Review - In the Loop

Armando Iannucci is one of Britain’s comedy maestros. He first came to my attention presenting the satirical review The Friday Night Armistice, although I had already unwittingly experienced his writing with the sublime The Day Today. After the painfully funny I’m Alan Partridge, I followed his work with interest, enjoying the more experimental The Armando Iannucci Shows and Time Trumpet (the future versions of Jamie Oliver and June Sarpong being my favourites). Then came The Thick of It.

Widely considered the second best political comedy after Yes, Minister (that clip of John Redwood trying to sing along to the Welsh national anthem comes third in the rankings), it followed a bumbling minister (Chris Langham) attempting to build his career in Westminster, only to be foiled by his own stupidity and the tangled web of deceit and spin that encases our government. Although Langham was officially the main character, the real star of the show was Peter Capaldi’s Malcolm Tucker, the PM’s top communications advisor and the angriest man in Britain.

After Langham’s public fall from grace, they still managed two specials without his character, widening the purview of the programme to include the opposition and the press. In the Loop is almost a natural progression, this time looking at foreign policy instead of domestic. I say ‘almost’, because it doesn’t operate in the same universe as The Thick of It, but in an alternative dimension where all the same faces are there, but they have different names and work in different departments. Only the spin doctors Malcolm and Jamie stay untouched by this shift, which is just slightly strange for fans.

True to form, In the Loop is a bitingly accurate take on the lead up to a war not unlike the Iraq one. Junior Foreign Minister Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) becomes caught in the middle of the battle between hawks and doves in Washington as the Secretaries of State use him as a tiny and very confused pawn. Malcolm must keep him ‘on message’ and sort out the mess, as usual, but he is dealing with bigger fish than ever before.

Worryingly, it is likely that this is a very accurate take on recent events, as Iannucci has had lots of secret advisors from both sides of the Atlantic. It’s all here: 18-year-old interns running state departments, dodgy dossiers being made even dodgier and then being presented to the UN, everything.

As previously noted, the usual players are present, muttering intelligently. They are joined by an American contingent which includes James Gandolfini as a General (he looks very pleased to be dealing with a decent script again after leaving The Sopranos), Mimi Kennedy (Dharma’s mother from Dharma and Greg with very different hair) and Ann Chlumsky (the girl from My Girl!).

But it is the writing that really makes the film. The devastating put-downs and deep social embarrassment mark this out as part of a long British comic tradition. Of course, this is tragi-comedy – we know what happened next. Hilarious, but still quite depressing, this is a must-see piece of work.