What do you reckon to Malcolm Tucker?

[Cuellar]

Absolutely no memory of this!

He does use gay jokes quite a lot, so it is something I'd like to have seen touched on, but...

Yeah...I've pretty much watched them all since looking at this thread and can't place it.

Haven't rewatched the Hugh ones, might be in there...

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

She was a bit shit in the Doctor Who episode she was in, but it was a pretty poor role which she couldn't really do much with.

She (Rebecca Front ) was very good in that "Gotchya!" section of "Noel's House Party " in which both Little *and* Large were hoodwinked.

[Twed]

I'm re-watching it all and I will find the fucker.

[A Hat Like That]

Teri was massively dumbed down in the fourth series, going gooey over yer man Mannion and all that. She's actually a more than competent and relied upon civil servant in sereieses before then.
( posted this before reading what imitationleather had to say )

Its strongly hinted that, due to family stuff slightly behind the scenes, by the time series 4 comes around, all she's doing is waiting for the redundancy package. There's a scene later in series 3 when Malcolm drops the ball and she's onto it and competent immediately.

[Cuellar]

Yeah, she even gives Malcolm a dressing down AND he takes it.

[Old Nehamkin]

I'm re-watching it all and I will find the fucker.

Could it possibly have been a deleted scene? It's ringing a bell for me but I can't place it at all.

[Twed]

I think it was just a really subtle thing. Malcolm viciously whispering down (probably) Ollie's ear.

[Schrodingers Cat]

I can see a bit of Burt there, but I saw Julius as being more based on Andrew Adonis.

I'd always assumed Adonis as well. I always thought Fleming was Mandelson, which explains the joke about him being fired, then returning almost immediately. Even before the episode is out.
But then, it always struck me that most (not all) of the characters had a real life equivalent essentially as a 'jumping off point', then could change immeasurably by the time it was finished. So, Tucker started as a Campbell, but Capaldi supposedly took his performance more from one the Weinsteins than doing an impression of Campbell, whilst maintaining the satirical intent.

Also, I know this is going back a few pages, but it also always seemed to me that Mannion was probably meant as a Ken Clark figure (which most had always assumed) but as a criticism of the trend of phasing out politicians with genuine principles (whatever you or I may think of those principles) and focus on bright and shiny ephemera - politicians who look the part, and say the right things, whether or not they believe them. Thank God things have changed in the last 6 or so years, eh reader?

[marquis_de_sad]

Not that one either. In the bit I'm thinking of he gets accused of using homophobic insults too often and then takes that person (I'm sure it's Ollie) aside to whisper about being in the party when gay rights was a forefront battle.

Ollie does (meekly) confront Malcolm at one point and outright calls him a bully. It's when they're in the gents and Malcolm's ordering him to go back out with Emma. Malcolm gets very affronted at being called a bully, mainly I thought because he might get in real trouble.

Maybe you're misremembering that scene?

[Twed]

I don't think so. Ollie also confronts him towards the end of the series with "It doesn't have to be that way" regarding using fear etc., but it's not that.

The exchange was along the lines of:

Ollie: "Does every insult you say have to be quite so homophobic?"
Tucker: <pulling Ollie aside> "Look son, I was fighting for gay rights when you were still sucking on your dad's big tit"

[BritishHobo]

That does really ring a bell now you've written that. There is a bit in series 3 where he's bollocking Nicola and Terri in his office and one of them asks if every line has to be so sexually violent, I think. But the second line rings a bell too.

[ToneLa]

I don't think so. Ollie also confronts him towards the end of the series with "It doesn't have to be that way" regarding using fear etc., but it's not that.

The exchange was along the lines of:

Ollie: "Does every insult you say have to be quite so homophobic?"
Tucker: <pulling Ollie aside> "Look son, I was fighting for gay rights when you were still sucking on your dad's big tit"

Gah, I can fuckin see it in my head and all, but did a quickie ctrl+f on the scripts at https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/episode_scripts.php?tv-show=the-thick-of-it and found nothing like this when looking for "back when", or "sucking", or "rights", or "tit"

Worth a go, if you're a fast typist AND sad act like me or dump em all into a notepad  file and search that. Not In The Loop either. ...

I WANT it to be true cause I love Thick of It but the constant gay jokes may not age well, though I am being a handwringing twat

[Sebastian Cobb]

That does really ring a bell now you've written that. There is a bit in series 3 where he's bollocking Nicola and Terri in his office and one of them asks if every line has to be so sexually violent, I think. But the second line rings a bell too.

Is it possible you're misremembering this exchange?

Malcolm Tucker : I just wanted to say to you by the way of introductory remarks that I'm extremely miffed about today's events and in my quest to try to make you understand the level of my unhappines, I'm likely to use an awful lot of - what we would call - violent sexual imagery and I just wanted to check that neither of you would be terribly offended by that.

Nicola Murray : I could actually do without the theatrics I think, Malcolm.

Malcolm Tucker : Enough! E-fucking-nough. You need to learn to shut your fucking cave. Right? Today, you have laid your first big fat egg of solid fuck. You took the data loss media strategy and you ate with a lump of E.coli. And then you sprayed it our of your arse at 300 mph.

Nicola Murray : I simply made a mistake.

Malcolm Tucker : You got on the record and off the record fucking mixed up! What would have happened if like George Martin would have done that? They wouldn't be no fucking Beatles, that's what. No, I don't give a fuck about that. I'd have to fucking sit next to Paul McCartney in fucking checkers!

