Programme Information

Things can only get worse...

The Thick Of It

Saturday 26 October on BBC TWO

• Programme copy

The stars of The Thick Of It, Peter Capaldi, Rebecca Front, Joanna Scanlan and James Smith, along with producer Adam Tandy, talk to Press Information's Tony Matthews about the new series of the political satire.

It's Nicola Murray MP's big moment. Given a surprise Cabinet post in a prime ministerial reshuffle, she arrives in a patterned frock to take up her new role as Secretary Of State For Social Affairs And Citizenship dreaming of getting things done.

Once in The Thick Of It, Nicola (Rebecca Front) soon realises that achieving something is not on the agenda. By the end of the first episode of the new series of Armando Iannucci's Bafta-winning satire, she has acquired a nice chair (and been forced to put it in a skip because senior politicians can't be seen to be too comfortable) and been politically remastered in black dress and pearls, an amalgam of every female minister there has ever been.

Nicola's post is one that no-one else wants. The government is tired, its ideas are played out and it has no money. Only a fool would sign up for what is harshly known as "suicide watch". Nicola was so far down the list of candidates that the Prime Minister's venomous press co-ordinator Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) doesn't even have a file on her.

Returning for eight new episodes, The Thick Of It, the acidic 21st-century offspring of Yes, Minister and countless warts-and-all documentaries, is being brought to BBC Two by controller Janice Hadlow from her old channel BBC Four. "We've not been asked to make any changes, it's the same show," says producer Adam Tandy, although he adds that Nicola's introduction offers a fresh feel to the new series. "She's a problem for Malcolm Tucker because she has ideas," he says. "And ideas cost money, which is one thing no government has at the moment. All around her is this kind of stultifying need to put a lid on everything – they just don't have the energy anymore. The credit crunch has also given us a slightly different backdrop to kick against; we'd be stupid not to reflect it."

The foul-mouthed Tucker, meanwhile, has achieved cult status with his incandescent rants at ministers and time-serving lackeys alike. YouTube is full of samples of his "brilliant swearing", a tribute to his ability to turn a dressing down into an art form. Fans will be looking forward to new tirades. "It's great, but scary," says Peter Capaldi. "Shouting and swearing is his default position and it's expected of him, but it's a pressure, which I guess happens with all sitcom characters. It's great that Rebecca's character brings a new kind of colour to the show."

Does Peter find the swearing sessions easy to perform? "You get into a groove," he says, "they are largely scripted and I'm usually more worried about remembering the lines – one of the reasons they are so sweary is that, if I can't quite remember, I'll go for an f-word... it's an aide memoire. I do get into that zone when practising, and if real life intrudes my wife gets fed up with the swearing. She sighs with relief when it's all over."

Rebecca on the other hand relished the opportunity to shout and be shouted at. "I didn't want it to be like many sitcoms where the woman is the sensible one and everyone around her is crazy," she says. "I talked about this with the writers and we decided we'd be missing a trick if we didn't make her a working mother, hugely under pressure. But I wanted her to be funny and have enough failings for the story to be about her and her reaction rather just a working mother juggling life, kids and husband."

In preparing for the role, Rebecca spoke to sources who'd worked in political media management. "I asked what would make a minister a complete nightmare for someone like Malcolm," she said. "The answer was: 'If they believe in things.' Nicola is very committed to ideas, but it's all guff – she thinks plastic toys should be abolished to make way for wooden ones and that social mobility is a big thing. She also has this notion about the Fourth Sector..."

What's the Fourth Sector? "I'm glad you asked that," she says, slipping into politician mode to deliver an example of The Thick Of It's trademark improvisational style. "It's all about empowering ordinary people to do extraordinary things. The Fourth Sector is between the other three sectors, but it's also the periphery around them, so it's very much encompassing. It's incorporating, it's enveloping, within and without. We want to elect certain people as fourth sector pathfinders who are ordinary people doing extraordinary things within their community... but are not vigilantes."

Amazingly, an internet search reveals that the Fourth Sector really exists and doesn't sound too far removed from Rebecca's version. "It was presented to me," she laughs, "I was told what I believed in!"

