This week’s The Thick of It was literally so funny that I almost vomited with laughter. Episode 5 of the third season of The Thick of It sees Nicola Murray in a competitive radio debate on Radio 5 Live with her opposite number in the Shadow Cabinet, Peter Mannion MP.
Before I get into The Thick of It, this episode was Malcolm Tucker’s 50th Birthday and he received this charming cake that reads “Happy Birthday C*nt”.
He reads the card and upon realising it’s from the Prime Minister tells an aide:
“…and he wonders why we don’t let him out in public?”
This episode shows a new side to DoSAC staff, competitiveness (bear in mind I’ve not seen series 1 or 2). Each seems intent on savaging the other on any subject, well anything except City bonuses. Peter Mannion flatley to attack “money grabbing wankers” and tells Phil:
“Some of my best friends are money grabbing wankers and I’ve got to give a speech to room full of them tomorrow at the CBI lunch. I’m not gonna say ‘Hello chums, I’ve just taken a slash in the soup’.”
The usually tense atmosphere between rival camps is intensified when Richard Bacon’s producer lumps everyone into one tiny green room. Introduce some relationship issues between Emma and Olly and the entire show becomes exhaustingly hectic.
Peter brings Phil; his “little wooden twat”. Phil lives with Olly’s girlfriend Emma, Olly is jealous of this for good reason. Emma whom also works in opposition to DoSAC making the situation even more tense when they’re both ordered to Radio 5 by their respective spin-Doctors to clear up the verbal diarrhea their Ministers have been spouting.
This episode just seemed to go on forever when I first saw it, I thought it was a one hour special. The Thick of It always seems to move at a rabid pace but with the charged atmosphere between the two camps forever bubbling, I found this episode to be quite EPIC.
Malcolm always provides my favourite quote, but this week Olly was a close second when he declined Phil’s Lord of The Rings flavoured olive branch.
“This inability to speak without using Lord of The Rings metaphors is one the many reasons why we could NEVER be friends.”
As the spin-Doctors terrorise the production staff, Stewart sees a text on a screen from Tim in Ruislip which jeapodises DoSAC’s higher moral ground in the debate. Malcolm explodes when the Producer pipes it through to Richard Bacon in the studio to be read out, here is his rant it it’s entirety:
“…you’re fucking dead, and those three little words, Tim In Ruislip, are the fuckin’ nails in your coffin, dear.
Tim! In! Ruislip!
Tim in-fucking-Ruislip. And as for Tim in-fucking… -Ruislip, he’s fuckin’ dead as well! That fuckin’ txting coward. Give me his number. What’s his fuckin’ number? Give me the fucking number of Tim in Ruislip.
If you don’t give me his fuckin’ number do you know what I’m gonna have to do? I’m going to have to fuckin’ go to fuckin’ Ruislip and fuckin’ snap the thumb and forefinger off of every single person I see who I think, resembles the kind of wanker that would be walking around in this day and fuckin’ age with a name like fucking Tim!”
Malcolm Tucker’s face-off with his opposite number, new-school spin-Doctor Stewart Pearson is hilarious as each bring out the other’s skeletons from their own closet. Each threatens to devastate the other with evidence of exquisite-sleeze until Stewart trumps Malcolm’s Domestic Abuse with Backbench Homo-Scat.
I’ve been championing The Thick of It to everyone I know and this episode was really great television. Not since Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle early this year have I laughed been reduced to a gibbering, giggling, mess by a TV show. Awesome!
On the subject of the c*nt cake, you really should check out ‘Tucker’s Law’…snip of pure brilliance; had me laughing for days!
Thanks for the tip, here it is, Tucker’s Law:
..and here it is, Tucker’s Law, embroidered on a tea towel.
Thanks to Flickr user shootcoward for this.