Nicola Murray : The data loss wasn't my fault.

Malcolm Tucker : Fine, yeah, but I tell you what. It came out fucking pretty fast once you were in there, didn't it? Which makes me wonder - should I just go and talk to the boss, should I go and tell him "I don't think she's up to the job."

Nicola Murray : You said yourself if he sacks me after a week that looks like HE's fucked up.

Malcolm Tucker : Yeah, but that was before; When your only problem was a fucking shit pun in a newspaper and a face like Dot Cotton licking piss off a nettle.

Nicola Murray : Okay I messed up. Right? I messed up, but... I will from now on listen to every bit of advice you give me. I'll go on Question Time wearing a push up bra and a fez. I'll do the hustings on stilts if that's what you tell me the strategy is because you know about that stuff, Malcolm I know that. It's just that I've got things that I want to do, alright?

Malcolm Tucker : Of course you do, like Montessori fucking rocking horses I suppose.

Nicola Murray : No no no.

Malcolm Tucker : The Mail have the motherload on this - right? So that means there's a way through this for us but it entails you, my dear, eating a complete concrete mixer full of humble pie.

Terri Coverley : Right, what's the strategy?

Malcolm Tucker : The Kraken awakes!

Terri Coverley : No no - it's just that this is the first bit of the meeting that hasn't been about expletives and fezes and stilts and teabagging. I mean, this is the bit that relates to media management.

Malcolm Tucker : I didn't say anything about teabagging. Do you even know what teabagging is?

[chveik]

I've rewatched the whole series recently, including the deleted scenes, and I don't remember this exchange taking place.

[BritishHobo]

Is it possible you're misremembering this exchange?

It is incredibly likely.

I quite like that that shows how fucking much Malcolm talks compared to Nicola.

[Twed]

No, it's not that one. I watched that episode yesterday.

I will find this thing that only I remember.

[imitationleather]

Christ, it's not M*A*S*H. There's only about twenty episodes of this.

I don't think the scene happened.

[Twed]

Christ, it's not M*A*S*H. There's only about twenty episodes of this.

Pfffft

[Mister Six]

Not sure if she's actually incompetent. You'd think so by how they talk to her, but they also ring her up often enough and need her to action things.

I thought the joke was that Hugh and Glenn were being absolute shits and blaming Teri for everything even when she's clearly not at fault? She certainly came across as competent early on. I've not rewatched the later seasons since broadcast so maybe that changed.

She was a bit shit in the Doctor Who episode she was in, but it was a pretty poor role which she couldn't really do much with.

Yeah that's a problem of casting someone good for a total nothing role rather than Front not being any good. She was wasted in that, and deserves another swing at the ball.

[imitationleather]

Rewatched a Langham episode last night. He makes two jokey references to being a paedophile in it. Ooof. Not aged well.

[Twed]

Here it is, in the deleted scenes:

https://youtu.be/FYQtI_e4AtM?t=719

[ToneLa]

Oh wow! Ah, sneaky ol' Deleted Scenes.

Sorry for doubting you Twed!!

[chveik]

Here it is, in the deleted scenes:

https://youtu.be/FYQtI_e4AtM?t=719

well done, I'll never doubt you again Twed.

[ToneLa]

Got to say that's a good character scene and all. Would have been good left in, add a bit more sympathy to Malcolm.

I am sympathetic to Malcolm largely - pre-inquiry-leak scandals anyway - but it's more difficult to justify it as is!

[marquis_de_sad]

Here it is, in the deleted scenes:

https://youtu.be/FYQtI_e4AtM?t=719

Oh my goodness, you were right!

Got to say that's a good character scene and all. Would have been good left in, add a bit more sympathy to Malcolm.

And I'm glad they cut it. It rings false and is a total cop-out.

[BritishHobo]

I think it's a great character moment, but not for any kind of moral or sympathetic depth. I think it shows quite the opposite - he's perfectly happy making homophobic cracks, but thinks he can justify it because he was in the party while they worked for gay rights. He only cares about the issue in so far as he can use it to defend himself when someone criticises his language.

[marquis_de_sad]

Good point.

[Blue Jam]

To me that whole thing is pretty much "I'm not actually homophobic, I just hate you and I know how to push you buttons..." Same with: "That's an incredibly homophobic headline, you massive poof".

Re: Malcolm and Jamie being nasty to politicians but nice to secretaries and cleaners- maybe I've misremembered this, but isn't there a bit with Stuart Pearson at the "Mind Camp" where he gets very rude and aggressive with a receptionist? Was that because he's a Tory and, unlike the spin doctors affiliated to Labour, he doesn't really give a shit about people in low-paid menial jobs? Maybe I'm reading too much into that, but in any case it's a nice contrast with the behaviour of Malcolm and Jamie.

[BritishHobo]

There is - when he's trying to get his phone back from the receptionist, he's fucking horrible to her. It's interesting to think they did do that, especially given the radio show episode (and the speech Stewart gives in the last episode) where they show how outside of the specifics of the party lines, Malcolm and Stewart seem a little bit similar.

[ToneLa]

Ah yeah, wanting his Blackberry back innit...

I like the common ground they find during the radio show. Although Stewart seems a bit in awe ('that would be an incentive', he says, to Malcolm talking him into just doing one).

Who is Stuart a parallel of again? Sad thing is that character is aging well!