So, just how realistic is The Thick of It, because, although hilarious, it's a somewhat depressing portrait. "That is what it's like," says Adam bluntly. "That's the business of politics." They all laugh about the recent row over Peter Mandelson's use, or otherwise, of the word "chump" as typical of the kind of thing The Thick of It picks up on.

Examples of real life are often pointed out to them, says James Smith, who plays ineffectual senior special advisor Glenn Cullen, a man with no apparent life beyond work, no apparent personality in fact. James half expected to be written out of the new series as part of the reshuffle that brought Nicola in to replace Hugh Abbott. "I assumed Glen would be a casualty," he says, "it was great that it didn't happen. We've been working out how Glenn and Ollie [his hapless but smug junior] would survive. It's frightening that all of us end up playing a pretty close version of ourselves; I'd say that 80 percent of Glenn is me. What's alarming is that the writers pick up on aspects of your personality and lay it bare in front of you."

Peter agrees: "You do mine a lot of yourself. It recently occurred to me that Malcolm is the same age as me. I know that sounds ridiculous, but in terms of comic references the writers are younger and have cooler references, whereas I thought I could mention Jack Buchanan or Dad's Army because he's my age."

With a general election approaching are they conscious of the need for balance? They all state firmly that the show is not party political, it's about the mechanism. Joanna Scanlan, who plays director of communications Terri Coverley, assumed to be good at her job because she was head-hunted from the private sector but who is really after an easy life, explains: "The actual political strategy is exhausting and it's a game you have to be fully committed to. The absurdities make you laugh, if there's anything you take away from working on this series, it's a sense of laughter, it's a useful tool to look at our society."

One might suppose that being in The Thick Of It has adversely affected their view of politicians, but the prevailing mood is one of sympathy. "Nicola's not a saint," says Rebecca, "but there are things she wants to achieve and she's frustrated at every turn. I don't think it's exclusively about politicians, it's about all kinds of office politics, relationships and people struggling to make it work while holding on to tiny bits of power."

Adam agrees: "You come away feeling that none of these people are bad, they're trying to do the best they can in very difficult circumstances... and being a bit rubbish, obviously; we don't want to let them off the hook."

The thing about politics is that there is always someone new coming along to try their hand. The new series reintroduces the opposition visiting for a quick measure up of what they believe will soon be their domain. "Terri's very excited about that," says Joanna. "She'll be okay, as she's going to have a nice new start with an attractive man to work for."

"The opposition are hungry for power," Adam adds, "they definitely have their eyes on the prize." But so do the government, despite that sinking ship feeling. "No-one's going to admit that," he says, "even to themselves. No matter how terrible they feel about it, they're still trying to win the next election."

Much of The Thick Of It is improvised, something the actors clearly enjoy. Allowing performers to run with an idea, Adam says, helps achieve immediacy and offers the possibility of something magical happening. Joanna agrees: "I think Armando Iannucci really knows what he's doing, he has a fantastic blueprint. Everything is there in the script, and more, it's wonderful writing, the storylines are worked out, fabulous dialogue, but it's being changed right up to the minute you speak the words."

What about the press office at No. 10, do they like it? "Yes, they're fans," says Adam, "they dragged us in to have our photographs taken." Peter adds, modestly, "They make up most of our viewers!"

He once met Alistair Campbell, Tony Blair's director of communications, whom many assume is the role model for Malcolm Tucker, at an awards ceremony. "Channel 4 thought it would be funny if they sat us next to each other," he says. "I didn't know anything about it until I saw the names. He was fascinating..." there's a pause while they all chuckle, "... he totally illuminated a new way of playing Malcolm, but that's in my diaries."

So is there more to come from Malcolm? "There are interesting things going on that we haven't seen before," Peter says. "It's a problem writers of any sitcom face that to some degree the audience wants characters doing what they like them doing – they want Private Fraser to say "we're all doomed". Our instincts as actors are always to dig deeper, find something else. It's a balancing act. I'm thrilled to enter different territory, but at the same time you have to be totally committed to saying "we're all f*****g doomed" at the appropriate moment!"