Did Armando Iannucci reveal Thick of It Brexit plans to Richard Herring a year ago?
The writer and producer gave an hilarious account of what might happen in a reboot of the BBC satire last October... could it be about to come true?
This morning at 8:08am, Armando Iannucci's Twitter followers were met with the news that the satirist, writer and producer is soon to answer one of the biggest questions of our time – what would The Thick of It's Malcolm Tucker make of Brexit?
What could this mean? Could he be about to revive hit BBC satire The Thick of It starring outgoing Doctor Who Peter Capaldi as sweary spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker? Are we about to witness the greatest comedy comeback since... erm, well, not Porridge, but – you know, another one?
Probably not. He later also tweeted:
But that hasn't stopped us digging out this excellent little snippet from Richard Herring's Leicester Square Podcast from October last year in which Iannucci discusses what might happen in The Thick of It Brexit special.
Asked by Herring what would be the plot if the characters were reunited in post-referendum Britain, Iannucci – apparently off the top of his head – reveals a fanciful first five minutes:
"... They realise that the ballot paper has got a misprint on it… it says 'no and no'… instead… and oh my God… and should they let it out… or should they keep it quiet?
"And then Ollie gets drunk in a pub and admits it and a reporter publishes it as a story, and soon the press are furious and Malcolm plants the rumour that it was all started by the man who first came up with the word no.
"So they trace his great great great grandson to a small house in Perth – not Perth in Australia – Perth in Scotland which complicates matters and so the press are camped outside this small house in Perth saying 'why did you fuck up the referendum?' with your double no ballot paper.
"And the minister says, 'I think we got away with it' only to discover she had a microphone on when she said that. And it was broadcast across Times Square and via the International Space Station to Vladimir Putin who launches a nuclear strike."
You want to see that made, don't you? Here's hoping that's the big news today.
You can watch the whole of Richard Herring's podcast with Armando Iannucci below. And subscribe to the excellent weekly podcast on iTunes.
