The Thick of It

The first part of the first episode of this magnificent political satire. You have never seen a political comedy like this. People used to go on about how true to life the gently-absurd yes Minister was. Well, this is to Yes Minister as Catch-22 was to Dad's Army. In this sort of warfare, a guy's guts will come pouring out of his flying suit.

The series was conceived by Armando Ianucci, and stars the unfortunate Chris Langham, a fabulously droll, dry comic actor who's now best known for his child-pornography record. And charging up every scene he's in is my old pal Peter Capaldi, another Italo-Scot like Ianucci, who plays a Downing Street spin-doctor whose tactics would make Alistair Campbell wet himself with envy.

Brilliant, brutal comedy. From this link you can go to the whole first series and one Christmas special. If there's more up on the Tube of You, I'll keep you posted. There's unlikely to be any new episodes made, sadly, for reasons alluded to above.