better left unburned.
There’s
also a completely fabulous subplot involving Malcolm and Jamie babysitting a
visiting “nutter” junior minister who turns out to be utterly unprepared for
media appearances. I mention it because
1) it’s flat-out hilarious, and 2) it gives us one of my favorite non-sweary
Malcolm quotes of all time. Upon seeing
the minister’s twitchy TV interview full of nervous gestures, Malcolm likens
him to “a sweaty octopus trying to unhook a bra.” There’s only one Malcolm Tucker; I love it.
We also
get our first real look at Hugh’s counterpart in the opposing party, Peter
Mannion. I enjoy Peter – he’s a bit of
an old-school politician trying to acclimate to the new, “hip” image of the
conservative party. While trying to just
get on with his job, he’s constantly butting heads with his side’s spin doctor,
who thinks ties and tucked-in shirts are old-fogey moves that went out with the
80s.
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