Characters / The Thick of It

We've compiled this helpful guide for the characters of The Thick of It and how they fit into the intricate edifice of the British Political System. The show expects you to know even the most minor, tertiary characters by sight and in name-drops even if they've only had five minutes of consecutive screen time a half-dozen episodes apart, and good luck following exactly what is going on if you don't.

The Government (Series 1-3); The Opposition (Series 4)

Throughout the bulk of the series (Series 1-3 and the specials), these characters are either members of the governing party (whether politicians or advisors) or civil servants in the government departments run by them. By Series 4, however, the mighty have now fallen, and the party members have spent the last two years in Opposition. Less Left-wing than in the past, and more image-conscious and spin-obsessed, the unnamed Party has much in common with New Labour:

Number 10

The Prime Minister (Series 1 & 2, The Specials.)

The first Prime Minister was simply referred to as "The Prime Minister" and virtually nothing was known about him, other than his fondness for changing his mind often.

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• Invisible President: He goes unseen throughout the series.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: We don't know very much about him compared to the other Invisible Prime Ministers of the show, but what little we do learn suggests certain similarities to Tony Blair.
• No Name Given: Unlike the two subsequent Invisible Prime Ministers, he is never given a name or even initials.

Tom Davis (Series 3)

By series three the original Prime Minister had resigned and been replaced by a new Party Leader, now with a name but still unseen. Known to have poor communication skills and mental health issues, his supporters were known as "Nutters".

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• Invisible President: As with his predecessor, we never see him.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Gordon Brown and his supporters, the Brownites.
• Violent Glaswegian: While we never see him, comments from characters indicate he is under heavy medication for both anger and depression.
  • The Missing DoSac Files shows him having a physical brawl with Malcolm, Dan Miller and Julius Nicholson, and later, when he realises the Opposition may be about to defeat him, he lets out a Death Wail, smashes his tea cup and announces "If we're going off Beachy Head, I'm fucking driving us!" before crushing Malcolm in a Bear Hug.

Malcolm Tucker, Prime Minister's Director of Communications (Series 1-3); Leader of the Opposition's Director of Communications (Series 4)

"I'm a man of principle: I like to know whether I'm lying to save the skin of a tosser or a moron."

Played By: Peter Capaldi

Functional maniac, spin doctor, and unelected employee of the Party, Malcolm nonetheless appeared to be the most powerful person in government while the Party was in power. As the Party's most senior press officer he is responsible for crisis management PR and also acted as an enforcer, ensuring all of the cabinet departments follow the party line. Fiercely loyal to the Party, his overall objective was to keep them in power by any means necessary. Now they are out of power, it's his raison d'être to get them back in...

