The Thick of It

[argumentativefeminist]

Please tell me theres other people out there also still overly invested in TTOI who want to swap theories/swear a lot/discuss trivia? 🤞🤞

goats Read all the fanfiction!! Some of it is of variable quality tbh but Archive of Our Own has some Sam/Malcolm and Malcolm/Jamie gems. I've been known to indulge in online roleplay as various characters of TTOI... 😳😂

@argumentativefeminist amazing.
Any recommendations?

Roleplay, eh? Okay, colour me intrigued Dare I ask who you...er...played? :D (sam right?)

Smutty: (Malc/Jamie) archiveofourown.org/works/12179373

Squishy feelings (Malc/Nicola): archiveofourown.org/works/12955092 - involves Malc going to yoga with Nicola for a press thing and being mildly concerned by his realisation that she's quite pretty.

archiveofourown.org/works/12997203 - my absolute fav where Nicola saves Malcolm from certain death with a Fruit Shoot

Sam and Malc:

archiveofourown.org/works/8611078/chapters/19745053 - Malcolm has a shitty birthday and realises he quite likes cuddles.

archiveofourown.org/works/7475937/chapters/17091898 - Sam's recently out of a shit marriage. Basically she sleeps around with most of the characters, to varying degrees of success.

There's lots more out there and lots I haven't read but these are some of my favs. goats normally Malcolm or Sam!

@argumentativefeminist thanks I will check it out. The fruit shoot one sounds particularly intriguing!

I'm going to start the Nicola Murray episodes tonight - I'm actually growing quite fond of her the more I watch these ones - especially as she gradually stands up to Malcolm and the moments where she's all fluster and panic and Malcolm realises that properly shouting isn't going to work and tones it down slightly [even if it is in an impatient, still very sweary Malcolm way]

I love Nicola, even though she's absolutely terrible at her job. Rebecca Front who plays her has said something along the lines of "Nicola isn't bad at her job because she's a woman, she's bad at her job because she's a human", and that's definitely how I see it and why I adore her. (The last recommendation I've realised isn't actually as finished as I thought it was and doesn't have any Sam/Malc! But still a nice if slightly sad read)

I absolutely love that sentiment of Rebecca's... it's not a gender thing, it's a human being thing. Malcolm says quite often to her that now she is tied to the public, and they don't want to see her as flawed and human.

I love how she has this innate terror of Malcolm at first, like when she hears he's on his way to her, and his reputation clearly precedes him (and then later on when he returns after she didn't speak up when he asked her to as he got sacked, and she's bricking it when she hears he's back in the building). But then as time goes on, she stands up to him more.

mmmgoats I love that moment after the whole Spinners and Losers debacle, when Malcolm leads Glen away with that line about him being Hugh's Glen. Seems a genuine compliment from Malcolm.

I've just remember the episode where Malcolm has all the journos over to his flat and they're eating curry.
He seems so bizarrely human and somehow diminished in stature because he's behaving in a slightly less terrifying way that it's almost unsettling!

Love that sentiment from Rebecca Front too.

bychoiceornot I know, it actually makes me go all warm and fuzzy, like when Malcolm says earlier 'I need a man, are you a man?' or words to that affect.

bychoice Malcolms gender politics with Nicola is so interesting. I think one of his most scathing lines to her is "By the way, women fucking hate you. I can show you the polling. They think you come across like a jittery mother at a wedding." He's totally calling out her image of herself as a strong, feminist, social equalitarian reformer and saying that actually, she doesnt have the strength of conviction or the fire in her belly to be those things, she's "political fucking mist" and nobody understand that that's what she's trying to stand for, so she ends up like the over-involved mother of the bride trying to make everything perfect while actually just getting in the way.

That's going in the dissertation in slightly nicer words!

I wonder sometimes about the origin of Malcolms clearly quite genuine deep down respect for Glen. His military past, maybe? The fact that Glen has also been in this shitstorm for ever, and small manliness breakdowns aside, has seemed to keep himself together better than Malc? I do think there's a part of Malcolm that empathises with the "I am a man" debacle.

