The Thick of It: Special – “The Rise of the Nutters” (2007)

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.