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• Actually Pretty Funny: When he starts questioning Nicola about her family and specifically possible PR concerns about her children, he's clearly darkly amused when Nicola snarks that her 16 year old daughter is a heroin addict who's pregnant to a Nigerian People smuggler and has an active porn career.
• Anti-Hero: He's an Unscrupulous Hero who started off as the Arch-Enemy colleague of Hugh Abbott, then was made the main character, when the writers realised an unfettered spin doctor is a far more entertaining character than a worn-out, ineffectual, middle-aged politician (though Hugh's actor's Role-Ending Misdemeanor didn't exactly hurt the situation either).
• Anti-Villain: He's a Well-Intentioned Extremist who's attitude and methods are often morally deplorable but ultimately for the greater good of the Labour Party and in Malcolm's eyes, the country.
• Affably Evil: Often Nice to the Waiter only to go go into Faux Affably Evil when dealing with politicians. After being hired back by Julius Nicholson, his affability towards his co-workers is Played for Laughs as well as horror if Terri, Glenn and Ollie's comments are anything to go by.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: The suits were bad in the early series, but by Series 4 he's in Armani and looking very sharp indeed.
• Badass Longcoat: He wears a flowing black coat, most notably when vowing to his Number 10 colleagues "YOU WILL SEE ME AGAIN" and then walking out of Number 10 as it billows after him.
• The Bully: Don't ever call him one though. He is so much worse than that.
• Character Catchphrase: Says, "For fuck sake", a lot when stressed, which is often.
• The Chessmaster: The most successful one in the show, usually.
  • He spreads a rumour that Julius Nicholson is getting foreign secretary to clip his wings.
  • In "Spinners and Losers", he suggests a number of candidates to Nick "Nutter", only to then claim to Tom Davis, that those candidates were Nick's idea so that Nick and Jamie fired and Malcolm keeps his job.
  • He sets off a chain of events that get Steve Fleming fired.
• Clothing Reflects Personality: In Series 3, all of his suits are light grey, and sometimes he'll even pair a grey suit with a grey tie. When we see him in casual clothes we discover that practically every other item of clothing he owns is also grey. This could have been a deliberate attempt to match his wardrobe to his hair colour but the grey is also very fitting for a press officer who likes to hide in the background, never becoming the story.
• Cluster F-Bomb: His first specialty is loading his sentences with "fucks".
• Country Matters: Another of his specialities is the "cunt"; it's part of Tucker's Law.
• Cycle of Revenge: A rare non-deadly example. While Malcolm's end goal is ultimately altruistic (getting his party into shape so they can actually run the country properly) his means end up being self-defeating. He's always at odds with his colleagues because they keep stepping out of his line, but they do so either out of revenge against him for a perceived slight, or because his line doesn't account for their own desires, self serving or otherwise. There's so many problems in the series that could be solved- or outright avoided- if Malcolm chose to employ a more diplomatic approach rather than his signature bollockings.
• Deadpan Snarker: Big time, especially when he's not actually resorting to outright abuse. His patronisingly delivery to Terri about how when she apologises to the press there will be, "Things called cameras... and microphones.. and hangovers and bad breath.", takes the cake.
• Death Glare: "Have I got my bollocking face on?...No, this◊ is my bollocking face."
• The Determinator: He is fiercely loyal to his party and will do everything in his power to keep it in power.
• Dragon-in-Chief: In Season 4, Malcolm is technically subordinate to the leader of his party, (even if said leader is Nicola Murray!) but you could be forgiven for forgetting that, considering two of the party leaders were The Unseen, and the third was... not exactly a powerful figure.
• The Dreaded: Almost everyone in the series is terrified of him. In the last esisode, Adam hopes he gets put in a cell with a genuine psycopath.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: He has fought so hard for the party. If The Missing DoSAC Files are to be believed, however, no one has an ounce of respect for him after the election. The e-mail exchange regarding the titular missing files is also indicative that people aren't taking Malcolm very seriously any more. The replies are snarky almost down to the last man. It's still hard to picture the characters saying any of those things to his face, however... and Ollie seems appropriately scared piss-less when Malcolm announces he's coming around for a little in-person chat regarding said missing files.
• Enraged by Idiocy: Part of his daily routine involves berating people for their mistakes and then trying to fix them.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The published script book includes a section entitled "Malcolm's Sent Items". Among the threats of sexual violence sent to DoSAC staff there is one very polite email addressed to "Isobel Tucker" and beginning "Dear Mam..."
• Evil Sounds Deep: Whilst not exactly evil but a very nasty Anti-Hero. he produces some rather unnerving harmonics when really annoyed, "Don't you ever call me a bully, I'm so much worse than that." He calls it whisperboarding.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • When dealing with the scandal surrounding Nicola's daughter, he did seem very mindful that Nicola was first and foremost a distraught mother. He even tried to comfort her and give her a (terrible) pep talk when she started crying in his office.
  • In the official spin-off book The Missing DoSaC Files (by the show's writing team), Malcolm is openly sympathetic towards Nicola with regards to an incident in the series in which the press manipulate her into standing in front of a campaign sign in such a way as to make the sign say "I AM BENT." He is actually complimentary to Nicola for her handling of the affair (something almost unheard of for Malcolm). This is also reflected to a lesser degree in the episode itself.
  • During the Goolding Inquiry, Malcolm claims he would never target "real people", non-politicians. Malcolm did more to help Tickel than anyone else in Government or Opposition, albeit for cynical reasons. The Government were the ones who sold off Tickel's home and then added insult to injury by kicking him out of his protest tent. Nicola was trying to cover her own arse after supporting the selloff, so despite Malcolm's advice the Opposition weren't taking up Tickel's cause either. Sure, leaking Tickel's medical records was insensitive on Malcolm's part. But he did it to show that the Government were, as he put it, "picking on a man with a history of depression"... which was true and turned out to have tragic consequences. Malcolm ultimately took all the blame for Tickel's death, but it might have been avoided if anyone had listened to him early on.
  • In a deleted scene of "Rise of the Nutters", Ollie accuses Malcolm of being homophobic. He responds by saying how he worked to help repeal anti-gay legislation while the accuser was still a schoolboy.
  • When Nicola makes a flippant remark about embarrassing herself in front of, "uniformed pensioners", Malcolm is quick to remind her of the sacrifice they made so she could, "play at running the country".
  • While his temper is not the calmest, even he seems taken aback by some of Jamie's outbursts and tantrums.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: He had dark hair to begin with and gets lighter and grayer as the show goes on. His job is so stressful it ages him.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's perfectly capable of being very polite when it suits him. It usually suits him as the setup for a string of abuse so painful you may find it psychologically impossible to move for several minutes afterward.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Or spin doctor, rather. Possible exception of Jamie MacDonald who engages in somewhat friendly banter with Malcolm in In the Loop, especially its deleted scenes, though less so in the series itself.
• Gay Bravado: He is exceedingly fond of unnerving male politicos via flirting and double entendres.
• Girly Run: He's an aggressive, foul-mouthed, violent alpha male... who runs like a girl.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: A very short fuse of anger just waiting to explode, though not as bad as Jamie. Given the incompetence of the people he's trying to prop up in power who make up the party who he's fought all his life for, it's hard to blame him.
• The Heavy: In any episode where the party leader's wishes become relevant to DoSaC, it is always Malcolm who brings the news and steers it to one conclusion or another.
• Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": Mike Ticker, protagonist of Ticker Time. (The Missing DoSAC Files.)
• Hoist by His Own Petard: For all his efficiency some of his schemes have way of backfiring on him:
  • Under the impression that the "Focus Groups" actor was The Mole for Simon Hewitt, he attempts to cow her into silence which results in her telling the press which could have have been prevented had he not just assumed she was working for Simon. As Hugh puts it, they "released a story for the press voluntarily.".
  • His plan to undermine Nicola by making sure the file for 'Quiet Batpeople' was on full display for the cameras ultimately backfires on him when it's revealed in a blow-up of the picture that he had Mr. Tickell's mobile number, NHS details and the unlisted number of Mr. Tickell's ex-wife—displayed in the same way the 'Quiet Bat People' file was displayed—, all of which was leaked after the picture was taken. Whatever confidence Malcolm had in the Inquiry evaporates completely.
• Hollywood Atheist: His Facebook page lists: "Don't waste my time with all that floppy donkey dick" as his "Religious Views".
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: To the ENTIRE Labour Party. He's the only character in the series who is competent.
• Jerkass Has a Point: For all his meanness, 9 times out of 10 he's just plain right:
  • He's puts across the case to Hugh Abbot very well about why having a good resignation is possible.
  • He rightly calls out Steve for badly handling the crime stats.
  • In Season 4, he's right about Nicola not having enough fire to be leadership material for the Labour Party.
  • It was cruel to reject Glenn the way he did but it doesn't change the fact that Glenn made a conscious decision to switch from the Labour party to the Liberal Democrats and disloyalty is a massive Berserk Button for Malcolm.
  • As shady and irresponsible as he was to leak Mr. Tickell's contact details to the public, something had to be done to draw attention to the Tory govermnent's poor treatment of the aforementioned nurse.
• Jerk Jock: Essentially a workplace version and he does smack Glenn in the nose. That said he is more intellectual and sophisticated than most examples, whilst Jamie and Cal Richards play this trope straighter.
  • 'The Missing DOSAC Files' shows him engaging in a physical brawl with Dan Miller, Tom Davis and Julius Nicholson (though admittedly Miller started it.)
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He was a rather nasty person to everyone at work. However, occasionally, he'll indulge in the "Heart of Gold" part. Though he'll rip your teeth and fingernails out if you ever think of mentioning it or pointing it out. Also seen in 'The Missing DOSAC Files' during the transcript of his voicemail to Cal Richards, when he tears up at the prospect of a little girl's rabbit being named after him, as well as the picture the girl drew of him and Cal having a picnic.
  • When explaining to Ollie why he needs to bring down Nicola as party leader, Malcolm points out that the party can't do anything to help people if they don't have power, and Nicola is never going to win an election.
• Kick the Dog:
  • He does a nice line in this, e.g. "Sorry you had to go, but let's face it, you're a fucking waste of skin." Or Kick The Son Of A Bitch given Nicola's public school hypocrisy.
  • Rejecting Glenn's pleas to come back to the Labour party.
• Knight Templar: Downplayed. He knows that he isn't a Knight In Shining Armour but he sees himself as more of a Unscrupulous Hero instead of a Anti-Villain. He also genuinely believes that his party could help people, and that his actions are for the greater good.
• Kubrick Stare: The master of the Death Glare or the bollocking face.
• Large Ham: Not as unrealistically melodramatic as most examples but Peter Capaldi clearly enjoyed himself a lot.
• Lean and Mean: He keeps his weight down by running everywhere, being permanently stressed out, and living on a diet consisting mainly of coffee. Olly Reader likens him to "a thin white Mugabe".
• Limited Wardrobe: He's always seen wearing light grey suits.
• Locked Out of the Loop: In "The Rise Of The Nutters" and "Spinners and Losers", he's constantly kept out of the loop despite being the Prime Minister's spin doctor.
• Manly Tears: Is heavily implied to have been crying after being sacked by Steve Fleming in the beginning of the last episode of Season 3. In fact on the DVD invokedArmando Iannucci said he specificially told Peter Capaldi to play Malcolm as if he had been crying for two weeks straight.
• Manipulative Bastard: The phrase "Malcovellian" doesn't exist for nothing.
  • He tells Terri to tell Nicola Murray into standing in front of the Liam Bentley sign making it look like it's saying "I am bent", something Nicola calls him out on.
  • He also manipulates Nicola into thinking Peter Mannion and the rest of the Tories are telling nasty jokes about her family, when her daughter was about to get expelled for bullying.
  • He manipulates Steve Fleming into looking like he's trying to influence Julius Nicholson's report which forces Steve to resign.
  • He trips Nicola up by setting up the batpeople photo, though this also comes back to bite him in the ass during the Goulding leak enquiry.
• Married to the Job: Very little about his personal life is revealed. This is deliberate: a sub-plot about Malcolm's partner leaving him for journalist Simon Hewitt was cut, and on the DVD commentaries the cast and writers agree that no-one really needs (or wants) to know about his life outside work. He probably doesn't have one. This is confirmed by Malcolm himself in the last episode of the series, in a haunting yet amazing speech to Ollie.
  • He wears a wedding ring for most of the run of the series; it's gone by the time he gives evidence to the Goolding Inquiry at the end of Series 4, although it's never referred to. Peter Capaldi does not like to take off his own wedding ring, whatever role he's playing.
  • At the end of Series 3 Episode 7, as he's returning to his home after "resigning", there is a small child looking out of the downstairs window. In the last episode of series 4 Malcolm's speech to Ollie includes the words "no kids" so the child at the window evidently wasn't his.
  • Some scenes in his office in the same series show that he has what is obviously a small child's artwork taped to the wall. Considering that he refers to himself as having "no children" during his rant to Ollie in the final episode of Series 4, this one's a bit of a puzzler—either he was being metaphorical (since he never sees his kids due to the pressures of his job) or the child in Series 3 is actually a niece/nephew or other relative. (He does mention a young niece he's apparently quite close to in an earlier episode.)
  • A piece of wildly implausible but fun-to-believe fanon holds the Malcolm Tucker's previous life was as Sid Jenkins' pyschotic-but-loving-in-his-own-special-way father. Presumably Hell spat him back out..
• Memetic Badass: In universe and out. Getting "tuckered", is seen as a right of passage if Fergus is to be believed.
• Nice to the Waiter: Rude and vitriolic as he is to civil servants and politicos, he's nice to regular staff, including cleaners. He's also consistently polite, friendly and warm to his own assistant Sam.
• The Nicknamer: He has a nickname for EVERYONE he encounters, he favours comparisons to celebrities most of all.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: He was based on a number of New Labour spin doctors. Alastair Campbell is the one most often cited, but he is also partly based on Peter Mandelson and possibly on Damian "Mad Dog" McBride. The last of these has led to some amusing invokedLife Imitates Art moments: in one episode it emerges that the Opposition's nickname for Malcolm is Hamish MacDeath: the Conservatives gave McBride the nickname "McPoison". McBride was also forced to resign after his plans to set up a blog slandering David Cameron were leaked, some time after the show featured Malcolm Tucker getting into trouble for posting slanderous comments on Peter Mannion's blog.
• Noble Top Enforcer: You can tell Malcolm cares more about the party values than the Prime Ministers he works for, who only seem to care about good publicity.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: He's prone to dishing this trope out to venal politicians, rival spin doctors and civil servants.
  • Screaming at Hugh over flatgate and calling him a stupid cunt, during his interview with Daily Mail jack journalist Angela Heaney.
  • Puts down Olly at the climax of Spinners and Losers, calling him "Ben's Glenn", in response to Olly being a self-serving Jerkass to Glenn.
  • Threatening to rain down on Phil so hard he'll, "have to be reassembled by air crash investigators".
  • Constantly insulting Steve Fleming and ultimately getting him fired at the end of Season 3.
  • Orchestrating soldier disrespecting Nicola Murray's downfall.
• Papa Wolf: For his party, and to Sam, to some extent.
• Pet the Dog:
  • His demeanour towards working-class characters or anyone deemed a social inferior is usually sincerely empathetic, gentlemanly and devoid of condescension. This stands in contrast to the obnoxious and patronizing behaviour displayed by those on the opposite side, such as Mannion or Pearson towards hotel receptionists or campaigning youths, but also those on his own side, who generally make more noise in public about representing the lower classes and exploited but usually come across as insincere, contemptuous and dismissive in more private settings. (Of course, there is a practical and somewhat self-serving element to this beyond just niceness, as forming and maintaining good relations with members of the public is, well, good public relations.)
  • He does on only two occasions show remorse and regret for his actions, notably when he hits Glenn, he expresses what appears to be genuine remorse.
  • When Glenn has an explosive breakdown over the stress and various humiliations he's endured over the two specials, Malcolm opts to quietly allow him to vent his frustration rather than mock or deride him. He follows this by bringing him along to the meeting with Dan Miller despite this being of no practical benefit to himself, for seemingly no other reason than to make Glenn feel included and brighten his mood.
  • He runs into his office in the midst of his sacking to scream at everyone for making Sam cry. Speaking of Sam, she is in general one of the few people we ever see Malcolm treat in a consistently nice and pleasant way.
  • When Ben Swain berates a cleaning lady, Malcolm takes her aside to calm her down. This one, however, maybe be a subversion and more along the lines of "putting out potential fires", since among other things the cleaner is threatening to go to the press.
  • In Series 3, he tries and fails to cheer Nicola up when the headmaster gets sacked over letting Nicola's daughter stay at school after bullying another kid.
  • When Steve Fleming is being sexist to Nicola (calling her darling and 'sweetheart'), Malcolm sticks up for Nicola, albeit by insinuating Steve's gay due to the moustache.
  • In a deleted scene, he gives Terri a genuine happy new year greeting.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: Quick to make references to The Beatles, The Crying Game,The Flintstones and more during his tirades. This makes his total ignorance and unsuccessful attempts at explaining the plot of Star Wars of all things all the more hilarious (though this may have been a case of Obfuscating Stupidity or the point being he's above such nerd references).
• Punch-Clock Villain: It's strongly implied from the way he interacts with lower-status staff he's a Nice Guy when he's out of politics but a roaring freight train of anger, Jerk Jock Manipulative Bastard when at work.
• Real Men Cook: He's seen entertaining journalists at his house with curry and wine.
• Real Men Wear Pink: At work he seems assured enough of his own sexuality to be entirely comfortable flirting with men, while the scenes in Malcolm's house show him to have pride in his cooking skills and an eye for interior design. He also got rather alarmed at the thought of journalists damaging his hedge. However he gains the most pink points for coming out with the wonderfully fey "DON'T TOUCH THAT SCARF, THAT'S PAUL SMITH!". During a fight.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Regularly dishes these out throughout the series, possibly the standout may be the one he gives to Nicola after she gets forced out of her job.
• Sad Clown: He's a Stepford Snarker who masks his life insecurity with humour, this gets commented on in the second episode.
  "At times of stress I make jokes!"
• Self-Made Man: Heavily implied. His nickname "The Gorbals Goebbels" indicates that he grew up in a very rough area of Glasgow. It would go a long way to explain why he's Nice to the Waiter but doesn't trust the "oxbridge twats", like Ollie Reeder or Ben Swain.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: He's robustly famous/infamous for being a man whose favourite word started with a capital "F" and cropped up in nearly every sentence he spoke.note His second-favourite word starts with a "C", so much so that when Peter Capaldi did a PSA for Macmillan in-character, he said he was talking "about the big C, and not my usual big C!"
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: From the Specials onwards. Justified to a large extent in that he was one of the two original main characters, and since the other one suddenly exited the series off-screen with nothing but a Handwave, focus was naturally shifted to him, even if the show was technically re-tooled as more of an ensemble piece following Hugh's departure.
• The Starscream: In Series 4, he teams up with Dan Miller against Nicola Murray, now Leader of the Opposition, despite outwardly still supporting her.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: He's able to sneak up on people in a glass-walled office. "I'm a shapeshifter!"
• Surrounded by Idiots: He has very little patience for the incompetence of ministers and other civil servants in Whitehall to the point where he describes himself in series four as having "no real friends". He considered Hugh Abbot to be bumbling, incompetent and out of touch with the public, and was constantly fed up with having to deal with his mistakes. His treatment of Hugh's successor, Nicola Murray, was considerably more sympathetic, with Tucker deeming her a "nice lady", and even helping to move forward her (rather fanciful) policy ideas. However, this professional respect quickly deteriorated following the General Election; Nicola's time as Leader of the Opposition was a complete disaster, until Malcolm staged a coup d'état against her, declaring her "a waste of skin". Despite this, he attests at the Goolding Inquiry that he still retained great respect for her as a person, and even went so far as to applaud her tenure as Minister of Do Sa C.
• The Svengali: He fits the trope perfectly, although instead of mentoring a specific person like this, he obsessively controls his entire Party. His Villainous Breakdown in Series 4 even involves him screaming at someone objecting to his plan, because he is doing it all for the Party, and no-one should dare ever question what he would do for the Party.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Though his hair goes prematurely grey from stress by Season 3.
• Team Dad: He's Her Majesty's Government's Team Dad. The scariest, most abusive one imaginable.
  "Never mind what Mummy says, just do what Daddy says"
• Tranquil Fury: Most of the time, Malcolm Tucker is a screaming, raging freight train of pure anger. However, if he ever plays this trope straight, you are in deep, deep, deep trouble.
• Tsundere: He's basically Type A. He's actually a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but he goes tsun whenever party politics is involved. Which, given the nature of the show, is all the fucking time.
• Uncertain Doom: His fate after the end of the show is not set in stone, but judging by out-of-universe comments by series creator Armando Iannucci, he's likely either dead or in prison (though this is only to cement the point that the show is truly over and probably not serious). However, Tucker has subsequently made sporadic cameos in other media, from a Big Issue magazine feature chronicling a fierce Brexit debate between himself and Alan Partridge (another Iannucci character) to an authorised cameo in Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century, where he has an unseen radio interview with real life journalist Jon Snow.
• The Unfettered: There is nothing he won't do to keep his Party in power by any means necessary: blackmail, physical threats, leaking and violence are all in his arsenal. Total lack of scruples is a job requirement, with his more idealistic opposite number, Stewart Pearson, playing just as dirty as him.
• Vetinari Job Security: He's worked very hard to put himself in this position, though his grip on things is slipping in series three. However, when he's fired, we get glimpses of a government without Malcolm: Steve Fleming is creeping around being a creepy creep and scaring everyone, a handful of cabinet ministers revolt and Dan Miller's cabal apparently see it as an opportunity to launch a leadership bid. Needless to say, Malcolm is quickly called back.
  Malcolm: I am the heart. I am the ventricles!
• Villainous Breakdown: Rather, an Anti-Hero/Anti-Villain Breakdown; some stonking cases, often with bonus This Is Your Brain on Evil and Don't You Dare Pity Me!. When Steve Fleming has him sacked, Malcolm crosses it over with Badass Boast: "You cannot fuck me! You cannot fuck me! I am unfuckable! I have never been fucked. And if you fucking try and fuck me, you'll find my fucking arse will fucking grow fucking fangs and fucking snap your fucking cock off!"
• Violent Glaswegian: He's Scottish and threatens people with creative acts of violence and has actually punched Glenn.
• Volatile Second Tier Position: He's one of the most important figures in government, but the job requires him to spend every waking hour on duties so demanding that Malcolm literally has no time for anything else in his life. Plus, it's heavily implied that the work is having a serious impact on Malcolm's health, especially given his warning that Ollie will end up a wreck within a few months of replacing him.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He genuinely believes in the party manifesto and will fight to the death for it.
• Workaholic: Brutally deconstructed during his rant to Ollie in the last ever episode.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Glenn isn't, strictly speaking, a woman.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: His second specialty.