@argumentativefeminist I've often wondered if it stems from the fact that Glen has obviously been around in politics for a while, so must have weathered a fair few storms and been a bit ruthless in his own way to stay where he has/got as far as he has.
Combine that with the fact he's also of the older generation and I think Malcolm respects him for hanging on in there.
I think he also realises that Glen too has given his life to the job - he seems to have quite a solitary existence outside the office, really brought home from his painting his sister's bathroom - which is quite similar to Malcolm really. The job is all they have.

Brilliant theories, I have not considered that before. I also feel like after Malcolm punched Glen, he was genuinely sorry. I mean there was of course a lot of 'oh fuck, I need to spin doctor the hell out of this' and what-have-you, but I honestly felt an undercurrent of real regret for hurting Glen. I am taken with the idea that Glen being of the older generation and having 'earned his stripes' over the years has a bearing on Malcolm's attitude towards him.

mmmgoats 100% agree there on the terror of a quiet and disarming Malcolm! Always waiting for that explosion, which nearly happens with the journos when he hosts them, as he's desperate to make it known that he IS the government. Or when he turns up at the office in his fleece and no-one quite knows how to take him being nice... their expressions and wariness are gold!

bychoice oh the fleece! The fleece was such an excellent costume choice - it’s so anti malcolm. Even the colour of it... he’s so soft and quiet in the fleece. Gets me every time.

@argumentativefeminist is it wrong that, as a writer by trade, I’m now considering writing my own fan fic?! This is all your fault, you know

Do it goats! I'm one day going to write up "Malcolm and Sam go to the Cotswolds" when I can get over the relentless self-cringing process of writing fan fiction 😂

do it do it @argumentativefeminist I’ve never really come across fan fiction before so I’m throwing myself wholeheartedly into it and telling myself it’s a creative writing exercise “for work”

Of course it is goats! If you need a proofreader or feel like sharing then PM me!

ooh i shall thanks. Not sure how
good it will be as I’m not sure I have the best grasp of politics but hey ho

The world could always do with more TTOI fanfiction!

Enjoy if you fancy! It has had precisely zero editing so probably isn't my finest hour, but it's a bit of fluffy loveliness leading up to Malcolm and Sam's Cotswold getaway.

archiveofourown.org/works/15576426

oh speedy work @argumentativefeminist

Just watching the ep that opens with Nicola in the papers doing the sack race, and Malcolm's little smile when he first sees the newspaper is genuine amusement/happiness. It's quite funny to see as it's so rare.

goats Its a skill of being a student! I do love that bit - and it's sweet that he is genuinely polite to the broadband cold caller when he's getting in the car.

Malcolm to Nicola: Today you have laid your first big egg of solid fuck.

Genius. Utter genius.

Brilliant work!

It's so odd to see Malcolm smile, it's a proper event when it happens! Like the tiny smirk when he looks at the Liam Bentley poster and you can see the moment he realises it's a golden opportunity. Or as I mentioned before, the fleeting amusement on his face when Jamie is sat behind Julius, being crude and rude. But I love the one you mentioned mmmgoats, when he sees the papers and has a proper big grin at the headlines... two seconds later and he's telling her not to worry, she won't be sacked, which from anyone else would be a nice, reassuring statement. But he just goes on to say that if she can last the year, then the PM can sack her and it won't reflect too badly on him, so just chill out for 12 months!

@bychoiceornot I know, it's so funny!

Seriously considering a name change to a TTOI reference...

You've inspired me to have a rewatch on Netflix!

It's funny that some of the stuff they're throwing around in the car and rejecting as ludicrous did come to be in a way. National spare room database - bedroom tax. And Glen's proposal that everyone must carry a plastic bag, well most of us do now because they cost 5p each.

Let us know how you get on, Octavia! I agree, the foresight of some of the things that come up in their random brainstorming sessions is quite incredible. I'm still waiting for the day 'Quiet Batpeople' becomes the new phrase for good citizens of the United Kingdom.

I'm wondering about the writers and how they feel when they come up with insults based on someone's appearance, clearly quite specific to the actor playing the part themselves. I'm sure everyone takes it all in good humour, but I wonder if they ever feel awkward, knowing the actor will read it and realise that's an image other people have of them! I'm sure there are others, but the two that come to mind for me are Jamie describing Julius as having a body like a sex toy, and Malcolm's BRILLIANT line about Ollie looking like a Quentin Blake illustration.