Kings of Spin

Political satire is a very narrow film genre indeed. Sure, there are political films, some of which contain comedy: Man of the Year, Swing Vote, and the excellent TV series The West Wing to name but a few. Some of these contain comedic elements, but none really mock the activity of politics itself. Dr Strangelove and The Great Dictator are perhaps an exception, but that leaves a not inconsiderable 45-year absence of films from the genre.

Enter Armando Iannucci, who has to date been behind two of the most hilarious programmes to ever grace UK TV screens: The Day Today and The Thick of It. In the Loop is his most recent effort, a big screen adaptation of The Thick of It. It’s a scathing, piercing and riotous look at the world of politics, and is scarily believable.

Iannucci clearly knows his subject matter intimately. Just ask Tom Hollander, who plays the stupendously clueless Minister for International Development, Simon Foster. “Armando is a brilliant satirist, that’s what he is, and he definitely understands this world of politics and is obsessed by it.” Hollander, who has mainly played it straight in his other films, which include the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, Enigma and more recently Brian Singer’s Valkyrie, did the appropriate amount of background study into his character, “given that Simon doesn’t really know anything”. “I felt it was right not to do any research, instead I just muddled through it, ” he says.

Although some would argue that it portrays the political process in a bad light, the story has not worsened the cast’s opinion of their real-life counterparts. Chris Addison, who plays Toby, Simon Foster’s assistant, explains: “Politicians are not venal, mendacious, evil people. By and large, they are ordinary people who have been elected to become representatives of the people. Their ability to continue doing that relies on their ability to continue being re-elected, which also informs their behaviour.” Their opinion is logical therefore, but still a little unnerving given that In the Loop deals with a war being waged in the Middle East.

A number of the characters bear more than a passing resemblance to current and former politicians. One such character is Malcolm Tucker, played by Peter Capaldi, who is widely considered to be a fictionalisation of Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s right-hand spin-man from 1994 to 2003. According to Peter however, this link may be less intentional: “No-one consciously said that Malcolm was going to be Alastair Campbell,”.

Malcolm is far more extreme and a great deal more colourful in his choice of words than the former Director of Communications and Strategy. But the writers, including Jesse Armstrong, believe that the number of swear words is not inordinate. “The swearing was something that came out of research into that kind of slightly hyper-macho, new Labour world. It feels real.” Addison adds: “It sells it short just to say it’s ‘sweary’. It’s profane, but the writing around those swear words is incredible, beautiful and funny”. It is alarming, but nevertheless very appealing, to see the strange beauty in hearing Malcolm tell someone that he will “pop a jaunty little bonnet on their purview and ram it up the shitter with a lubricated horse cock” – this being just one of many utterly brilliant one-liners that litter the film.

The level of realism in the film is increased by a great deal of improvisation on set and in rehearsals. “It’s not about trying to come up with 101 new funny things,” Iannucci explains. “It’s more to see what actually would happen in these situations, what mood people would be in; it’s about getting the scene to look spontaneous and realistic.” He does however admit that this process can put a lot of pressure on the cast, especially those not accustomed to ad-libbing. Nevertheless, Hollander says that ultimately the cast had a very valuable safety net: “The truth is, there is this incredibly funny script, which is already there, which is funnier than the vast majority of comedy scripts out there, so it’s not that bad to just play the scene. It wasn’t a case of ‘come up with something funny or don’t be in the film’, it’s just that the opportunity for greatness is there”.

Let’s hope that this effort from Iannucci kick-starts a resurgence of the political satire film, because on this evidence, it’s a genre packed with comedic gold. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise; politics is after all a bit of an absurd process, full of potential embarrassment and ridiculousness, as the recent events concerning Jacqui Smith serve to highlight.