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? 🤞🤞

Peter Manion ( or of your Terri, Man-Yum)

The moment I love most is when Peter Capaldi realises they're going to get rid of him and you can see it all flashing through his mind and he says, "Oh no" and you just know there's going to be an explosion.

Series 4, Fergus querying whether Peter Mannion or Glen or someone understands tech: "forgive me, but it's like asking whether a dog understands the concept of Norway."
Glen's tiny kettle.
Quiet bat people.
Harpoon in the thorax.

I will never get tired of it.

And for the best description of Tory party
"Six-toed born to rule pony fuckers"

And to Emma: I'm sorry but you're just an insipid posh bitch!"

There are lots of really obscure gems as well, just throw away lines like in the radio interview episode where the producer shouts to Phil: You! Rupert Brooks.

Looked up Rupert Brooke and died laughing.

Or Adam to Phil: when you go to hairdresser, what do you ask for? Disney prince?

*typo: Rupert Brooke

Or the best description of Paxo: death mask of Shergar.

Couldn't ever look at Paxo the same way after that...

I'm going to stop now

affection I agree that some of the throwaway lines are the best! Like this relatable gem from Peter

It is perfect. Could rewatch it endlessly.

“difficult difficult, lemon difficult” gets a regular airing in our house.

All these replies are so interesting! Been thinking for a while about writing something on feminism and TTOI, I write random bits of essays over summer to keep my hand in for uni. This thread has definitely kindled my enthusiasm 😂

yeah, brill. Best satirical comedy programme ever.

I think its (1) the constant sense of almost total panic. (2) Constantly, abusively telling people what they're really like. The female MP hypocritically sending her DC to "private school" thing was one of the memorable episodes.

'dp won't watch it, even though he's love it, because he doesn't like the swearing!'

I gave one of the DVDs to a friend of mine. She said she turned it off after 10 minutes coz of the swearing. I honestly haven't felt quite the same about her since. I really mean that. The swearing is GLORIOUS, an absolute masterclass

TTOI is probably my favourite TV show of all time. I adore it

Didn't they have a swearing consultant?

@tixdy, do you mean when Rebecca Front was sending her daughter to private school, at the start of series 3, and they made her pull her out?

The whole thing is glorious. The dialogue, the vocab, the characters, the atmosphere of being permanently on the edge of disaster yet simultaneously drowning in cynicism, laziness and ennui.

Peter Capaldi's performance is simply a tour de force. Never seen anything like it in terms of verbal dexterity, emotional complexity and sheer sustained energy.

'What do you ask for at the hairdresser, Disney prince?' is one of my favourites too. Along with 'Why have they all got clothes with writing on? And why are they all so fat?'

"Lego, they're all made of Lego..."

'Eat the cheese, eat the fucking cheese', Malcolm Tucker's side kick to Julius gets me every time. He makes cheese sound so very sinister.
And Julius and the bhaji 'I'm eating the onion bhaji, because I am the man who makes the onion bhaji go away'.
Oh, and Steve Fleming in meltdown to MT 'we are gonna take you down, down to Funky Town! Funky Town Central, here we come! Choo-fucking-choo!

I didn't watch any of it when it was first shown, have recently watched all of the episodes on Netflix. I was genuinely surprised/amused how it mirrors politics now, especially the episodes where the minister accidently lied to a committee, which I was watching while all the Amber Rudd Windrush committee fiasco was going on. The swearing is glorious .

God the food fight cracks me up 😂 "Look at this: a takeaway and a fight. All I need now is a handjob in a bus shelter, and I've had the Great British Night Out."

Also just remembered Blinky Ben Swain rushing to his long hidden chocolate stash in the lockdown... sweet giver of blood sugar 😂

I find listening to all the swearing quite cathartic

Any scene with Julius cracks me up. The one where he walks in on Glen and Ollie having a scrap - "Be careful, you FOOLS! These are expensive biscuits and they cost four pounds!"

Mannion to Stewart - "Shut the fuck up, you prancing shit."

And the whole scene with The Fucker!

Ooh, may print this out to stick on my fridge

Julius is an underrated babe. His delivery is absolutely amazing. Just a bougie lil middle aged baldy fuck tryna make his way to a rather important senior position, thank you very much.

Yes, every line Julius has is delivered just perfectly. I now use the phrase 'naughty bastard' quite often!

The Fucker. It's most effective 3 minutes of acting ever as Tom Hollander turns up acting as psychotic as they come.

And the genius little cameos:

Mary from the Home office: I'm here in angry capacity

Mannion to Stewart: Any thoughts from inside your fucking dream yurt?

Mary is awesome. Her face at the away blue sky thinking day when Mannion asks her about the Post it on his forehead saying "Inclusivity" "Am I a solid concept I'd be comfortable talking about to Paxman on newsnight?
Mary: No

'Yes, every line Julius has is delivered just perfectly'

I remember listening to the DVD commentary and Peter Capaldi was talking about Alex McQueen who plays Julius. He said that he used to be a barrister so is particularly skilled at improvising slick sounding bullshit Capaldi sounded very fond of him

'Tinker Tailor Soldier Cunt' is one of my all time favourite lines

Capaldi sounded very fond of him.

Gently fanning the flames of Julius/Malcolm fan fiction. Doesn't tickle my pickles (Malcolm and Sam 2getha 4eva 😍👰) but it's surprisingly popular.