The Thick of It: Series 3, Episode 6 (2009)

 

A lot about this episode feels like it could’ve been taken directly from the show’s first season.  True, Hugh was never as catastrophically awful with the press as Nicola is, but there’s something about the way an enormous crisis is born out of such a tiny mistake.  When Nicola, in an interview, refers to the prime minister as the right “man” for the job, she inadvertently starts a media frenzy.  The press, you see, believe that she feels she’s the right woman for the job and is gearing up to make a bid for the PM’s leadership.  DoSAC is put on lockdown, and everyone runs around frantically trying to brave the storm.

 

But what’s really noteworthy about this episode is how badly Malcolm handles the crisis.  Pretty much every call he makes only worsens the situation, and as the day wears on and things get crazier, his bad decisions start to snowball.  When Nicola is telling you you’re not on the ball, you’re really off your game!

 

We’ve seen Malcolm make mistakes before, of course, including some terrible ones with wide-reaching consequences.  However, I don’t think he’s ever been as utterly ineffectual as he is here.  There are few reasons for this:  first, the party’s previous spin doctor, who Malcolm unseated, is coming back on the scene.  He’s cozying up to the PM, and we know how well Malcolm reacts when he feels his job is being threatened.  Also, the state of affairs at Number 10 is apparently atrocious.  With the upcoming election, it seems the writing is on the wall, and Malcolm is, as he puts it, “sweating embryos” to bring his party through it in one piece. 

 

In other words, he’s completely wrung out, but he’s desperate not to show it because he’s worried that this old spin doctor is trying to usurp him.  Stressed, panicked, and paranoid – no wonder things are starting to catch up with him.  There’s a tremendous scene where he drags Terri into a conference room and just unloads everything he’s been dealing with.  It’s fascinating, because Malcolm is not one to let anyone see him looking concerned or overwhelmed or afraid.  And yet, after some initial raging, he really opens up to Terri and has one of the most civil conversations we’ve ever seen Malcolm take part in.

 

At the start of the episode, fellow minister Ben Swain drops by DoSAC and winds up stuck there throughout the lockdown.  Ben first appeared in the 2007 specials as the incredibly media-inept junior minister Malcolm and Jamie had for breakfast.  He’s a dangerous combination of cocky and stupid, and as such, has a far higher opinion of himself than he should.  In addition to the nervous blink that crops up whenever he’s in front of a camera, he acts like a boorish frat-boy politician.  His completely-unearned arrogance is very funny, as is the way you can practically see the alarm bells going off in his head whenever Malcolm rips him a new one.