James Smith

Comfort Classic: The Thick of It

Chris Addison, James Smith, Joanna Scanlan, Rebecca Front and Peter Capaldi in The Thick of It (credit: BBC)

Armando Iannucci, who cut his creative teeth on such wondrous radio fare as the news lampoon On the Hour, revealed recently that the inspiration for creating his era-­defining political satire The Thick of It, was the Iraq war. He was infuriated by what he saw as Prime Minister Tony Blair’s willingness to “twist the narrative” in order to justify his support for what many regarded as a woefully ill-thought-through conflict.