Samantha "Sam" Cassidy

"Happy Birthday Malcolm!"

Played By: Samantha Harrington

Malcolm's PA and one true confidante. He is genuinely fond of her and the feeling is mutual: she is the only character who really understands him and doesn't view him as a complete bastard. When Malcolm gets fired in Series 3, Sam actually cries while everyone else is celebrating, and Malcolm comes running in to comfort her.

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• All There in the Manual: Her full name is only given in The Missing DoSaC Files.
• Death Glare: Though she never speaks during the Goolding Inquiry, she delivers a couple of these to Terri and Ollie when they are the only ones to explicitly implicate Malcolm as the source of the leak.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: She has dark hair early on and is a sandy blonde by the end of the series.
• Girl Friday: A very competent one for Malcolm.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Enough so to keep up with Malcolm.
• Morality Pet: To Malcolm; she seems to be the only person he genuinely cares about.
• The Reliable One: One of the precious few competent characters in the show, quiet and efficient and just gets on with things in the background. No wonder Malcolm respects her so much.
• Satellite Character: Absolutely nothing is known about her in the show, outside of her working for Malcolm. Given that the most well known characters are so because of their gibbering incompetence, being relatively unknown is telling in itself of her ability. Granted, in The Missing DoSAC Files, we learn that she knows how to forge Malcolm's signature and is a fan of U2.
• So Proud of You: Her character photo shows the smile she wears after Malcolm's Rousing Speech at the end of Series 3.
• Undying Loyalty: She stays on as Malcolm's PA for at least the eight-year run of the show, during which every other professional relationship and alliance portrayed within the series is destroyed completely at least once. This includes her crossing over into opposition with him after his party loses the election and, well, just generally putting up with Malcolm for all that time...

Jamie MacDonald, Senior Press Officer, Number 10

"From now on it's a proper fight—it's a pub fight, Motherwell rules."

Played By: Paul Higgins

Jamie runs the testosterone-charged Number 10 press office and as Malcolm's unofficial second-in-command he also helps him with his enforcer duties. He came into conflict with Malcolm during the specials, and disappeared thereafter. However, he's still alive, well, and employed, and exchanging combative e-mails with Malcolm, as per The Missing DoSaC Files.

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• All There in the Manual: His full name is given in The Missing DoSaC Files, though it is also given in In the Loop.
• Ax-Crazy: While Malcolm's tantrums frequently threaten creative acts of violence, Jamie constantly seems on the verge of exploding into actual acts of violence.
• Badass Adorable: With his short stature, curly hair, boyish smile and gigantic blue eyes he doesn't look like the sort of man who threatens to push iPods up his enemies' penises:
• Bastard Understudy: To Malcolm. As the specials make clear, however, Malcolm has chosen well; while Jamie is smart and competent, he lacks Malcolm's invokedMagnificent Bastardry and finesse, and is basically a shouty, violent bully who ultimately poses no real threat.
• Berserk Button:
  • Al Jolson fanatic. Dissing Al Jolson makes him even angrier.
  • In the Loop clearly demonstrates that he has a chip on his shoulder about class, and reacts poorly even to perceived upper class pretensions no matter how much they're just in his head. For example, his sneering about "fuckin' Oxbridge pleasantries" when meeting Toby (Toby had said nothing but "Hello") and his yelling about Michael Rodger's fondness for listening to opera in his office.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He isn't seen or mentioned again after the specials.
  • The Bus Came Back: Sort of. He is, however, featured in the post-Series-3 tie-in material.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Just like his boss.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: His threats can be rather unorthdox.
• The Dragon: While his boss was more of an Anti-Hero than a full on villain, he functions as a rather competent Dragon for Malcolm. That said, he did have some ambitions of his own, which may account for his absence in the third series.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's not as witty as Malcolm but he has his moments when insulting people:
  Jamie: "What did you find out? That you've been leaking intelligence to them!?"
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humour: Well, "Jerkass Motherwell Bully With Anger Management Problems", at least. It's subtly done, but Jamie's attempts at wit tend to be less clever than Malcolm's, take him longer to come out with, and people generally tend to react with confusion or mild annoyance at the result where they don't with Malcolm, prompting him to have to cow them with a violent temper tantrum instead. All of which works to reinforce the fact that he's not quite as good at what he does as Malcolm is.
• Expy: While the absolute polar opposite in terms of personality and manner, Jamie was loosely inspired by Niles from Frasier according to Armando Iannucci. Like Niles, Jamie was created with the intention of being similar to the main character, in this case Malcolm, "but more so". Just as Niles is even more foppish, fussy and pretentious than his brother Frasier, Jamie is even more bad-tempered, sweary and Scottish than Tucker. On the same token, Jamie criticially lacks Malcolm's wit and Manipulative Bastard instincts, making him enough of a Foil to Tucker, just as Niles lacks Frasier's social confidence and luck with women.
• Faux Affably Evil: On the rare occasions he tries charm rather than screaming, he's about as convincing as Steve Fleming, since he's unable to effectively conceal his seething, abusive nature.
  Jamie: I'm being polite, aren't I?.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Unlike Malcolm, who's outbursts of rage are generally more focussed and prompted more by the idiocy and incompetence of those he's surrounded by, Jamie just seems to have a violent, out-of-control temper ready to explode at the slightest hint of even a hypothetical provocation.
• Informed Attribute: His lack of height. With all the digs at Jamie's alleged lack of height, it's easy to forget that Paul Higgins is 5'10" - average height, thus not exactly short. However, compared to Peter Capaldi, Chris Addison, Will Smith, Ben Swain and several of the other actors (all over six feet) he does look rather diminutive.
• Jerkass: He's violent, aggressive and impossible to get on with, unless you're a cleaner.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Jamie is spot on when he says that Cliff Lawton's leadership speech is utter woe-is-me invokedWangst!
• Jerk Jock: A cruder, more pyschotic bully than Malcolm.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In "Spinners and Losers", he screams at and bullies Robyn when she helpfully chips in with an unprompted suggestion for Cliff Lawton's leadership bid. Robyn then scuttles Jamie's plans by telling Terri that Jamie is meeting Lawton, as Terri then goes on to spill to Malcolm.
• Must Have Nicotine: A heavy smoker.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: He explicitly disclaims independent thought in Rise of the Nutters.
  Jamie: You are going Nutter mate!
  Malcolm: And you've never thought fucking about that, have you?
  Jamie: No, I never have, because that's how they get you, fuck that thinking, oh, logic, reason, talking!
• The Napoleon: What he lacks in height, he makes up for in aggressiveness.
• Nice to the Waiter: He'll scream and swear his head off to people in power, including civil servants, with no compunction, but when he unintentionally knocks into a cleaner, he's all apologies.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Damian McBride and Charlie Whelan, two ex-trade unionists who were part of Number 10's spin machine during the Blair era.
• No Indoor Voice
• Only Friend: Despite his alienating personality, he seems to be the closest thing Malcolm has to an actual friend, as they are seen talking amicably in some scenes and is the only one who can get away with insulting or standing up to Malcolm.
• Only One Name: Until The Movie and the book at least.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He goes into polite mode when he bumps into a cleaner, straight after chewing out Robyn.
  • A deleted scene from "Spinners and Losers" has him joining Malcolm in comforting the cleaning lady that Ben Swain needlessly berated. Jamie even offers to kill him.
• Psycho for Hire: He's basically a bull dog for Malcolm. Lampshaded by Ollie at the start of Spinners and Losers.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Despite his dislike for opera, The Missing DoSaC Files show that he used to be a feature writer in a newspaper's culture section. When he claims that this was only due to wanting to bed Penny, his editor, Malcolm responds with reports from his coworkers about his behaviour whilst there (complete with ponytail). Jamie has no answer.
• Sarcasm Failure: Ben Swain's disastrous Jeremy Paxman interview makes Jamie so angry that he can't even manage his usual stream of profanities in the car ride away. After what's implied to be a long silence, the most he can manage is "you don't deserve to live!"
• The Starscream: Defied: Malcolm specifically chose a Bastard Understudy too batshit to pull off a successful betrayal. Eventually he does make a rather pathetic attempt, which fails horribly.
• Smug Snake: Unlike Malcolm, he doesn't have the charm or manipulation skills to be a invokedMagnificent Bastard.
• Tranquil Fury: Tranquil by Jamie's standard anyway he's somewhat more calm and methodical when he's initially destroying the fax machine only to get progressively enraged and then back into full-on VillainousBreakdown mode
• Ultimate Job Security: How someone this close to being feral was even allowed into Number 10 is never explained.
• Violent Glaswegian: Well, a violent guy from Motherwell, but close enough.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After playing a fairly prominent role in the two Specials, he vanishes without explanation for Seasons 3 and 4. Given the he was last seen siding against Malcolm in the leadership contest, though, it seems safe to assume that he probably doesn't have a job any more.
• Working-Class Hero: And has a chip on his shoulder about class.

The Department Of Social Affairs (and Citizenship)

Ollie Reeder: "Citizenship involves, basically, cutting pensions to the Gurkhas, re-jigging the protocols for a rabies outbreak, some crap from Health about long-term care for the elderly, that neither they nor we have any real idea about."

Glenn Cullen: "And everything to do with the Isle of Man."

As a newly-created "super department" with a wide range of duties, DoSaC's remit is confusing but among other things it covers housing, immigration and benefits. It is the least glamorous of the Cabinet departments and the one which no MPs want to run. A fictional department, it is comparable to the Real Life Department for Communities and Local Government. The department itself invokes the The Main Characters Do Everything trope, as Glenn and Ollie have already explained above.

This department was run by the following characters in Series 1-3:

Cliff Lawton MP

"It's the bollocks of the jungle out there. They're like wolves- pissed wolves."

Played By: Tim Bentinck

The Minister for Social Affairs when the series started, Malcolm forced him to resign in the very first episode.

