It was Yes ex-Ministers last night when I went to a preview screening near Westminster of the first episode of semi-improvised political satire The Thick Of It which returns for a second series on BBC2 on Saturday (the first series went out on BBC4).
Jacqui Smith (former Home Secretary) guffawed two seats away (occasionally looking slightly uncomfortable) while Hazel Blears (former Communities Secretary) kept turning round to laugh with her from the row in front. Caroline Flint (former Minister for Europe) made it three ex-Ministers in the house. All have been involved and (subsequently reshuffled out of cabinet) in the MPs expenses scandal. Nice to see they've still got their sense of humour.
It's well known that The Thick Of It is popular in Westminster. As the show's creator Armando Iannucci said last night, privately MPs always tell him how true to life it is but publicly they say the exact opposite.
Vile spin doctor Malcolm Tucker (played by Peter Capaldi) is the snake-like whirlwind at the centre of it all. The script is funny, fast-paced and often filthy with Tuckerisms like "He's so dense light bends around him," bound to become required pub banter. The show famously has a swearing consultant who seems to be earning his or her keep given Tucker's increasingly inventive and hilarious rants.
Writing in The Independent, Rebecca Front who plays new Secretary of State for Social Affairs and Citizenship Nicola Murray says "You never forget the first time you get "Tuckered" – screamed at by Malcolm. But I found it strangely exhilarating". Front has taken over from the now disgraced Chris Langham who used to play blundering minister Hugh Abbot. And her character looks set to give Tucker some trouble.
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