The Thick of It: Series 2, Episode 3 (2005)

Here we are at the series 2 finale already.  Yesterday’s episode saw Malcolm launching an attack to save his job and protect the party he believes in.  Today, we see the depths to which Hugh will go to save his job, and his own beliefs are swiftly on the chopping job.

 

Hugh has been tasked with promoting a bill to close schools for SPED children and mainstream them instead, a bill he’s firmly against.  As he says, it’s “the one thing” in his job that he really feels strongly about, largely because Glenn Cullen, his advisor and old friend, has a child who benefited greatly from special education.  Glenn understands that Hugh’s hands are tied, but when he insists that Hugh do whatever he has to do, he doesn’t realize the license Hugh will take with it.  Things get ugly, and while the episode is still very funny, there are moments that are hard to watch.

 

A little more about Glenn – he and Hugh have been in the political trenches together for years.  Like I said, they’re old friends, but while Glenn can usually get away with saying things that the rest of Hugh’s staff can’t, the power differential between them is always present, never more so than here.  He would call himself experienced, while Ollie would argue that he’s verging on obsolete.  Generally, he seems to be the least two-faced person at the department (which, since the reshuffle, is now the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship, a.k.a. DoSAC.)  Not that he doesn’t look out for himself when the chips are down, but he’s more loyal and less opportunistic than a lot of other characters on the show.

 

After yesterday’s feast of good material for Malcolm, he has less to do here.  He mostly sticks to playing the government bogeyman – Hugh literally tries to hide from him at one point.  DoSAC has moved to a new building after the reshuffle, housing several other departments, and plenty of humor is mined from the fact that Malcolm now has four ministers to shout at in the same building.