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• Boring Insult: Subjected to this from both Malcolm and Jamie.
• Butt-Monkey: His establishing moment is his dismissal from the department.
• Decoy Protagonist: Is Minister for the department that this series follows... for all of five minutes.
• He's Back!: Subverted; just when it looks like Jamie is about to boost him into the position of rival candidate, Malcolm cottons on and aborts the plan. Meanwhile, Cliff goes as far as saying "I'm back!" before Jamie wearily tells him to fuck off.
• It's All About Me: The speech he drafts for his aborted leadership campaign launch focuses entirely on how Malcolm, and by extension the party, screwed him over. Jamie and Robyn both advise against this.
• Never My Fault: Acts like Labour screwed him over, never mind that if he was a more effective politician he wouldn't have had to resign in the first place.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Against Malcolm, and utterly ineffectual.
• Small Name, Big Ego: It's a small moment, but in the middle of Malcolm sacking him, he tries to insist Malcolm call him "Minister". Malcolm tells him to "get used to Cliff."
• Unfortunate Names: "Elvis... sorry, Cliff!" Poor Cliff Lawton's parents probably didn't envisage their son going into politics.
• Wangst: Invoked; after hearing him base his entire stalking-horse speech on his sacking by Malcolm, Jamie accuses Cliff of this and makes it as clear as possible that there's no point in doing so when every single politician in the current government has had to do the same thing and worse at some point.

Hugh Abbott MP (Series 1-2)

"I categorically did not knowingly not tell the truth. Even though unknowingly I might not have done."

Played By: Chris Langham

Cliff Lawton's replacement. During his time there the department was re-branded "The Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship", or DoSAC. He lacks "click" with his constituents, other politicians and (most upsetting to Hugh) the PM's wife.

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• Bad Boss: In the first episode, he sacks his chauffeur for "inappropriately smiling and smirking". In his last, he accidentally sends an offensive email to the wrong person and makes Terri take the rap for it.
• Bad Liar: Just look at his character quote.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Usually puts on a façade of good manners and occasionally tries to appear far nicer than he actually is. As soon as things begin to go wrong though, he drops the act entirely and will happily betray anyone in order to make himself look good.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He's never mentioned again after being reshuffled after the specials.
• Decoy Protagonist: Arguably the main character of the first two seasons before the focus shifted towards Malcolm.
• Dirty Coward: Hugh is slimy, shameless and as patheticaly cowardly as they come.
  • He hides in a storage room to avoid Malcolm's wrath.
  • He's quite vocal about his resentment over Dan Miller's popularity with the PM, calling him a "fucking brushed aluminium cyberprick", but never to Dan's face.
  • Glenn knows Hugh would never dare tell the PM to cancel the new special schools bill: "No, I'm not, but it'd be great if I did, wouldn't it?"
  • He forces Terri to humiliatingly accept blame and publicly apologize on television for something that was 100% his fault.
  • He then lies about Glenn convincing him to kill the special schools programme.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even he finds Ollie's comments about special needs children distasteful given Glenn's son has special needs.
  Hugh Abbott: You just took a shit with your clothes on, Ollie — Glenn's boy, Peter, he went to a special needs school.
  • It doesn't stop him from throwing Glenn under the bus (and quite possibly poisoning his relationship with his son in the process) at the end of the episode by claiming Glenn was the one who convinced him to kill the programme, though. It ends their friendship.
• It's All About Me: When informed of Terri's father passing away, his immediate response is to say that he himself has just suffered a similar tragedy: He lacks "click" with the Prime Minister's wife.
• Jade-Coloured Glasses: You can tell he's lost all enthusiasm with his job.
  I work, I eat, I shower. Occasionally, I'll take a dump, just as a sort of treat.
• Hate Sink: Hugh has almost no redeeming or likeable qualities at all. He's cowardly, self absorbed, insensitive and treacherous.
• Kick the Dog: After successfully throwing Glenn under the bus during the "Your Own Mother's Piss" fiasco, he immediately calls up Ollie to gloat about watching his "friend" suffer due to his own actions.
• Lack of Empathy: From time to time, Hugh will demonstrate that he is almost completely oblivious when it comes to the emotions of other human beings. Along with responding to the "Flatgate" and "Your Own Mother's Piss" fiascos with a borderline-hilarious It's All About Me attitude, he goes out of his way to back out of conversations with anyone who isn't a journalist during the Episode 6 press party, and even orders Terri to return to work despite knowing that she's on leave and in mourning. To be precise, he does so just a few seconds after learning that Terri's father has just died, with Terri still audibly sobbing in the background. And then he goes on to claim that he's just suffered a similar tragedy—being told that he lacks "click" with the PM's wife.
• The Last DJ: He tries to present himself as the only minister with any kind of humanity left in politics, especially in comparison with "that fucking brushed aluminium Dan Miller cyberprick." The reality is infinitely less impressive.
• Married to the Job: While he is married and has two children, by his own admission he barely has time to see them.
• Never My Fault: After using Terri's email to send a vulgar email to Glenn that accidentally ends up being sent to a child with special needs also called Glenn, he spends the episode shifting all the blame on to Terri and also says he will stand by her regardless of what "she" did. Terri rightly calls him out immediately.
• Nice to the Waiter: Averted. When he's held up by some security guards in his final episode, he snidely tells them that he's the whole reason they're working there.
• Put on a Bus: Hugh goes on a tour of Australia during the specials...
  • Bus Crash: ...and never comes back after losing his Cabinet position in the reshuffle in Series 3.
• The Stoic: Lacks emotions other than fear or resentment.
• Sympathetic P.O.V.: Downplayed given his Jerkass behaviour, but you can feel a tad bit of sympathy for how over-worked he is and how he rarely gets to see his wife or kids.
• Ungrateful Bastard: He's not grateful to Glenn's efforts at keeping him in the loop, at all.
• With Friends Like These...: His relationship with Glenn. Just because he's friends with him doesn't mean he won't cheerfully betray him in a bid to make himself look good. By his final appearance, his actions have destroyed the friendship between the two.

Nicola Murray, MP (Series 3); Leader of the Opposition (Series 4)

"I have about as much real power as those twats who sit either side of Alan Sugar."

Played By: Rebecca Front

Hugh Abbott's replacement following a reshuffle at the start of Series 3. Ambitious but with no real ideas, her belief that she can make a difference proves to be a delusion. By Series 4, she has become Leader of the Opposition.

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• 0% Approval Rating: As powerless as she was during her time as head of DoSAC, Nicola at least had the support of her staff. After becoming Leader of the Opposition, Nicola ended up earning the disrespect and mockery of almost everyone she encountered on a day-to-day basis: members of public openly deride her attempts at securing power; journalists hound her at every turn, accompanied by the dreaded "Chop"; her assistants openly insult her; the rest of the shadow cabinet laugh at her ideas... even Steve Fleming went out of his way to publicly state that she was un-electable.
• Awful Wedded Life: Is constantly on the verge of divorce with James, her unseen husband. Malcolm refers to her as the "Glummy Mummy."
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Especially in Season 4, when she makes sarcastic comments about uniformed pensioners, to which Malcolm calls her out for disrespecting said veterans saying this, "I'm glad you're thinking about those pensioners cos those are the poor fuckers who gave everything so people like you could play at running the country."
• Butt-Monkey: She was never the most competent minister, but in series four, when she's become Leader of the Opposition, each episode seems to just be one long Humiliation Conga for her.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: She often gets a blank stare, or even multiple blank stares, when attempting humour. Her poorly timed, "Thank our fucky stars for that", joke in the radio episode, especially takes the cake.
• The Chew Toy: She gets regularly humiliated by the press and harassed by the "Chop man", in Series 4.
• Claustrophobia: Never takes lifts.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To Hugh Abbott. Whereas Hugh was a jaded, cynical, burnt-out middle-aged man, Nicola is an optimistic, naive woman who doesn't really understand how the game is played.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Being around Malcolm turns her from a naive MP to a foul-mouthed savvy politician able to throw a press conference to save Malcolm's arse; it doesn't stop the constant flow of screw-ups however.
• Deadpan Snarker: She's certainly not averse to snarking back at Malcolm. "We are a dying goverment, our hair's falling out, we're coughing up blood and the kids are asking us to change the will.".
• The Ditherer: Probably her Fatal Flaw. Much as she might protest otherwise, at the end of the day she doesn't really stand for anything, have any particular ideas or believe in any principles, and is more interested in being liked/powerful than anything else. Consequently, she ultimately doesn't really want to rock the boat and do anything which people might view unfavourably. Her "big ideas" are all wishy-washy non-entities like the "Fourth Sector" which are composed of nothing but blandly meaningless corporate-speak buzzwords, and is willing to spend hours engaged in useless blather over the perfect media-friendly name for people who go out of their way to help someone else. Which is well enough, if not ideal, for the minister of a third-rate minor department that no one really pays attention to, but proves increasingly disastrous in a Leader of the Opposition.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: She has long hair in season three and in season four, her hair's been shortened to a bob.
• Failure Hero: Her minor victories such as stopping her daughter from getting excluded or knowingly bombing the fourth sector press conference are few and far in between.
• Married to the Job: Her unseen husband seems to get annoyed about her absence from the home. Her children—especially her daughter Ella—are frequently pawns in the power struggle between her and Malcolm, but we never actually meet any of them.
• My God, What Have I Done?: This is clearly going through her head when the headmaster at Ella's school has to be sacked for bending the rules, to the point where Nicola considers resiging until Malcolm vehemently advises against it.
• Nervous Wreck: Nicola in general tends to conduct herself with a kind of twitchy anxious energy, frequently punctuated by slightly too awkward, shrill and out-of-place laughter, and always overreacts to everything that happens to her in the worse possibly way. This eventually gets to the point where, according to Malcolm, other women describe her as "a jittery mother at a wedding".
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: in season 4, where she's essentially a gender-flipped Ed Miliband, who also beat a much more-fancied candidate due to a quirk of the voting system to become Leader of the Opposition.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Nicola isn't the brightest, but she does display enough political acuity to knowingly bomb a press conference to take the heat off Malcolm. Alternatively, she's displaying a touch of Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, knowing that her prospects of a leadership bid are nil after a disastrous day and a particularly awful press conference, and she's taking a swipe at Malcolm's error contributing to the day's events. Or both!
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: For all her flaws, she was (albeit on a technicality) able to defeat Dan Miller in her bid for Opposition Leader.
• Parental Neglect: Believes her frequent work-related absences, as well as her husband being "never really there," are the reason for her preteen daughter acting out at school.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Her competence plummets as Leader of the Opposition and she gives no rational thought to any decision, especially with overthinking the 'bat people' title or easily conceeding to Ben Swain's demands.
• Power Hair: Her hair is considerably shorter as Leader of the Opposition.
• The Peter Principle: Both of her promotions in the series count as this:
  • She's promoted to Minister of DoSAC from being a backbench MP so obscure that Malcolm doesn't even have background research on her, and quickly proves that she's a bit out of her depth from her previous role.
  • However, while she at least meets a baseline of competency and capability (if not an especially high one) at DoSAC, when she's somehow elected Leader of the Opposition she's an utterly incompetent failure who gets no respect from anyone.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Despite being 'regularly' humiliated by the press and only becoming Opposition Leader on a technicality, Nicola honestly thought she had a shot at being prime minister.
  • Admittedly, Nicola was showing signs of this in her first season: at one point, she gloated at how well she was doing on BBC radio- even though her only victory had been due to someone calling in with a report on the opposition accepting funds from a sweatshop.
  • When trying to persuade Dan Miller to drop the leak inquiry after he replaces her as Leader of the Opposition, Nicola — without a shred of self-awareness — tries to frame herself as a party elder and brazenly uses the line "people like me" as a threat to get him to agree. This is after the series has made a point of repeatedly hammering home exactly how incompetent and unpopular she was.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Her only points of difference with Hugh Abbott are that she's a woman, and that she's not best friends with her main ministerial advisor. This is entirely justified, as the premise of the show is that all politicians are the same.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: She was introduced as upbeat, yet slightly dim. In season four, she's so incompetent that she literally cannot walk in a straight line without screwing it up.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: She gets lot more snippy with everyone in Season 4, especially to her advisers.
• Where It All Began: Her first major order of business as Secretary of State is to travel to Leamington Spa. She mentions in a deleted scene that she grew up there.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: According to Rebecca Front, the character was largely inspired by a discussion with a political consultant who told her that the worst nightmare for someone like Malcolm would be a politician who believed in things.
• Windbag Politician: Her speeches are legendarily terrible.

