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In The Loop - Saga online talks to Armando Iannucci and Peter Capaldi
Political comedy The Thick Of It already has a number of BAFTAs under its satirical belt. Now, with the release of In The Loop, they're taking their behind-the-scenes brilliance to the big screen. Neil Davey talks to creator Armando Iannucci and, pictured right, star Peter Capaldi
Government-themed comedy The Thick Of It has been described as "hilarious", "painfully funny" and "all too plausible". And, perhaps most accurately given the somewhat fruity language of spin-doctoring central character Malcolm Tucker, "the mutant offspring of Yes Minister and The Sopranos".
It's fitting then that for this big screen adaptation, the obnoxious Malcolm – played by Peter Capaldi – goes up against James Gandolfini.
"It was an enormous thrill when he walked into the rehearsal room," reveals Capaldi, "and then we had to have a go at facing off with each other, which is tough because I'm just inches away from Tony Soprano." His eyes widen. "And he's a big guy...
"But he's brilliant, we just went for it. When you're filming stuff like that you can't be intimidated by how you feel, you have to get into Malcolm mode and let him take over. I just wish we'd had more scenes together. I would have sorted him out."
You certainly wouldn't put it past Malcolm because, as anyone who's seen the series will be aware, Malcolm is responsible for the most creative swearing in broadcasting history. Is it exhilarating or exhausting to play such a character?
"It's a combination of both," admits Capaldi. "It's quite fun, obviously, because he's much cleverer than I am, because he's got six writers who come up with lots of wonderful lines for him and he's got a bigger vocabulary and he's smarter than I am but I inhabit him, I'm the keeper of his black soul.
"That's a nice job to have, to keep that cauldron of bile boiling."
It's not though, as Peter is eager to point out, just about the F-word. "The bad language is just rocket fuel for the other wonderful linguistic stuff that is going on. It's a conjuring trick to make it look natural. It's not really natural, there are real mouthfuls in there, so you have to study it, learn it properly, and hopefully in the next series I will do that."
The film sees Simon Foster (played by Tom Hollander), the young British Secretary of State for International Development, accidentally sucked into backing a war he doesn't want. As with all The Thick Of It scenarios, it is indeed all too plausible and remarkably topical: even a throwaway line about the hotel adult channel has echoes of Jacqui Smith's recent embarrassment.
"You write all these things in advance," explains director Armando Iannucci, "and sometimes you think 'this is too silly'... and then someone from the Government comes up to you and says 'it's actually far, far worse.'"
As with Yes Minister and its sequel, The Thick Of It has a number of fans in Westminster. Even so, Armando was surprised when his speculative approach to film at Downing Street got the thumbs-up.
"They said 'oh, alright then, yes, the Prime Minister's away.' Downing Street was sort of empty. You'd think there would be someone running the country but fundamentally it was quiet.
"It was great because all the 'Malcolms' who work at Number 10 brought their cameras in, because they were quite excited and I was thinking but you're the real... I mean, aren't we more excited because... I didn't understand the dynamic of being more excited because a fictional character is coming in."
"I did," adds Peter, "because I've been to a Star Trek convention."
Although the final film runs to an audience-friendly 105 minutes, that follows a lengthy editing process that Armando likened to undergoing colonic irrigation.
"It's a long and increasingly painful process," laughs Armando. "Not that I've had colonic irrigation. I'd like to hit that on the head right now, the colonic irrigation nail.
"The first assembly of the film," he continues, "was four-and-a-half hours long and it was intolerable: I didn't want the Heaven's Gate of comedy. The first month of the edit got it down to around two hours, 10 minutes. The second month took it down to around two hours, and it was the last two months trying to get that last 15 minutes which I knew had to be done, because I just feel there's a natural duration for a comedy film.
"There are four or five scenes which I really like but I knew would probably go because they got in the way of the story and I left them in until about the final week and then got rid of them, and the film felt better for it. But," adds Armando, "it will be a great DVD."
In The Loop is on general release through Optimum Releasing from April 17.
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