In The Thick Of It

This is a good interview with Armando Iannucci, as he discusses The Thick of It and promotes the forthcoming book of scripts.

"When you say mainstream," he says, "what I don't mean is very safe and very twee." He points to American comedies such as The Simpsons and Malcolm in the Middle - each original, intelligent and uncompromising in its own way. They're only "mainstream" in the sense that everyone watches them.

"I'm trying to persuade the sort of people who write Father Ted or Peep Show to start thinking about writing stuff for BBC1 or BBC2, in front of an audience, but not in any way compromising the material." Comedy writers in this country, as he sees it, are in danger of resigning themselves to chasing cult followings on specialist channels. "Comedy is a strange thing," he says. "I think it's the only genre in television where the people who are best at it don't automatically write for the biggest audience."