Ben Swain MP, Junior Minister for Immigration, DoSAC (Specials, Series 3); Shadow Cabinet Minister (Series 4)

"Look at this! Takeaway and a fight. All I need now is a handjob in a bus shelter and I'll have had the great British night out."

Played By: Justin Edwards

A junior minister to Hugh Abbott, in series three he transferred to the Department of Education after Nicola Murray sacked him from DoSaC off-screen. He is petty and immature, slow on the uptake, and has a mega nervous blink. By the beginning of Series 4, he is a Shadow Secretary of State for an unknown department.

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• Big Eater: Other characters never fail to poke fun of his fondness for food and his frequent trips to the vending machines.
• Butt-Monkey: His first appearance has him unexpectedly ending up in an interview with Jeremy Paxman, which was accurately described as "like watching a lion raping a sheep, but in a bad way." Later on, Malcolm forces him into another one with the same man and leaves him with nothing to talk about. Then he spends a happy half-hour being told he might be the next Prime Minister, only to be left "standing in the House, alone, with your big, flaccid dick hanging out with a Vote-for-Me sticker on the end." And then there's the events of Season 4, Episode 4, though to be fair that was his own fault.
• Character Tics: Nervous blinking.
• Dumbass Has a Point: It doesn't excuse his terrible TV manner or performance, or his incompetence in general, but he is quite fair to point out that the interviewer (even if it's Jeremy Paxman), will almost certainly not bellow "OH JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION YOU FAT FUCK!" at him as Jamie does when he tries to practice his prevaricating.
• Fat Idiot: He's rather overweight and so amazingly dumb that one of the first things Nicola Murray does is sack him. (He gets sent over to the Department of Education...)
  • His stupidity during a crisis angers Malcolm so much that he makes him stand in a corner and gives him an unplugged keyboard to play with.
• Jerkass: He's a jerk, especially when he's jealous of others. He's especially dickish to Nicola and Glenn in Season 3 to the point where Malcolm has to get him to stand in the corner!
• The Load: He doesn't even mention the coalface idea during his car crash interview with Jeremy Paxman, though Ollie didn't help either by mentioning it to Emma.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Ed "Blinky" Balls.
• The Rival: He really can't stand Nicola.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He's written a book about "getting ahead in politics" titled It's The Everything, Stupid. One wonders what on earth he would know on the subject.
  • In "Spinners and Losers", his ego swells exponentially when it looks like he's in with a (very very slim) chance of becoming the next Prime Minister.
  • Used against him in Malcolm's scheme to oust Nicola as Opposition Leader. He's promised positions in the Shadow Cabinet he's ridiculously unqualified for in exchange for resignation (Foreign Secretary, Chancellor), only to be implicated in the same scandal as Nicola and forced on the backbench.
• Spanner in the Works: In Season 4 when he resigns and undermines Nicola.
• Smug Snake: Despite being disliked by everyone, he has a rather high opinion of himself.

Glenn Cullen, DoSAC Senior Policy Adviser

"I feel like I'm in a therapy group being run by my own rapist."

Played By: James Smith

Divorced and depressed, Glenn has been working as an adviser for around thirty years and knows no other way of life. He is Hugh's best mate and confidante, and after Hugh's departure in a reshuffle, tries to make himself valuable to Nicola. In series three he attempts to run for election as an MP himself, but since he's Glenn, Failure Is the Only Option. He joins a different party during the election but is dismayed when they join a coalition with JB. He is still a policy advisor at DoSAC as of Series 4.

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• All for Nothing: He decides to resign from his position and turn himself in to the police for lying under oath during the Goodling Inquiry and makes sure everyone at DoSAC knows exactly how he feels about them so that he may go in a blaze of glory. Not only do his co-workers not give a single shit about how he feels about them (with only Nicola and Peter showing any concern for Glenn's outburst), he ultimately chickens out of turning himself in at the last moment, leaving him without a job and without the last shreds of dignity he had left.
• The Artefact: In the first two seasons when Hugh was around, he had a purpose and his opinion was valued. When Hugh left, his importance gradually diminished until he was basically reduced to making coffee.
• Beleaguered Assistant: Taken to extremes in Series 4, where everyone at DOSAC actively avoids him and he has next to no work to do.
• Butt-Monkey: He's regarded as an aging, irrelevant joke despite all his attempts to claim his 'experience' (read: age) has given him connections, sex-starved to the point where even Ollie and Hugh don't hesitate to point out "the last time you saw snatch was Basic Instinct" and scapegoated numerous times for the screw-ups of other people in the department. By the specials, it's become enough to give him a pitiable but quite hilarious mental breakdown. It gets way worse in Series 4 when the Coalition takes over.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: He isn't the wittiest bloke, and he gets a smackdown from Robyn:
  Don't do jokes, Glenn. You're not a funny man, you're not that type...
• Casanova Wannabe: His pitiful attempts at flirting with Robyn.
  Glen Cullen: "If anyone shouts at you, they'll have to answer to me. I'll box his ears!"
  Hugh Abbot: "Box his ears? If that was flirting, that was absolutely crap. Box his ears? How long is it since you've had sex?"
  • Subverted in a thankfully Deleted Scene in Season 3, where he pulls during a party after Nicola's speech bashing Peter Mannion's hypocrisy.
• Characterization Marches On: He loudly calls Terri a cunt in the first episode. It seems incredibly jarring compared to his fuddy-duddy demeanour in later episodes and series.
• The Eeyore: He is perpetually depressed and self-deprecating, due to a combination of failed personal and professional lives.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Glenn doesn't seem to let political fights affect who he socializes with in his downtime at work. He and Julius Nicholson dine and listen to a cricket match together as his department having its dirty laundry in the media aired thanks to Julius' leaks. Likewise, he and Phil hang out and talk about the identity of the Stig as Phil was drying his pants at the same time their respective ministers (who they were supposed to be helping) were having a one-on-one radio debate against each other.
• Hypocritical Humour: Being arguably the most moral character, this tends to happen when he does something dishonourable. Most of the time he does the right thing, but in Season Two he praises Malcolm for framing Terri, who had just lost her father, for a crime Hugh committed, and makes light of her situation. It is clear that Glenn has no sympathy for anyone that hasn't earned his respect.
• Ignored Expert: He is generally politically adept, often being a voice of sense within the series, although due to his age is often ignored and emasculated by younger members of staff.
• The Last DJ: By comparison, only. Glenn is as dishonest and underhanded as everyone else on the show, but he's the only one shown to feel bad about it. He eventually resigns, disgusted with himself, after lying under oath in an enquiry.
• Nice Guy: More soft spoken and conscientious than most of the other characters, especially shown during Mr Tickel's death. Given that even he is prone to being just as dishonest and underhanded as everyone else this does make it a Downplayed Trope.
• Obsolete Mentor: "I may be needed. I've been needed in the past." Poor Glenn, no-one's wanted his opinion or advice on anything since Series 2. It's now so long ago that Hugh being deeply interested in his opinion practically counts as Early Instalment Weirdness.
• Only Sane Man: He's one of the few characters in the series with something resembling a conscience. Too bad nobody takes him seriously.
• Papa Wolf: He looks like he wants to beat seven shades of shit out of Hugh when Hugh lies to Claire Ballentyne about Glenn being the one who convinced him to kill the special schools programme.
• Punny Name: His name is a pun on Glencullen, which is the name of two places in Ireland (a village in County Dublin and a townland in County Mayo).
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When he finally gets fed up and quits at the end of Season 4, he takes great pleasure in telling every single person in the office who's ever pissed him off why he hates them so much. At length.
  • He also delivers a 'very' bitter one about Ollie during the inquiry on leaking.
• Spanner in the Works: In Season 4 and the Specials. To the point that he would be a invokedMagnificent Bastard if he actually meant to do any of it or did it with any degree of competence.
• Those Two Guys: With Ollie in the first three series and two specials.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Also with Ollie, until Ollie bars him from being part of Labour and then betrays him during the leaking inquiry.
• You Need to Get Laid: The frequent butt of sex- and impotency-related jokes.

Oliver Francis "Ollie" Reeder, DoSAC Policy Adviser (Series 1-3); Special Advisor to the Leader of the Opposition (Series 4)

"Yeah, you think it's my finger, bitch."

Played By: Chris Addison

Ollie spent a year in a think tank before joining the Department. A graduate of "Poxbridge", he is book-smart but not streetwise. Ruthlessly ambitious and unscrupulous in his attempts to further his political career, he can be untrustworthy and disloyal, although his ambitions seem to cool down in series 3 only to rev up in series 4.

His personal life occasionally furthers his career - e.g. when he dates journalist Angela Heaney and, later, Emma Messinger, a policy adviser to DoSAC shadow minister Peter Mannion MP.

