He’d hate us saying it, but when it comes to national treasures, Armando Iannucci (Scottish, but born to Italian parents) is up there with the best of them. As writer and producer for 1994’s The Day Today, Iannucci was part of the Britpop of comedy: what the Gallaghers, Damon Albarn and Jarvis Cocker were doing for music, Chris Morris, Peter Baynham and Iannucci were doing for satire. Then there’s a certain Mr Alan Partridge, whom Iannucci helped create with Steve Coogan for radio in the early 90s, and who now … well, who wouldn’t have wanted to be invited to Partridge’s oasthouse for an exclusive, post-lockdown haircut interview?
After creating and directing the swear-tastic The Thick of It, Iannucci brought Malcolm “Fuckity Bye” Tucker’s political mishaps to the silver screen in 2009’s tremendous In the Loop. Iannucci’s second film – 2017’s The Death of Stalin (with Michael Palin, Steve Buscemi and Paul Whitehouse) – featured less swearing but enough communism for the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw to praise it with five stars as “a ruthless force by an A-list line-up” – but the actual Communist Party of the Russian Federation to label it “revolting” and ban the film in Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
