Armando Iannucci makes institutional chaos feel like an ordinary working day, which is why the comedy can hurt. We rate him highly for the writing and ensemble direction, though sustained abuse can wear thin.
Fi1m perspective
A minister tries to conduct government business under the attentions of a foul-mouthed enforcer, and everyone else has learnt to treat this as a normal working day. The Thick of It (2005) gives us ample reason to rate Armando Iannucci highly: he makes the office convincing enough for its humiliations to hurt. We laughed at the abuse, then felt uncomfortable because the staff were so accustomed to carrying on through it. The pleasure comes from the precision of the writing and the ensemble’s ability to make the chaos seem routine.
The route to that office runs through broadcasting comedy. The Day Today (1994) took radio news satire onto television, while I’m Alan Partridge (1997), developed with Steve Coogan, built its comedy around a hapless broadcaster. In the Loop (2009) expanded The Thick of It into a feature about the lead-up to war, and Veep (2012) carried his approach into American politics. The recurring interest is how people inside institutions talk, evade and improvise when authority is under pressure.
The fly-on-the-wall style of The Thick of It deserves as much attention as the swearing, with Iannucci directing alongside Becky Martin and Natalie Bailey. The loose-looking camerawork hides how precisely the humiliation has been written. Nobody has much chance to compose themselves, and the performances fit that lack of dignity. Peter Capaldi supplies the obvious attraction, but the ensemble gives the comedy enough variety to make it worth staying with.
The Death of Stalin (2017) takes his interest in struggles for power into Soviet history. The test for this kind of comedy is still whether the people being bullied matter as much as the person doing the bullying. Iannucci’s ensemble approach gives them room, even when the barrage of insults threatens to become monotonous.
Biography
Armando Iannucci is a Scottish satirist, writer, director and producer. Born in Glasgow on 28 November 1963 to Italian parents, he studied at the University of Glasgow and the University of Oxford.
He began his career at BBC Scotland and BBC Radio 4. With Chris Morris he co-created the radio series On the Hour, which transferred to television as The Day Today (1994). A character from the series, Alan Partridge, featured in I'm Alan Partridge (1997). Iannucci created, wrote and directed the political sitcom The Thick of It (2005). His later work includes the feature film In the Loop (2009), the HBO series Veep (2012) and the film The Death of Stalin (2017).
