The Thick of It: Series 1, Episode 2 (2005)

When a journalist prints a slew of unflattering remarks about Hugh, Malcolm prepares to let slip the dogs of war.  Assuring Hugh that the prime minister is behind him all the way, the man behind the Number 10 media curtain arranges retaliatory press pieces and does everything in his power to make the hopelessly-out-of-touch Hugh seem “clued up.”  Of course, Hugh and his team decide to do their part to combat the article as well.  It’s only a matter of time before they’ve made the situation infinitely worse.

 

The Thick of It, however, doesn’t divide its characters neatly according to competence.  The pilot gave the impression that the show would be “the terrifying, always-right Malcolm cleans up everyone else’s messes,” and don’t get me wrong, that will be some well-trod territory by the time we’re done here.  But Malcolm gets his own share of the screw-ups in episode 2, and it’s not exactly inconsequential.  I like that; he’s much smarter than most of the people he interacts with, and he often comes out on top, but he’s not bulletproof.  It’s an important shade to his character.

 

This is a good episode for PC.  Malcolm is terrific as he quizzes Hugh on modern pop culture, getting more and more incredulous as Hugh reveals the depths of his cluelessness.  And I love the moment when Malcolm realizes how badly he’s stepped in it – you get the sense that, in his head, he’s giving himself the same sort of abusive tirade he regularly uses on cabinet ministers and their staff.

 

This is also the episode that cements my undying approval of Hugh as a character.  I suppose, in a way, he’s similar to Toby from The Office, or even Ted from Scrubs – a dully lugubrious sad-sack.  It’s done so subtly and slyly, though.  One of my favorite Hugh moments ever is when he tells a colleague that he didn’t go to bed because he didn’t think it was worth taking his trousers off.  He’s just such a defeated Eeyore of a man, and I love it.

 

Plus, he references Mr. Gradgrind from Hard Times!  (On a side note, how great is British comedy?)  In an episode about how behind-the-times he is, pop-culture-wise, references to lesser-known Dickens characters are that much more apt.