In The Thick Of The Loop

It's April, this time last year Son Of Rambow was demolishing the box office and everyone agreed it was excellent, and the Friday coming up was the release of another absolute gem in British cinema, In Bruges.
April seems to be a nice safe haven betwixt Oscar films and Blockbusters for small homegrown cinema to thrive.
And in the same vein of quality English vulgar comedy, we have In The Loop, a semi-spin-off of The Thick Of It on BBC4, a show I could never get into until the hour long specials, where it could thrive in length and not have Langham hold it down, he's funny, but not in the same way as this, his deadpan is against zany not realistic.

The only two characters back are Peter Capaldi's spin doctor Malcom Tucker, and fellow Scottish foul-mouthed angry man Jamie, played brilliantly by Paul Higgins.
The basic premise is a cabinet minister, Simon Foster played by Tom Hollander, says War is unforseeable on Radio 4, and it kicks off a PR issue over the government's situation on war (Clearly this is about Iraq and the lead up) and ends up going to Washington to discuss the hot topic with US committee members, some hope he'll help force their views against war, some are working with England to get it going.
On top of this, Toby, Chris Addison, has his first few weeks as an Aide to Foster as everything goes to pot.

A lot of actors play similar if not the same roles as the show, under new names, but it's no matter, the performances are still spot on, and the script, alongside the improvisation of the cast, is genius. Seriously quotable. "Easy Peasy Lemon Squeesy" "No, it's not, it's Difficult Difficult Lemon Difficult"
"Hey Love Actually, do you want me to hole-punch your face?"
"I know how much you hate swearing, you F Star Star C*nt!"

I can't say any that are even better, hell, that last one shouldn't be said on this forum, but there's not a scene goes by without a fair few effs and blinds, like the show. And my god swearing is never as funny as when Capaldi's angry rants with his accent occur.
Even Gandolfini gets in on a lot of it, clearly having fun making such a smart comedy, and Steve Coogan's cameo is just brilliant, becoming more and more intricate with the story of Simon Foster up to the end.

Armando Ianucci has always been amazing at spotting talent and making great shows. The Day Today, Time Trumpet, The Armando Ianucci show, and finally his brilliance can be seen on a big screen, with amazing writers, a great documentary/guerilla feel, and genius falling out the edges.

It's not in cinemas for long, but in the US when it comes out, find a cinema it's showing at and drive like mad to catch it, funniest stuff you'll see for a long time.
10/10