The Thick of It.

At last something worthwhile has come out of the Coalition, the new series of The Thick of It. 

While the rest of us have to endure them Armando Iannucci and co must be jumping up and down with glee (the emotion not the show, although you can jump up and down with both). Watching weary old Tory Peter Mannion (the excellent Roger Allam), now the new Secretary of State at Do SAC, have to embrace the unbridled enthusiasm of his Coalition partners  is a joy. Especially when he had to present the new Silicon Playground initiative to a group of school kids, this was classic stuff every bit as funny as the inept bumblings of  ChrisLangham's Hugh Abbot way back in the first series. Glenn and Terri are still haunting Do SAC, with Terri coveting the prized redundancy package. But you just know she isn't going to get it. While poor, old  Glenn joined the Coalition, under the misguided apprehension he was going to be a guru, but he is now treated with even less respect (if that is possible) than he was under the previous regime. 

On the evidence of this opening episode, The Thick of It has lost none of the quality and sharpness that makes you constantly laugh out loud. All this without Malcolm Tucker, who returns next week, no doubt, raging against the  doldrums of opposition.

As a footnote, is it me or does Geoffrey Streatfield, who plays Coalition hotshot Fergus Williams, look exactly like Rafe Spall? It took me ten minutes to realise it wasn't him. If they ever need to cast twins, look no further than those two actors.

Over