The Thick Of It: what the f-word is going on?
Fuck. Having watched This Life struggle over 80 minutes, it was life-affirming to see The Thick Of It flourish over 60 minutes. It's certainly not a given that a show which is normally one length should work over a different length, but the quality of the writing and performing are of such a high standard, they pulled it off. That's pulled it off without Chris Langham, the programme's beating heart, or so it once seemed.

In order to compensate - and to fill the extra leg room - the writers created two hapless MPs: Mannion (Roger Allam), the Cameron-style Tory, and Swain (Justin Edwards), Hugh Abbott's junior-minister substitute at the Dept of Social Affairs and Citizenship. It was a simple but inspired move to "open up" and include the Tory opposition, especially as in real life the Tories are creeping up on the government. I've worked with Justin Edwards on The Day The Music Died, and Will Smith (who turned up as a Tory researcher a bit like Will Smith) and Chris Addison on Banter - and I wrote the MTV Awards with Simon Blackwell, one of the show's bedrock scribes, for two years' running, so I felt very close to this as it went out ("Look! Look! It's Will!", that kind of thing), but it didn't get in the way of my enjoyment.

How good to know that a programme as smart and scurrilous and sweary as this can be one of the highlights of the season on BBC. It was cleverly plotted, a fact expertly masked by the hand-held, let's-do-the-sitcom-right-here energy of the presentation, and unlike its spiritual forefather Yes Minister, it wears its dexterity and eloquence very lightly. You are not invited to stand and warmly applaud Sir Humphrey's latest witty speech, the jargon just flies past, only occasionally questioned - Will's character was accused of making up the word "linkjack", which is such an Armando Ianucci construct, I'll put money on it being one of the master's own. And how thrilling to see Peter Capaldi's monstrous Malcolm Tucker on the back foot, robbed of his power base by the PM's impending departure. Now that's character, something you earn over a couple of series. A nod too to Alex McQueen, who plays the PM's adviser, who is unique in that he doesn't swear, and asked what the f-word is going on only when pushed to the very limits of his calm. (There were too many lines to quote, and they go by so fast, but I loved it when he spoke of feeling a sandwich's "heft" before buying it.) Sorry, I can't think of anything to say about it other than positive things.