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

 

The pressure is on in this episode as all the characters prepare for a cabinet reshuffle.  Hugh is thrown into a panic when he finds out that the prime minister’s wife doesn’t “click” with him, and he desperately attempts to raise his stock.  He knows that, when the dust settles, he’d like to at least keep his position at DoSA if not move to a more desirable department.

 

Malcolm feels his own position threatened by the character I’ll mention today:  Julius Nicholson, a former business big shot who’s become an MP and gained the ear of the prime minister.  Julius isn’t a regular character, but he pops in from time to time as a nemesis for Malcolm.  As such, he’s most of the things that Malcolm can’t stand.  He’s buttoned-up and decorous, more than a bit of a snob.  He has all sorts of big ideas about maximizing the efficiency of government, approaching it like he would a business, and he has a rather firm stance on coarse language in the workplace.

 

Malcolm would dislike Julius anyway for his pretentious elitism, but it goes deeper than that.  In his mind, Julius is little better than a delusional child who’s been, by some dire misstep, been given power to wield over policies and cabinet structure.  Because his background is in business, he doesn’t understand what it’s really like on the frontlines, so to speak, and that one-two punch of power and ignorance make him dangerous.  Everyone who knows government knows he’s wrong, but their jobs depend on doing what he tells them to.

 

I think here is where we get our first glimpse of how truly protective Malcolm is of his party.  It’s true that Julius’s rising star threatens his hard-won position, and Malcolm’s sense of self-preservation is definitely in play – we see his response to being backed into a corner, and Malcolm knows how to go for the jugular in the most clever, concise way.  But more than that, he’s afraid of the damage Julius would do to the party if he gains any more control, and that’s a major part of the reason Julius winds up in his crosshairs.

 

I mentioned Malcolm’s attack plan in the above paragraph, and I just have to say, it’s stunning.  In a single scene, PC takes Malcolm from a frantic man on the defensive, to a seasoned general with an eye for tactics, to a confirmed alpha quietly confident in his own victory.  It’s a fantastic scene, and PC is great in it.