The Thick Of It S4 Ep1 REACTION!
Added 2025-02-17 17:00:04 +0000 UTCTHE NEW AND IMPROVED PETER HAS ME GASPING FOR AIR!!!
Comments
Upload. Download. This was umpteen years ago. Not something many of his age would have understood back then.
Paul Godwin
2025-07-04 20:27:20 +0000 UTCterri is a civil servant she work for whoever is in government
mav
2025-02-22 15:12:31 +0000 UTCVery true.
Richard M
2025-02-21 08:16:40 +0000 UTCRoger Allam is a bit under appreciated in the UK in my opinion. I think he’s one of our best character actors but he’s mainly on tv and in theatre so his name doesn’t get out there as much.
Spoingus
2025-02-18 16:47:22 +0000 UTCHaving not watched it for a while I’d absolutely been getting that feeling last series especially
Kieran B
2025-02-18 10:55:48 +0000 UTCOld Government: Blairite New Labour. Malcolm Tucker the foul mouthed Scotsman, who fabricated evidence to start a war on the orders of the Americans in the movie, is based on Blair's chief enforcer. New Government: David Cameron Conservative and Nick Clegg Liberal Democrat Coalition gov of the 2010s. Lib Dems are the Inbetweeners. Peter Manion is the old guard, being dragged along with the new "Compassionate Conservatives". Glenn: Left Labour to join Lib Dems as he said in this episode he thought they were more principled, shortly before they abandoned all their principles, and joined the Conservatives for a spell as the sidekicks, for a shot in government for the first time ever. Terri: A civil servant. Apolitical. Comes with the building, like the furniture. Its why she had to keep her hood up when she went to the Party Conference, to help when she didn't want to. Like Sir Humphrey in Yes Minister. The Deep State, but without the sinister implications.
Kirk Deighton
2025-02-18 03:40:18 +0000 UTCThat episode was written by Will Smith who played the posh assistant with Disney Prince hair. He writes a lot of them. He’s also show runner of Slow Horses which I know you’ll love
Kieran B
2025-02-18 00:36:54 +0000 UTCThat’s a genuine pub used by politicians and civil servants on Whitehall
Kieran B
2025-02-18 00:14:31 +0000 UTCNah it’s absolutely believable he wouldn’t know the difference between upload and download - especially 15 years ago
Kieran B
2025-02-18 00:11:50 +0000 UTCTerri is an apolitical civil servant and works for the department regardless of whoever is in office, Glen and Ollie work for the political parties - but Glen has moved over to the Liberal Democrats. Malcolm works for the party too (but still Labour as always).
Kieran B
2025-02-18 00:00:31 +0000 UTCIf you can, try and keep track of the Mr Tickell subplot that was mentioned briefly here. It will become important.
DS292
2025-02-17 20:27:36 +0000 UTCHi King Boomer, thought I'd help explain, sure some others have and may do likewise! Also before boring political bit, there are definitely an age of men in Britain and of a certain class as Mannion portrays who would not know what Download & Upload means/ the difference lol. So whilst not ever branding the two sides on the thick of it and having a level of ambiguity, to us political geeks, it was always very clear that Hugh Abbott and Nicola Murray were portraying Labour politicians. This an old show now and Labour were in power from 1997 to 2010. In line with this Malcolm plays the Labour Party spin doctor, many have claimed/ believe is loosely modelled on Alastair Campbell. Whilst Terri plays a civil servant so serves whoever the Gov't is and Olly and 'the gay old tennis coach' play political advisors. So, with this 4th and last series it is loosely following what happened in real life. In 2010 Labour lost power and in came the Conservative Party, but in coalition with the 3rd largest party the Liberal Democrats, as it was a hung parliament and neither of the big boys had enough to form their own government. The tories were the largest party and done a deal with the Lib Dems. So what we see here in this series is that effectively, Peter Mansion is a Conservative/ Tory, cabinet minister taken over DOSAC and they are in power now. The two new characters, one is a Liberal Democrat junior minister and his advisor. Hope that makes sense and appreciate the essay 🤪
Dave L
2025-02-17 20:23:43 +0000 UTCAdam, who you now see here working as part of the coalition, used to be Angela Heaney's boss at the Daily Mail in previous series - they kept the same character but gave him a different career.
Richie
2025-02-17 20:18:25 +0000 UTCYeah my mistake!
AdamMcAdamface
2025-02-17 19:51:33 +0000 UTCMicheal is right. It's what Glen was saying to Terri in the office kitchen. He's upset that after he left Labour (left wing) to join the Lib Dems (centre/centre-left) they then entered coalition with the Conservatives (right wing)
.MT
2025-02-17 19:48:33 +0000 UTCPeter Mannion is 100% my second favourite character after Malcom, he's so funny.