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• Ambiguously Bi: In the show he's only seen with women (and is unexpectedly successful on that front), but Hugh and Glenn speculate about his closeness with Dan Miller.
• Ambition Is Evil: He's incredibly ruthless in his climb up the career ladder.
• Bastard Understudy: There are subtle hints, at least throughout the fourth series, that he undertakes efforts to undermine Malcolm and accelerate his fall from grace. For instance, he is visibly intrigued by the uncanny amount of knowledge Tucker has about Tickel's medical history, which may or may not reflect on the events of the sixth episode. And more importantly, in the last episode he surreptitiously leaks Malcolm's impending arrest to the press (this he admits to Dan Miller) and it is implied he does the same with Malcolm's choice of Hackney police station to avoid media exposure, in spite of Tucker's pleas not to.
• Butt-Monkey: In "Spinners and Losers", he gets bullied left and right by Malcolm, sucking up to the various Smug Snakes, forced into embarrassing himself trying to rekindle a relationship he just broke off and then reduced to the status of cheese monitor while Emma and Phil laugh at him.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: Mostly in the first couple of seasons. He occasionally manages a bit of genuinely funny snarking, but mostly he just desperately prolongs other people's jokes.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He is willing to further his political career by throwing others under the bus.
• Dating Catwoman: His relationship with Emma, in that he would have her job were his party in opposition.
  • And his relationship with Angela, a journalist and, hence, the enemy, which Malcolm wastes no time in capitalizing upon.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's very snarky towards Glenn and can occasionally hold his own against Malcolm.
• Deuteragonist: After Malcolm, he gets the most consistent focus throughout the series.
• Dirty Coward: He never stands up to Malcolm. Best exemplified when he outs Glenn Cullen as the leaker during the Golding Inquiry.
• The Dragon: Becomes Malcolm's right-hand man in Season Four.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Even for someone prone to as many Dude, Not Funny! moments as Ollie, he still looks utterly shocked and appalled during Steve Fleming's infamous New Era Speech where he compares the department to the victims of Josef Fritzl.
  • He's not a fan of racism if his dialogue with Emma is anything to go by.
  • He seems genuinely uncomfortable with the lengths he and Malcolm went to in destroying Nicola's career.
• Face–Heel Turn: In Season Four, culminating in how he helps destroy Nicola's career, betrays his friend Glenn, and betrays Malcolm by leaking news of his arrest to the media. Although given that Ollie was always a bit of a duplicitous, sleazy jerk, the shift from "Face" to "Heel" isn't incredibly far.
• Faux Affably Evil: A massive Jerkass underneath. Ollie can appear quite charming and good-natured - but he'll have no trouble cheerfully betraying you in a bid for power.
• The Gadfly: Of the severely Jerkass variety, whether it's making jokes about Glenn's son with special needs, or joking about Malcolm punching Glenn, you can always count on Ollie to say a hurtful or downright immature thing.
• Jerkass: He is insensitive, cowardly and gets worse and worse as the series goes on.
• Jerkass Has a Point: In his second episode rant to Glenn about how not everyone is the same.
• Kavorka Man: He's a weaselly, pale, bespectacled prick with a corny sense of humour who looks like a twelve year old...and over the course of the series beds Angela Heaney, Emma Messinger from the Opposition, and is also depicted as something of a womanizer. This is really very good going in a series that seldom bothers to look at anyone's private lives (because most of them don't have private lives). This does just apply to the character rather than Chris Addison, the actor who plays him. Chris Addison is quite handsome and something of a Bishounen.
• Manipulative Bastard: Season 4 shows that Malcolm - and the viewers - may have been underestimating his cunning.
• Meaningful Name: "Olly" is homophonically similar and one letter away from "oily", befitting his generally smug, slimy and snide personality.
• The Millstone: During Ben Swain's car crash interview, Ollie gives away the coalface idea to his girlfriend.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He looks near tears after helping dethrone Nicola from her leadership position in the party.
• Older Than They Look: Chris Addison. Ollie is meant to be in his early 20s and looks no older than 22. Chris Addison turned 40(!) in 2011.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In The Missing DoSAC Files, everyone responds to Malcolm's request for the titular files with derision and sarcastic comments... except for Ollie. Malcolm, naturally, ignores the rest of the chatter and zeros right in on this, sending Ollie an email noting how interesting it is that Ollie has been very quiet throughout the whole exchange and informing him that he's popping around for a little chat. Ollie breaks and confesses to being the one who has lost the files.
• Pet the Dog:
  • When Nicola Murray's daughter Ella acts out in school, he tries to reassure Nicola that she's not a bad mother, but a "pathfinder mum", which doesn't do much to lift her spirits but it's nice of him to make the effort.
  • He very warmly tells Glenn that he feels proud of him when the latter tells Ollie he plans on standing for Parliament. The moment is one of total sincerity, notwithstanding that Ollie’s quick to mock when the plan falls through due Glenn’s association with Nicola.
• Small Name, Big Ego: There is a vast gulf between Ollie's own opinion of his abilities and his actual abilities.
• Smug Snake: Ollie tends to come across as rather snide and weaselly, and on the whole is not nearly as street smart as he thinks he is.
• Spell My Name With An S: Early episodes credit Chris Addison as playing "Olly Reeder", which is later changed to "Oliver Reeder", while The Missing DoSAC Files has him sign himself as Ollie.
  • Toyed with in the first episode of Series 3, where he offers that he's 'Oliver' or 'Ollie' as Nicola prefers; when she leans toward 'Oliver', he then insists on 'Ollie' anyway.
• The Starscream: He ends up with Malcolm's old job at the end of Season 4, although it's pretty heavily implied that he's nowhere near being capable of it and, as Malcolm himself suggests with typical caustic bluntness, will crash and burn before too long.
• Strawman Political: Ollie is basically an example of the stereotypical "professional political operative"; he's attended a pretty good university and knows all about theory, strategy and terminology, but he doesn't really have any interest in or concern for anyone other than himself (to borderline Lack of Empathy levels at times), has no real knowledge or interest in how the world works outside of a government department or political theory, and mainly seems to view politics as a potentially lucrative career path rather than an opportunity to implement a particular ideology or to improve other people's lives.
• Those Two Guys: With Glenn while they're in the same department.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He started out as an ambitious, yet inefficient sort. By the end of the series, he's become a duplitious, back-stabbing worm who's sold out every friend he's ever had. He ends up replacing Malcolm, despite the fact that he's clearly not up to the task.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Becomes less traitorous and generally a bit nicer in series three. As of series four, though, he seems to be shaping up for a Bastard Understudy to Malcolm.
  • It's implied that he's uncomfortable doing the things Malcolm does in Series 4, as well. Then, of course, he destroys Malcolm, possibly in part out of resentment for what Malcolm has made him become as well as the satisfaction of proving his own cunning.
• Treacherous Advisor: In season four, he gets so fed up with Nicola's incompetence that he joins Malcolm's plan to bring her down.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Glenn, a relationship that survives even into series four, but comes to a crashing end when Ollie sells him out after using him to help oust Nicola.
• Yes-Man: To Ben Swain in the 2007 specials, when it looked like Ben was going to be the new sheriff in town.

Terri Coverly, Director of Communications, DoSAC

"Well, you know, I'm just trying to do my best and make sure I can still get home by six o'clock".

Played By: Joanna Scanlan

As a civil servant, Terri does not get involved in party politics and has remained in her job regardless of which party is in power, which is probably why she can't be arsed with it. She coordinates the department's media relations, and is one of the few characters to have a life outside of work.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: To Peter Mannion, who increasingly vocally projects his utter lack of interest in her.
• Can't Get in Trouble for Nuthin': By the final season, she's so fed up with everything that she wants out and plans to buy a tea shop. Unfortunately, her status as a civil servant means that she's too expensive to get rid of.
• Characterization Marches On: In the first two seasons, she's a quietly competent employee who simply can't be arsed to care about party politics (and the whole department fell apart when Robyn had to cover for her). From Series 3 onward she's just a complete idiot.
• Dumbass Has a Point: She's not wrong when she calls Malcolm out on his ill-thought out calls during the Lockdown episode.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: She had short black hair to begin with and by the end, she has shoulder-length brown hair.
• Fat Idiot: She's overweight and rarely reads the room.
• Flanderization: She seemed a lot more competent in the first series (bordering on Only Sane Employee, if only because she was the only one who wanted to stick to protocol and keep their butts covered). By the time of the third series she's reached the point where she's known even among the Opposition as "the useless one". At the end of the second series, Terri suffers a great deal of upheaval in her personal life. It is not until after this trauma that the quality of her work drops off, and in Series 3 she admits to Malcolm that she tries to take more time for herself outside of work.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: She's regarded as a complete waste of space by everyone in the office, even by Olly and Glenn, who could be generously called her friends, who mock her both to her face and behind her back. When Glenn resigns, he lets her know how much he both disliked and pittied her, which leaves her quite hurt.
• Hidden Depths: She barely puts in the effort at work, but is shown to have passions outside her job, like gardening, amateur dramatics and the tea shop she wants to open.
• The Load: She develops a pretty strong reputation as this, being described as "the blockage".
• Obfuscating Stupidity: In Series 4, she straight-up tells Glenn that she wants out and is looking to pick up a redundancy package, suggesting she may have been playing to her reputation. She also seems to have no problem managing the Tickell crisis while Stewart's unreachable.
• Of Course I Smoke: Despite being a non-smoker, she has a cigarette with Peter so she can try and flirt with him. (He doesn't notice either the flirting or that she is rather obviously not a smoker.)
• Small Name, Big Ego: She views herself as detached, professional and the only sane woman in the department, and also feels qualified to offer everyone around her relationship advice at the drop of a hat. She is viewed by everyone else as thoroughly annoying and useless but too much trouble to fire.

  Terri Coverly: I'm just going to take my media hat off...
  Nicola Murray: I honestly never thought you had one.

• Smug Snake: She has a hilariously deluded view of her own importance and capabilities, highlighted during the Goudling Inquiry. Then again, her true level of competence was complicated at the end of Series 2, due to Malcolm and Hugh forcing her to humiliatingly take the fall for something Hugh did.
• Stalker with a Crush to Peter Mannion. He is dying to get her made redundant in Series 4, saying "she's a fart in a frock, and I want to waft her out of here!"
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Possible invoked, in the first two seasons she's way more helpful and competent to her DOSAC colleagues and it's implied having to take the fall for Hugh's mistake made her put less effort at work and become known as "the blockage", by the last season.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: She used to be one of the nicer characters on the show (well, nice compared to everyone else). Then at the end of series two, she's forced to fall on her sword and make a public statement/apology for something Hugh did, with little to no support from anyone whatsoever. Thus, by the time Series 3 rolls around, Terri is one the bitchiest, nastiest people on the show.
• Ultimate Job Security: As a civil servant she's almost impossible to get rid of, and she'll take the time to remind everyone else of it, too. In Series 4 she's actively trying to get herself fired with no success.

Robyn Murdoch, Senior Press Officer, DoSAC

"Give them all of the lines to say?"

Played By: Polly Kemp

Another civil servant, junior to Terri. Despite her job title Robyn's main duty is making tea.

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• Butt-Monkey: When asked in the Goolding Inquiry whether there's a culture of bullying at DoSAC, she responds "I think there's a culture of bullying me at DoSAC."
• The Ditz: Uselessly stupid.
• Dumb Blonde: To the point where she's nicknamed "the blonde bombshite".
• Gender-Blender Name: Hugh initially thought she was Robyn Murdoch's secretary.
• Spanner in the Works: Hugh's cunning plan to escape the factory is ruined by Robyn being too dumb for politics.
• Ultimate Job Security: She's pretty useless but her job security will be assured for as long as Glenn is in charge of sacking people.

Helen Hatley, Policy Advisor to the Leader of the Opposition (Series 4)

"I don't think you got enough cuddles as a child."

Played By: Rebecca Gethings

A young, idealistic junior policy advisor, who has not yet learned not to get smart to Malcolm.

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• Alliterative Name: Two Hs.
• Brainy Brunette: An intelligent policy adviser with brown hair.
• Bullying a Dragon: The above quote concludes the first conversation we see her have with Malcolm. Amazingly, she lives.
  • She's also very willing to bollock Nicola for her various cock-ups, and even though Nicola isn't all that scary, she is still her boss. Possibly Helen gets special privileges by virtue of being the only person in the party who is genuinely loyal to Nicola.
• Everyone Has Standards: She's the most loyal person to Nicola when she's Leader of the Opposition (admittedly not hard), but even she doesn't seem to have seriously believed that Nicola had any real shot at becoming Prime Minister, and is momentarily unable to conceal genuine disbelief when Nicola confesses that she believed she could.
• The Fashionista: This is something of an Informed Attribute. The official website states one of her functions is to advise Nicola on fashion, however Helen dresses much the same as anyone else. (This could be invokedFridge Brilliance, as so do fashion designers.)
• The Mistress: It's implied that she had a relationship with a married news show producer.

  Nicola:You remember all the emails you sent three years ago, do you? Because from what I understand from Ollie, a large number of them were sent to that married producer on The Daily Politics.
  Helen: Ollie is a fucking... He was supposed to leave her.

• Naïve Newcomer: Particularly compared to Ollie. However, she is a lot more competent than Ollie was at the start of his tenure, and sees right through Malcolm and Ollie's protestations of loyalty.
• Number Two: To Nicola.
• Remember the New Guy?: The official website states she "was always Nicola Murray's first choice as special advisor, but only agreed to join Nicola's team when she became Leader."
• Slave to PR: Thus far, her main contributions to Nicola's team has been to help her practice walking with a wreath, and be seen nodding on television whilst pretending to talk to her.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: When trying to console Nicola after her tenure as Leader (and career in general) has utterly imploded:
  Nicola: [Tearfully] I really thought I could become Prime Minister.
  Helen: [Unable to conceal genuine, impulsive astonishment] Really?!
  Nicola: [Stung] Yes! Didn't you?
  Helen: ... Yes. Of course.
  Nicola: I mean, against that parade of top-hatted turds how could I not win?
  Helen: ... I don't know.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Younger and less experienced than Ollie Reeder.

Other Government Characters (Series 1-3)

Nick Hanway, Enforcer to Tom Davis

"Tom's not sure about you..."

