(The picture is actually from In the Loop - pretty much everything I could find from The Thick of It were gifs with dialogue printed on them.)
This
may feel like a bit of a retread, since I talked a fair amount about Jamie in The Thick of It posts during the Capaldi
Fall days, but I figured he’s entertaining enough to warrant a write-up of his
own. I’ve also previously mentioned my
appreciation for “narrative wildcards,” loose-cannon characters who are good at
shaking things up (Dead Like Me’s
Mason and, more recently, The Goldfinch’s
Boris are two other such characters I’ve reviewed on the blog.) Though Jamie’s a pretty minor character and
doesn’t generally have a huge impact on the major direction of the series, the placard
on his desk probably has “loose cannon” written below his name.
Number
10’s second most notorious Scottish spin doctor, Jamie has served under the
tutelage of Malcolm Tucker and learned (certain) lessons well. He doesn’t possess Malcolm’s finesse and
relish for manipulative machinations, but he’s well-versed in using fear and
intimidation as motivators. Though he
makes some use of Malcolm’s patented filthy insults – he tells a loose-lipped
coworker that she’s “about as secure as a hymen in a south London comprehensive”
– he much prefers threats of straight-up violence. He offers to kidnap the same coworker when
she doesn’t want to come in for an all-nighter, making it clear that he’s not kidding about keeping a balaclava
and gaffer tape in his car and, in a fit of pique against another, vows among
other things to “have [his] guts as a skipping rope.” With an unhinged grin and a powerful case of
Crazy Eyes, Jamie isn’t a press officer to mess with.
Furthermore,
Jamie is one of the few characters in the series who isn’t the least bit afraid
of Malcolm. Even those with the nerve to
take him on quail when he unleashes his fury on them, but not Jamie. If anything, he vibes on it – he’ll throw the
same accusations and insults Malcolm’s way as he does anyone else’s, and
Malcolm’s fierce diatribes just up the ante.
And that’s good. Though Malcolm
has some opponents, as well as underlings who occasionally buck up enough courage
to try and challenge him, Jamie’s the only one who will get in his face and let
him have it when he’s gone off point. I
think Malcolm needs someone to genuinely go toe-to-toe with him; apart from
saving everyone else the quavering and heart palpitations, he sometimes needs
reminding that he’s not the omnipotent bogeyman of Whitehall.
It’s
easy to think of Jamie as nothing more than a violent, rage-filled satellite of
Malcolm, a walking bundle of Scottish vitriol only a few steps from
homicide. However, that’s not entirely
true. As I said, Jamie isn’t as much of
a behind-the-scenes puppet master as Malcolm is, but he’s still savvy and
highly proficient. He can bully results
out of the staff with the best of them (although his methods aren’t what you’d
call HR-approved,) and he knows his way around a scandal – I love the moment in
one of the election specials where no one can understand why their top pick
doesn’t want to be Prime Minister, and Jamie coaxes her secret out of her in
under a minute. He’s smarter than he
often gets credit for, and I’d wager that at least a portion of his attack-dog
persona is put on for show.
And
just as a point of interest, the In the
Loop version of him commits a bit of the old ultraviolence against a fax
machine and berates a coworker for listening to opera on the grounds that “it’s
just vowels!” and argues that said
coworker only listens “because it’s bad form to actually wear a hat that says ‘I
went to private school’” – I love it.
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