Rach
2025-02-17 19:38:00 +0000 UTCThe thick of it mirrors the actual politics of the time, so Labour (Nicola/Malcom/Ollie) is now in opposition and the Tories (Stewart/Peter) are in Coalition government with the Liberal Democrats (Fergus/Adam and now Glenn who's jumped ship). Terri is a civil servant so works for whoever is in charge
Rach
2025-02-17 19:31:30 +0000 UTCLast season finished with the government calling a snap election. Nicola Murray / Malcom Tucker's party (Labour) lost the election. They are now in opposition. Nicola has now become leader of the party. Peter Mannion's / Stewart Pearson's party (Conservatives) won the election. They are now the government. However, they didn't win with an outright majority so they have been forced to form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrat Party. Represented here by the two new characters. Fergus is the junior minister, to Peter the senior minister. Because of their junior status no-one takes them seriously. Terri is a civil servant (head of communications) and so works for whichever party is in power at the time (and as such is supposed to be politically neutral). Glen quit the Labour party and joined the Lib Dems (both on the left of the political spectrum) and so has accidently and unexpectedly ended up back in government again. The show basically copies what was going on in British politics at the time. Between Series 3 & Series 4 there was an election and Britain ended up with a coalition government. Don't worry there is still lots of Malcom madness to enjoy!
Tim Mountford
2025-02-17 19:22:06 +0000 UTCGlenn is a political adviser not a civil servant, he crossed parties to the Lib Dem equivalent.
Michael Wake
2025-02-17 19:13:13 +0000 UTCJust goes to show that The Thick Of It isn't just Malcolm Tucker. It can SO work without him.
Joe Thornhill
2025-02-17 19:06:26 +0000 UTCFrom what I remember at the time, there was a slight criticism that it was becoming the Malcolm Tucker show, so I think that's why they started doing episodes alternating with each party at the start of the series. It works a treat though because Peter Mannion is so good - some of his lines and rants in this final season are spectacular.
Richie
2025-02-17 18:43:02 +0000 UTCin case not mentioned its now a Tory Lib Dem coalition in charge of government now.....
rtkeane
2025-02-17 18:33:57 +0000 UTCgoing to be guttted when you finish it.. World needs MT !!
rtkeane
2025-02-17 18:31:26 +0000 UTCComing in here like Dr Robotnik is one of my favourite lines ever.
Kevin Liversage
2025-02-17 18:27:37 +0000 UTC'Who do you think you are, P. Diddy?' A joke that's got a new dimension in recent times. I can't decide whether season 3 or 4 is my fave. You're in for a treat!
Flemish Giant
2025-02-17 18:25:46 +0000 UTCYES! Been waiting for this because I didn't realizes the last one was the end of series 3.
Joe Thornhill
2025-02-17 18:20:37 +0000 UTCTerri and Glen are now working for the new coalition government as they are civil servants. Civil servants work for whichever government is in charge at the time, and are politically neutral (well, in theory at least). Their job is to enact government policy without getting involved in issues of party politics (again, in theory!). The two characters who were angry that their ideas had been stolen and given to Peter were from the smaller of the political parties that made up the coalition, so although they are part of the government, they don’t hold as much power as the main party. It is very closely based on what was happening in UK politics at that time, but in the spirit of the show, I won’t name the political parties involved!
AdamMcAdamface
2025-02-17 18:19:30 +0000 UTCRoger Allam, knocking it out the park as Peter. "i'm BORED of this, I'm going for a TWIX!" I'd forgotten that line and nearly coughed up a lung. It only gets better as well. As for the coalition thing, don't worry KB, it'll make sense as it goes along.
Phil Robinson
2025-02-17 18:14:22 +0000 UTCPeter Mannion MP is so fantastic, one of the few characters that come across as a genuine guy just doing his best!
MJ
2025-02-17 18:13:26 +0000 UTCThe two parties have switched positions. Peter is now the minister. Malcolm and Nicola are now the opposition.
fridericvs
2025-02-17 18:11:22 +0000 UTCI can believe - at a stretch - that he doesn't know the difference between upload and download. I remember the US congress asking Zuckerberg a few profoundly out of touch questions at one of their hearings. And this was episode was nearly 15 years ago, boomers back then were less in touch with the internet side of things. My parents were practically inexperienced with the web until 2013 ish when they got their first smartphones.
ThetaSigmaTheOriginal
2025-02-17 18:00:45 +0000 UTClove you :D
Dom Pearson
2025-02-17 17:28:18 +0000 UTChttps://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/coalition-government/
Dave Williams
2025-02-17 17:27:31 +0000 UTCThey aren’t the opposition they are in charge now. They now run dosac as part of a coalition government
Dave Williams
2025-02-17 17:26:58 +0000 UTCSeason 4 was filmed in 2012. Only mentioning it because there’s a couple of jokes that only make sense with that context 😂
PrinceMorque
2025-02-17 17:23:45 +0000 UTCCOALITION !! mentioned a few times lol
Dom Pearson
2025-02-17 17:16:21 +0000 UTC
