Set in the halls of power, tuckering and political intrigue, the Minister for Social Affairs is continually hassled by Number 10’s policy enforcer (Peter Capaldi) and dependent on his most incompetent team of civil servants; Oliver Reeder (Chris Addison), Glenn Cullen (James Smith) and Terri Coverly (Joanna Scanlan). Chris Langham played Hugh Abott, The Minister for Social Affiars in Season 1 & 2 and Rebecca Front took over the role when Hugh was politically removed after he executed a major fuck up. No, Hugh! Should doesn’t mean yes. He was Tuckered and then ousted. Rebecca Front then took over in Season 3 & 4 playing Nichola Murray.

On an evening, I used to sometimes sit and watch the news and feast one’s eyes on what shenanigans the politicians have been up to of the day. Johnson, Cameron, Clegg (formely), Farage, you name it. Then I have also sat and watched House Of Commons debates as well. I have to say that British Politics is the birthplace of witty banter. The debates are really who can be more witty than the other person. An occurance that crops up all too frequently is that Boris Johnson has gone through a red light again on his bicycle. Pieces of news like this are “as useless as a marzipan dildo” and these give news readers a hard-on the size of Big Ben. Lets have a good wank to this guy riding through a red light. So much thug life there.

I would also see that this has been leaked and that been leaked. They happened so regularly and often that I thought that these aren’t coincidences, this is how it is. The Thick Of It showed me that as well. This is how British politics is. Then someone would resign and then I’d see that they had conducted a major fuck up much alike Hugh Abbot in The Thick Of It.

Malcolm Tucker is one of the best television characters that I have ever seen. Every character in the series has been tuckered. Some only once but then there are others where Malcolm jumps down the throat rips out their guts and then shoves their guts back down their throat again. He is the king of analogies. The king of insults. He is majestic and when he is Tuckering in that Scottish accent, it is a sight to behold. He’s a master manipulator and his enforcing skills have been compared to that of a velociraptor. He’s cold as ice but then he is happy about it. He lures his victims into this false sense of security and then tricks you into writing your resignation letter. He frequently uses rumours, smears, or threats of extreme violence to achieve his goals. A good analogy is Jimmy Burke (The Gent) in Scosese’s Goodfellas. Before Jimmy would wack someone, he’d pretend to be their friend and before they knew it, they were dead. Paulie Cicero is also a good comparison. Nobody summoned Tucker really (except the PM). He’d summon them much alike Paulie.

“Paulie may have moved slow, but it was only because Paulie didn’t have to move for anybody.”

Quotes About Tucker:

“Malcolm Tucker has the physical demeanour and the political instincts of a velociraptor” (The Guardian)

“Tucker’s writ runs through the lifeblood of Westminster like raw alcohol, at once cleansing and corroding” (The Daily Telegraph)

“If you make eye contact with Malcolm Tucker, you have spilled his pint” (The Times)

Capaldi as Tucker is the British equivalent to Netflix’s Frank Underwood in House Of Cards. Witty, cunning, intelligent and utterly without mercy. The media’s take on Tucker is not a mere fiction. These are true to the fold. Making eye contact with Malcolm is like making eye contact with a gorilla in the animal kingdom. He’ll rip you limb from limb and spit out your bones. Plus the other thing that Tucker and Underwood have in common is that every line they have is gold and so quotable.

The show’s use of profane language makes any HBO show look like it was produced by ITV, written by a woman who was raised by nuns and aired on ITV 1 at six o’clock in the evening.

“Today, you have laid your first big fat egg of solid fuck. You took the data loss media strategy and you ate it with a lump of E.coli. And then you sprayed it out of your arse at 300 mph.”

Malcolm has a line for everything but one of my favorites has to be when one of of his associates, royally failed a Paxman interview on Newsnight. Paxman is known for being a hard arse when interviewing people but especially politicians who have an innate reputation for fucking up people’s lives, unless you’re Maggie Thatcher who fucked up more but somehow many people still like her for it. Well the rich do. The North Remembers and so do Wales.

“Who was it that did your media training, Myra Hindley? It’s terrible! All these hands all over the place. You were like a sweaty octopus trying to unhook a bra. It was like watching John Leslie at work.”

Every other word by any character was either: fuck, shit, cunt, tit, cock, wank, twat or any other profanity that comes to mind. Great work BBC. BBC are known for being politically correct, pompous cybertwats but they pulled one out of the bag this time. Oh wait, that’s BBC One. This is BBC Two. Great work BBC Two. Capaldi is a great actor and he needs to do more shows like this.

Fuckety Bye!