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Deborah Ross

Wednesday, 15th April 2009

In the Loop
15, Nationwide

Love it, love it, love it and for those of you who are a bit slow — I know who you are; don’t think I don’t — I loved this film. It’s great. It’s fast, it’s funny and it’s so on the money about self-interested politicians, clueless aides, dodgy dossiers and altered intelligence that even Alastair Campbell has said, ‘It all rings so true. I salute all involved.’ Actually, he has said no such thing but you know what? Sometimes I’m in the mood for doctoring the evidence, too. (Not often, and never on a Wednesday when I concentrate on spreading unfounded rumours about people I don’t like, but sometimes.)

Written and directed by Armando Iannucci, In the Loop is, essentially, The Thick of It: The Movie and while British TV comedies don’t have a history of transferring successfully to cinema — OK, before you all write in, apart from On the Buses — this political satire is glorious. There are some old faces and some new faces with the most notable oldie being, of course, Peter Capaldi’s Malcolm Tucker; the bullying, raging, psychotic spin doctor who, here, is also foul-mouthed to the point of genius. Indeed, if I were ever to meet a certain Ian Martin (one of Iannucci’s co-writers who is also listed on the credits as ‘swearing consultant’) I would shake him by the hand or, failing that, would probably shove so much cotton wool down his throat it would come out his arse ‘like a Playboy bunny’. Such remarks are possibly a lot funnier on screen than on paper but, still, don’t give me any grief about it or I may have to take your shin bone, ‘break it in two and stab you to death with it’. It’s best you know how things stand.

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