History Series / TheThickOfIt

** To show how out of touch Hugh is, Malcolm asks him [[Series/LittleBritain who the only gay in the village is]]. Hugh replies, [[Radio/TheArchers Eddie Grundy]]. He even gets the ''Series/EastEnders'' theme wrong. He doesn't even know what a "chav" is, a fairly basic bit of British slang.

** To show how out of touch Hugh is, Malcolm asks him [[Series/LittleBritain who the only gay in the village is]]. Hugh replies, [[Radio/TheArchers Eddie Grundy]]. He even gets the ''Series/EastEnders'' theme wrong.

* HiddenDepths: During the sixth episode of season three, Terri has balls big enough to point out a number of recent mistakes Malcom has made and that he is off his game. Asking for a private word (seemingly for a world-class bollocking) [[spoiler: Malcom takes the opportunity to rage honestly about the sheer extent of stress he is under while apologizing to Terri and admitting she's right in him generally floundering. The scene and the ReasonYouSuckSpeech delivered to Ollie in the final episode offer a rare glimpse of Malcom expressing weakness and the sheer pressure his job puts him under.]]

* HiddenDepths: During the sixth episode of Season 3, Terri has balls big enough to point out a number of recent mistakes Malcom has made and that he is off his game. Asking for a private word (seemingly for a world-class bollocking) [[spoiler: Malcom takes the opportunity to rage honestly about the sheer extent of stress he is under while apologizing to Terri and admitting she's right in him generally floundering. The scene and the ReasonYouSuckSpeech delivered to Ollie in the final episode offer a rare glimpse of Malcom expressing weakness and the sheer pressure his job puts him under.]]

** There's one scene where the name of Ollie's favourite film temporarily slips Malcolm's mind and so he describes it as "the one about the fucking hairdresser, the [[RecycledINSPACE space hairdresser]] and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin. His father's a robot and he's fuckin' [[BrotherSisterIncest fucked his sister]]. Franchise/{{LEGO}}, they're all made of fucking LEGO." Even after Ollie figures out what the film is ([[spoiler:''Franchise/StarWars'']]), he reacts with bewilderment and mild annoyance instead of the hysterical laughter this would more likely cause.

** Ollie briefly does three different regional accents, all saying, "I hate you!", when describing Nicola's cross-country meet-the-people tour.

** During the radio debacle in 3.5, Peter goes on a 4th-wall-bending rant: "I seem to have wandered into some 1970s Ray Cooney farce. Is the vicar going to come around with Robin Askwith?" These farces were hugely influential on UK comedy, notably ''Series/FawltyTowers'' and by some extension ''The Thick of It'' itself.

* {{Corpsing}}: Miles Jupp revealed on the commentary for ''Creator/StewartLee's Comedy Vehicle'' that he had terrible problems bursting into laughter during his first scene, so the writers included that in John Duggan's later appearance on the train.

* AxCrazy: Jamie, the aggressive, foul-mouthed Scottish press officer who is ''[[UpToEleven even worse]]'' than Malcolm:

* RantInducingSlight:

This show has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: you can read more about them and how they fit into the UsefulNotes/BritishPoliticalSystem over at the show's [[Characters/TheThickOfIt Character Sheet]].

** Terri is referred to as "Nurse Ratched" by Fergus and Adam at one point. Joanna Scanlan played a Nurse Ratched {{Expy}} in an episode of ''{{Series/Spaced}}'' which contained a WholePlotReference to ''Film/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest''.

** Ollie has to admit that leaving a pair of flip-flops on Angela Heaney's desk after she filed multiple contradictory stories about a proposed [=DoSAC=] policy is ActuallyPrettyFunny...the porn picture with the caption "Angela Swallows Anything" less so.

* {{Adminisphere}}: The British government is basically depicted as this to the rest of the country, being a mostly out-of-touch cloister of career politicos and technocratic policy wonks both scathingly contemptuous towards and simultaneously a bit frightened of actually dealing with the general public they're supposed to be representing.

** In the longer version of the scene where Glenn tries to rejoin Malcolm, the latter replies, "That ship has sailed, the ship's hit an iceberg and Creator/JulianJulianFellowes has written a shit drama about it".

* ShoutOutToShakespeare: In the second episode of season two, Malcolm tells Hugh that the Prime Minister's wife has been [[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} putting poison in her husband's ear]] about him. In the third episode of season four, Phil compares him and Glenn to [[Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]].

-->How does that work? I'm the semi-talented songwriter and you're the loutish prick? Because that's a ''lovely'' analogy.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: "Have you been at Number 10 recently? It's like the break-up of Music/TheBeatles, during the fall of UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire. While fucking...[[PageThreeStunna Jordan's]] splitting up with that bloke."