Played By: Martin Savage

As Tom Davis' right-hand man, "Nice Nutter Nick" was sure he would be taking over from Malcolm after the original Prime Minister's resignation. A little too sure...

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• Hair-Trigger Temper: He comments that he was hoping for bad news just so he could hit someone.
• Jerkass: He's a bit of an unlikeable cock — happy to steal Ollie's (actually Malcolm's) ideas and take credit, and gleeful in the possibility that he might replace Malcolm in the next reshuffle.
• Smug Snake: He's arrogant and gets thoroughly outplayed at the end of Spinners and Losers.
• The Star Scream: A failed one to Malcolm.
• Unwitting Pawn: He's convinced that the appointment of a new Prime Minister will also require a new chief spin doctor, but he seriously underestimates Malcolm Tucker...

Julius Nicholson

"I'm the new Che Guevara, all I need is a new moustache and some laser correction eye treatment".

Played By: Alex MacQueen

A former business guru turned MP in the first two series, he also acted as a "Blue-Skies Thinker" to the Prime Minister, a meaningless job title given to him to keep him quiet. By series three he had been made a life peer, and as Lord Nicholson of Arnage he was put in a position of real power, causing problems for those who had initially refused to take him seriously.

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• Affably Evil: Polite, soft-spoken and listens to cricket, he's also a leaker and a scheming bastard.
• Big Eater: If he's not eating food, he's usually using food as an analogy, much to Malcolm's annoyance.
  "I will not eat the pissy biscuit!"
• Butt-Monkey: Often on the receiving end of Malcolm Tucker's schemes.
• The Charmer: It's implied he's charming enough to have friends in high places which may explain his elevation to House of Lords in Season 3.
• CloudcuckooLander: Comes across this way during the bhaji scene with his food metaphors.
• Commonality Connection: At the end of "Rise of the Nutters", he and Malcolm very briefly suspend their mutual animosity to swap commiserations over the fact that neither of them turned out to be in the loop concerning the real date of the Prime Minister's resignation (although in Malcolm's case it seems to be mainly because Nicholson is sitting stunned in his office without any apparent intention of leaving).
• Even Evil Has Standards: For all his undermining Malcolm, he knows that allowing a Dan Miller coronation is a bad idea so has Malcolm invited back as a result.
• Kicked Upstairs:
  • He tries to get involved in the government's public relations activities, treading on the toes of the press officers whose job it is and who actually know what they're doing. He antagonises everyone with his mad policy ideas, to the point where they start to believe he is actually unhinged and dangerous. He is promoted to the position of "Blue-Sky Thinker" to the Prime Minister... a meaningless job title given to him to make him think he has some actual power and to keep him quiet.
    "I'm spending half of my time now dealing with that rubbish that Nicholson's putting out there... If he does stick his baldy head 'round your door and comes up with some stupid idea about "Policemen's helmets should be yellow" or "Let's set up a department to count the Moon," just treat him like someone with Alzheimer's disease, you know? Just say "yes, that's lovely, that's good, we must talk about that later," okay?" — Malcolm Tucker
  • Subverted when he gets elevated to the House of Lords, which is typically treated as this in British political satire... except that it turns out that being made a lifetime member of parliament actually does come with a lot of influence within the party, which makes Nicholson suddenly a lot more of a serious threat to people who had once just brushed him off. After all, the members of the Commons can form a government after one good election, but they can also get booted out of office after a bad one, and the staffers and advisors can have tremendous influence and power right up until they get fired by someone higher up the minute they're more trouble than they're worth. But the peers are there forever.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: John Birt, Peter Mandelson, Andrew Adonis.
• Pastimes Prove Personality: Nicholson enjoys listening to the cricket; quite apart from the fact that he fits the "posh eccentric" character type to a T, Malcolm—who finds cricket stultifyingly boring—clearly believes that it suits him.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Despite conspiring with Tom Davies and Steve Fleming to sack Malcolm, it doesn't take long for Julius to ask Malcolm back if only to prevent a Dan Miller cabal.
• Precision F-Strike: Pretty much alone among the cast in that he seldom swears. The exceptions are when he's quoting his nephew, really surprised or offended and when Malcolm or Jamie are physically attacking him.
• Prematurely Bald: The other characters quite like reminding him about this.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: He's posh and over-polite:
  Julius Nicholson: Well, I will speak to whomsoever I need to speak to, holiday or no holiday.
  Malcolm Tucker: Where do you learn to speak like that? Is there a special school that only you and Brian Sewell go to?
• Smug Snake: Thinks he has more authority in government than he does and whilst he is somewhat powerful, his attempts to browbeat Malcolm come across as pathetic and rarely if ever taken seriously. In "Spinners and Losers", he brags about leaking the immigration figures to Glenn who then tells Jamie which bites Julius in the ass.
• Stoic Spectacles: He has glasses and doesn't emote much compared to the other characters.
• Took a Level in Badass: In Series 3, he's been elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer, which makes him a lot harder to push around than he was previously, and puts him in a position where he can cause Malcolm some genuine trouble, which he and Steve Fleming end up doing in the penultimate episode.
• Wicked Cultured: Apparently, Nicholson's means of coping with all-nighters involve black coffee and "Vivaldi on the iPod touch."
• Younger Than They Look: Julius is (via invokedWord of God) meant to be in his mid-50s. Alex MacQueen is actually younger than Chris Addison (who's playing someone in his early twenties.) The "shiny bald head" helps.

Steve Fleming MP

"Would you PLEASE fucking well...sorry. I lost my temper. Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Oh, I've found it again, it's all right!

Played By: David Haig

A powerful and influential Cabinet Minister charged with enforcer duties, it is likely that he is a whip. Was once forced to resign by Malcolm and the two became sworn enemies. He later returned, determined to wreak revenge on Malcolm.

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• Bald of Evil: A creepy schemer with a shiny dome.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A paper-thin disguise in this passive-aggressive creep's case.
• Cute and Psycho: He's a spectacularly unstable version of this trope; that cheerful grin, the really strange compliments and the "call me Uncle Steve", attitude you see when you first meet him? Get him even slightly agitated and his Ax-Crazy side will come to the fore. The scary part comes when he desperately tries to suppress his insanity, swinging from Stepford Smiler to Unstoppable Rage and back again so violently you wonder he doesn't give himself whiplash.
• The Dreaded: Before he approaches Nicola she remarks that Steve's, "The ghost of christmas shit".
• Evil Gloating: When getting Malcolm sacked he has this to say, "I wouldn't tell you what I just told you, before I told the press pack would I? That would be very very unprofessional".
• Faux Affably Evil: He tries SO hard to be genuinely affable, sugar-coating everything, covering up his anger with laughter, avoiding swearing and smiling constantly...but the effect is more that of a man permanently in the middle of a bad Villainous Breakdown with No Sense of Humour to boot.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Lampshaded by the quote above and unlike Malcolm, has poor control and is easily triggered which means he does a poor job at projecting an Affably Evil facade.
• Hypocritical Humour: "We was on the same side, Malcolm and you fucked me over", no points guessing what he did to Malcolm in the episode before. Unless he was referring to the time Malcolm forces him to resign back in 2003.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He's a vile, sexist bullshitter with Nicola and not good at hiding it. It may seem like he's just doing his job as the PM's new chief whip but he's especially obnoxious when taking pleasure in Malcolm's sacking.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • He's not wrong when he says that he and Malcolm should try to work together. Turns into Hypocrite Has a Point when he, the Prime Minister and Julius force Malcolm out of a job.
  • His public declaration in Series Four that Nicola is unelectable as party leader is seen by pretty much everyone, even his political enemies in previous seasons, as just stating the obvious, especially with how Dan Miller is able to undermine her with impunity during meetings.
• Just Between You and Me: After getting shitcanned upon Malcolm's return, he makes the mistake of informing Malcolm that he's decided to join Dan Miller and force a leadership challenge against the PM, gloating that there's nothing Malcolm can do to stop him. Unfortunately, Malcolm realises there's one thing he can do... and equally unfortunately, is less susceptible to this trope.
• Laughing Mad: He inevitably attempts to cover up his Hair-Trigger Temper and outbursts of anger with what he thinks is good-natured chuckling, but it's always rather forced and the result is him just looking rather unstable instead. It fools no one.
• Madness Mantra: We last see him ranting "Fuck him fuck him fuck him fuck him!" after Malcolm promises that there's "one thing" he can do to thwart his plans.... without telling him what that thing is.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Peter Mandelson. Similiar odious personality and Malcolm even jokes that he's gay due to the moustache.
• New Era Speech: Which only serves to give everyone who's listening to it the creeps, mainly because during it he compares everyone in the department to the victims of Josef Fritzl.
• No Sense of Personal Space: He a bit too close to Nicola Murray who is visibly creeped out when he kisses her on the cheeks twice.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: He does get Malcolm Tucker sacked after all, until Malcolm turns the tables in the next episode.
  • During the episode before he shows up, it's implied that much of the chaos in Number 10 such as Malcolm's influence diminishing is because of Steve. Terri even asks if Malcolm is feeling emasculated by it.
• Pet the Dog: A deleted scene in Season 3 has Steve asks Malcolm to lay off Nicola as, "it's only DOSAC".
• Slimeball: Steve is unctuous, oily and in it for himself and not the party, unlike Malcolm.
• Suddenly Shouting: After one too many snide remarks from Ollie, "Will you please FUCKING well—!?".
• Smug Snake: During the "Fourth Sector", episode, he is described by Malcolm as a rodent who's part of a bigger problem. Steve has a millionth of Malcolm's charm, takes himself way too seriously and stupidly gives away his whole plan to Malcolm.
• Stepford Smiler: Type III - An Ax-Crazy psycho behind the smile. That which lies beneath the smile is nightmare fuel inducing.
• Those Two Guys: Seen with Julius a lot during the climax of the third Season.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: At first his colleagues are happy to see the back of Malcolm Tucker but when they realize how creepy, charmless and bad-tempered his replacement is they decide they want their jerk to come back from his 10-Minute Retirement.
• Unwitting Pawn: He falls for Malcolm's rumours about him coming out badly in Julius Nicholson's report, which leads to Fleming asking Julius about it and then looking corrupt to the media.
• Villainous Breakdown: As noted above, constantly seems to be in one of these. Exaggerated when Malcolm successfully out gambits him.

Dan Miller MP, Junior Minister (Series 1); Leader of the Opposition (Series 4)

"If you're gonna make an omelette, you're going to have to have some frank and honest discussion with the eggs."

Played By: Tony Gardner

Powerful and influential young minister (slash: polished aluminium cyberprick) who has long been rumoured to be planning a leadership bid. Eventually succeeds in Series 4 given Nicola's fabulous success as Leader of the Opposition.

