“The Thick of It – The Scripts” Book Review

It’s a strange, and fairly recent, phenomenon, but it looks like the publication of scripts from TV shows is here to stay. The only target market I can conceive for these publications is the die-hard fan of the show, so either that show has to be mass-market, in which case the script-writing may not be that engaging, or high quality enough for people to want to own.

“The Thick of It” was never mass-market, with it’s flamboyant swearing and BBC4 airing, but it was definitely of the highest quality. Produced by Armando Ianucci, and written in conjunction with some of the best writers working in television today, the show was a highy literate, insightful and accurate attack on political spin-doctoring, new labour, tories and everyone around them.

Put down on paper these scripts still work well, and you easily get the full sense of the incompetence of the minister Hugh Abbot, the chaos of his government department, and the full-scale horror that is spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker.

Highly recommended (for the fans).