Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-04-02
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 174 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The corridors of Whitehall have, of course, proved a rich trough for comedy in the past, but sitting among the finest must be The Thick Of It, a terrific, insightful and desperately entertaining satire.

This complete first season follows the antics of Hugo Abbot, a simple MP, whose ongoing fight with his party’s spin doctors provides just one richly mined strand for the show. Skilfully mixing drama and comedy, and shot in the increasingly popular fly-on-the-wall documentary style, The Thick Of It manages to be both laugh-out-loud funny, yet eerily scary at the same time.

The credit, clearly, lies with the brains and the cast behind the programme. In front of the camera, both Chris Langham and the seemingly-brutal Peter Capaldi have won the plaudits, but much of the acclaim also needs lying at the doorstep of Armando Iannucci. Iannucci already has a comedy CV that few can rival, both in front of and behind the lens, and it’s testament to the quality of The Thick Of It that it stands next easily next to anything in his back catalogue.

This unmissable DVD brings together all the episodes from the little-seen-yet-rarely-rivalled maiden season (although the Christmas special is missing), and it’s a real comedy treat. Bluntly, The Thick Of It is a modern day classic, and through the DVD release, more people can finally get the chance to see why. --Jon Foster

Synopsis
From the creator of The Day Today and I'm Alan Partridge, The Thick of It is a biting comedy satire set in the world of Westminster politics. The show follows the trials and tribulations of Hugo Abbot, a lowly MP who finds himself continually harassed by the PM’s policy enforcer. The Thick of It is an award-winning and critically acclaimed series that is bolstered by the work of some of Britain’s best comedy writers and a fine cast.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding
Fantastic. Superb dialogue. A great docudrama of British government, with a wonderful Alastair Campbell character included who swears like a trooper. Much closer to what government is than the mainstream West Wing type offerings, which cannot include the bad tempers, short tempers, poor judgement, politcal spin masters, swearing, and general lack of respect that can permiate such situations. An "Office" for the poltical set. It is just a real pity it has not been shown in the US and is not available on NTSC; BCC America take note and screen this excellent series ASAP.

Sublime work
At last it gets a release! As comedy looks to be increasingly dumbed down with sketch show trash like Little Britain and tacky crap like the IT crowd, with the immensely overrated ricky Gervais getting far too many pats on the back (not least from himself) its good to know Armando Iannucci is still waving the flag for decent, well written, well acted, interesting comedy. The man behind Im Alan Partridge and the Day Today teams up with the writers from Peep Show (the other class act on telly these days) and delivers a knock out political satire for the 21st century. Chronicling the age of spin. Its fantastically, observed and captured. The whole cast is great, Peter Calpadi the obvious initial standout as the terrifying Campbellesque Malcom Tucker. Chris Langham remains understated throughout and delivers class line after class line. Its a shame the 2006 christmas special wasnt included in this package cos it was clever to see how new characters were written in (introducing the conservative opposition!) whilst writing out essentially the main character from series 1, to enable the show to go on.

for a quick pop soundbite, its Yes Minister meets Curb Your Enthusiasm (plenty of improv and frenetic interplay) meets the banter metaphors and similies of peep show.

If you like sharp satire you want to watch again and again, you'll love this.

Iannuci should be knighted.

Hysterical Stuff
I hadn't seen this on television as I don't live in the UK, but the posibilty of enjoying Chris Langham's dry wit was too much to resist so I took a chance.
Wonderful, hilarious entertainment and lots of laughing out loud. Then you can enjoy it all over again (and again) to catch what you missed first time round. Can't imagine the Corridors of Power really so manic, but probably so! Brilliant. Can't wait for Series 2.