The Thick of It: The Missing DoSAC Files is a part-accompaniment part-spin-off book to the TV series created by Armando Iannucci. It’s written and compiled by the same team behind the BBC series, so it is perfectly in-keeping with the show, without the air of trying-too-hard emulation that many tie-in books have. The character voices hit the same uncomfortable recognition buttons as the television series; Nicola Murray’s overuse of exclamation marks being particularly familiar to anyone who has ever received a message from an overexcited mother who has finally worked out how to use the email.
The book centres on Malcolm Tucker, the conceit being that the Head of Communications has lost his file on the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship. So, prepare for effing and blinding, creative compound insults, and, if you’re anything like me, to be reading it all in the voice of Peter Capaldi. Other characters are not neglected, however, with notable highlights being Terri Coverley’s self-assessment form from Waitrose, Glenn Cullen’s painfully tragic Twitter account, and a sneaky peek at Peter Mannion and the opposition’s delightfully childish brainstorming white board. And for fellow fans of Jamie MacDonald, there is a beautiful revelation about his career before Whitehall.
The format of the book is like a scrapbook journal – with printed out emails, memos, web pages, cut and pasted magazine articles and personal letters. It paints a full picture of the administration’s spinmaster and carefully blurs the fact and fiction of the TV show. There are profiles of very real (and fantastically sporting) news reporters and political pundits, juxtaposed with medical records of thoroughly made up politicians.
As a huge fan of the screen version of The Thick of It, the book delivered exactly what I hoped it would. It develops storylines and characters that already have a basis on-screen and throws in some new angles. These ideas would not be out of place in an episode, but don’t really move a plot on in the limited time frame.
The Thick of It: The Missing DoSAC Files may leave people who have no experience of Malcolm Tucker et al a little confused, but they might be won round by this fine example of wit, filth, and scandal that is a guilty pleasure for any fan of the show.
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