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• The Ace: All characters - Malcolm included during "Spinners and Losers", - note his exceptional political skills.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • Over the course of the final series with each fairly innocuous appearance he becomes more powerful until eventually he gets rid of Malcolm.
  • In the first series, talking to Dan, Hugh jokes that if he'd resigned the day he'd been appointed he'd be Prime Minister now. When Hugh later decides to resign, he finds Dan has beaten him to it.
• Deadpan Snarker: Downplayed with, "Steady on Malcolm, that's a bit strong", when Malcolm verbally eviscerates Nicola for her poor performance as Labour leader.
• The Dreaded:
  • As of the final season, the government had only one planned response in the event that Dan Miller took control of the opposition, summed up by Peter Mannion as "We're fucked."
  • Much of the flapping about in the specials was also prompted out of dread that he might challenge Tom Davis for the party leadership.
• Drunk with Power: A subtle example; he doesn't start overtly bullying people or throwing his weight around upon finally achieving leadership, but does start casually comparing himself favourably to Jesus Christ:
  Dan Miller: [Entering to applause] Please, please, I'm not Christ. He was quite a scruffy man.
• The Fighting Narcissist: A non-physical fighting variety.
  "I like getting on my high horse. I look good on it. Like a knight."
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Of the passively-rude variety, he seems polite and charming but he's a very sleazy man who eventually throws Malcolm Tucker to the wolves to save his ass and doesn't give a rats ass about party policy or ideology.
• Kick the Dog: Selling Malcolm out to the press and sabotaging his quiet exit.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: David Miliband.
• Puppet King: Ambiguous. When he finally succeeds in becoming the party leader, he's seen as little more than a puppet for Malcolm. He seems to have his own agenda, though: he's shown chessmaster skills of his own, from early on, and the other party members fear him.
  • Ultimately averted, as he manages to get rid of Malcolm permanently at the end of the series, leaving him free to lead the party however he likes.
• Smug Snake: He's superficially charming but first and foremost a sleazy opportunist.
• The Starscream: One of his first acts after becoming the party leader is to get rid of Malcolm, who orchestrated his rise to power in the first place.
• Strawman Political: He's basically the platonic ideal of the stereotypical modern British Sleazy Politician, post-Blair — young, blandly handsome and charming enough to be seen as an up-and-comer, but with a persistent air of oily, smarmy insincerity and vaguely robotic sociopathy. Overall, he's the kind of politician who looks good on the surface and manages to tick all the boxes, but ultimately comes off as someone who has no real ideals or convictions beyond climbing the slippery ladder no matter who he has to knife in the back in order to do so.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Blandly handsome and snide.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Malcolm's machinations got him elected leader of the opposition. Dan repays him by throwing him to the wolves. Though it's probable Malcolm would have done the same to him to save the party, given how he basically handled Nicola.

Claire Ballentyne MP

"...but you didn't want to come here at all, did you Mr Abbott?"

Played By: Eve Mathson

Another influential MP, she is chair of the Select Committee. She takes no crap from anyone, least of all Hugh Abbott when he attempts to lie to the Committee. She also appeared in Spinners and Losers, when Malcolm called on her for one of his Batman Gambits.

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• The Gambling Addict: The reason she ultimately doesn't end up running for party leader.
• Hero of Another Story: She appears to have wandered in from some sort of UK version of The West Wing, where politicians are clever, caring and responsible. Until it turns out she's unelectable as leader because of her ongoing online gambling addiction, anyway.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Gwyneth Dunwoody, Diane Abbott.

Geoff Holhurst MP

"My head is the right size!"

Played By: Rob Edwards

Defence Minister, best known for being corrupt and having a tiny head. It was never firmly established if he was a tosser or a moron.

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• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: His tiny head is mentioned as another reason he'll never be party leader.
• Butt-Monkey: Every single appearance he makes involves him being bollocked, insulted or humiliated and virtually nothing else; even during an episode where he only appears in a slideshow by the opposition, he's still characterized as "a shepard dressed up to meet the queen."
• Informed Deformity: His famously tiny head.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Geoff Hoon.

John Duggan

"My To Do list is longer than a big willy."

Played By: Miles Jupp

Utterly hapless press officer charged with looking after Nicola Murray during the Eastbourne Party Conference. Unfortunately the only thing he seems to be any good at is depriving a village somewhere of a twat. He reappears in Season 4, just in time to help her make a cock up of an interview with Sky.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: To Helen, who manages to project her utter and pointed lack of interest without saying a word.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Given a chance to talk, Duggan will almost certainly say something offensive—and try to cover it up with something that turns out to be even worse, and try to cover that up with something worse...
• The Ditz: Terrible social skills, always says the wrong thing and is a complete liability to anyone he works with
• Don't Explain the Joke: He constantly explains his bad jokes only to make them even worse.
• Lazy Bum: Much to Nicola's frustration, John seems to be in the habit of avoiding work wherever possible and excusing this as having a to-do list "longer than a big willy." For good measure, he barely seems to be in any sort of hurry when he says this.
• The Millstone: Everything he says in Season 4 during Nicola Murrays's Sky interview, full stop.
• Muggles: John says of his ex-wife, "she was a muggle. Next wife's got to be a politico". He stares at Helen whilst saying this.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In his second episode, upon seeing that Nicola and Helen have abandoned him on the train, he finally drops the bumbling and starts shouting inaudibly at them through the window.

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The Opposition (Series 1-3); The Government (Series 4)

Perhaps even more image-obsessed than the other party, it is hinted that they are also more elitist and that many members hold objectionable views. They are mostly unseen up until the first special, but start to appear more often in Series 3 and finally form a coalition government in Series 4. Comparable to the Conservative Party.

The Opposition

JB, Leader of the Opposition (The Specials, Series 3); Prime Minister (Series 4)

An old Etonian who apparently keeps a clique of other Etonians about him. Little is known about him (other than his taste for racist jokes) as, like the two previous Prime Ministers, he is never seen.

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• Invisible President: As with all the Prime Ministers on the show, we never see him.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: "JB", presumably his initials.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: According to Peter Mannion, he's prone to racist remarks and jokes- though Stewart tries to excuse this by calling it "ironizing."
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: David "Call Me Dave" Cameron

Stewart Pearson, Opposition Director of Communications (The Specials, Series 3); the Prime Minister's Director of Communications (Series 4)

"Let's imagineer the narrative..."

Played By: Vincent Franklin

An advertising executive recruited from the private sector, Stewart would seem to be the perfect choice for a party wanting to reposition themselves as more PC and eco-friendly. In practice, his liberal views are rather at odds with those of the party's old guard, especially Peter Mannion MP who he has trouble exerting control and influence over. His competence seems to have deteriorated somewhat in Season 4, due to the combination of having a coalition to keep under control and the problems of being in government rather than Opposition (meaning his media-friendly proposals can't be theoretical any more, and actually have to take the budget into consideration).

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• Cloudcuckoolander: As many people throughout the series note, his speeches would be much better understood if they came with subtitles.
• Deadpan Snarker: An inevitability given his passive-aggressive nature, especially towards Peter Mannion and Phil Smith.
• Friendly Enemy: Shows hints of this in the aftermath of the BBC radio scandal.
  Malcolm Tucker: "Carry on like this and I might not find you utterly fucking contemptible."
  Stewart Pearson: "That's an incentive."
• Granola Girl: A rare male example who isn't also an ageing hippy.
• Hypocrite: During the "Yes and Ho" game, he insists that none of the imaginary policies should be blocked or derided; however, when it comes time for Peter to make a suggestion, he immediately starts insulting it. And then, when he suggests that they "do away with computers" and Peter immediately points out in no uncertain terms what a stupid idea this is, he simpers "No blocking, Peter. Merely counterpointing."
• Ice-Cream Koan: One of the things Peter hates most about him is his tendency to spout meaningless PR buzzwords and "motivational" slogans. Even simple things like "I wanted to talk to you" get rendered as "I just wanted to take a few trips with you on the ideas carousel." Prompting an exasperated Fergus, in one episode, to shout "Subtitles! You need subtitles!"
  • The Goolding Inquiry reveals he literally can't talk in plain English.
• Jerkass: Arrogant, pompous, self-important, self-righteous, condescending, prententious and over-bearing. That said, he reveals himself to be disgusted with how toxic the conservative party has become during his final speech.
• Kick the Dog: For all his socially liberal politics, he goes out of his way to humiliate a hotel employee in front of a crowded room after she interrupts his thought camp, for no reason other than to vent his own frustrations.
• Married to the Job: He's awful at work-life balance: "I'm an extraordinarily precise man, that's why my wife left me."
• Nice to the Waiter: Inverted. At the Thought Camp, after he gets "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Peter, a hotel employee comes in to inform them that there's an emergency phone call. While it's likely due in part due to the fact that he's smarting from the tongue-lashing he's just received from Peter, Stewart is still noticeably snide and condescending towards her. He also gets a bit chippy with the desk receptionist when trying to get his phone back.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Franklin has described him as being based on Steve Hilton, a former director of strategy for David Cameron.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • His reaction to the "Silicon Playgrounds" programme being scrapped is to just wander off in a daze.
  • He's so aghast at Fergus and Adam's buying a tax-funded two billion pound community bank that he's reduced to slack-jawed disbelief.
  • When the photo of him and Peter on a slide goes viral, he screams, throws Phil's phone against a wall and just lies down on the floor.
• Oop North: He describes himself as a lad from Leeds with a lust for life.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: His competence grossly deteriorates once his party gets into power and he actually has to think of silly things like budget and practicality when coming up with his pie-in-the-sky ideas. Brutally lampshaded by Peter during the "Yes and Ho" exercise:
  Peter: Let's do away with you.
  Stewart: What?
  Peter: Filter's off, daddy-o, let it all hang out. Just suppose your free-range no-consequence bullshit was hugely entertaining when we were in opposition and shitting money, but now we're in government and it's all gone a bit J.G. Ballard it's irrelevant and infantile! Oh, and maybe the reason you don't mind handing your phone in is that it doesn't ring as much as it used to. Oh, sorry; doesn't ring as much as it used to, yes and ho.
• Precision F-Strike: Isn't much given to swearing (compared to the rest of the cast), but his final speech upon being sacked includes a very well placed swear word at the end.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers a VERY bitter one when being sacked to his colleagues:
  • "You know, I've spent the last ten years detoxifying this party. It’s been a bit like renovating an old, old house, yeah? You can take out a sexist beam here, a callous window there, replace the odd homophobic roof tile, but after a while you realise this renovation is doomed because the foundations are built upon what I can only describe as a solid bed of cunts"
• Serial Spouse: He has been divorced three times, something he blames on him being an "extraordinarily precise man". He's so used to it he compared his wives to iphones.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Unable to speak in anything but fancy words and odd metaphors.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Peter hates his guts and takes every opportunity to express his loathing for him. The happiest Peter gets is when Stewart is sacked in the final episode.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Has become quite a nasty and condescending piece of work as of the fourth series.
• Volatile Second Tier Position: His previously low-effort job turns very demanding in Series 4 once he actually has to start taking budget into account. It eventually gets him sacked.
• Villainous Breakdown/Villainous BSoD: Suffers a few nasty cases in Series 4 as calamities start to stack up:
  • In the first episode, the "Silicon Playgrounds" program is scrapped by the Prime Minister before it can even get off the ground, thanks to Stewart misdelegating who would explain it to the public; worse still, the PM doesn't even tell Stewart this personally—he delegates it to an underling. Stewart can only wander off in a traumatized daze to supposedly "rest his eyes on the river," not even getting angry when Phil forgets to take the teabag out of his mug.
  • Episode three gives him a worse day than usual: his "Thought Camp" is disrupted, he gets caught unawares by the Tickell catastrophe, he discovers that Fergus and Adam ended up wasting two billion in taxes on a community bank... and then emerges that he was photographed standing on a children's slippery-dip with Peter whilst trying to get a phone signal. Stewart's only response is to let out a primal scream, hurl Phil's blackberry at the nearest wall, stagger over to the end of the corridor and collapse in a heap.
  • The monumental leaking debacle and the incoming inquiry in episode five sends Stewart into by far his most explosive rant ever, complete with hysterical hand-waving, impossible threats, and a lot of finger-pointing.
    "In the time it has taken for Terri to extract herself from a bluetooth, this little inquiry has fused! It is now growing faster than the speed of bloody light! It's not going to be something we can see from space, it's going to be space! Brian Cox is going to phone me AND ASK FOR THE FILM RIGHTS!!!"
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Beneath the buzzwords and self-righteousness, Stewart is genuinely a social liberal who believes in gender equality, environmentalism and inclusiveness. He really does want to modernise the party and make it kinder and less regressive. Unfortunately he seems to underestimate the size of the task, praising the unseen Premier as "genuinely progressive" despite other characters hinting he is anything but. It's likely he is being manipulated by his employers, who say they want to make the party less conservative, but are actually just indulging in a public relations exercise to seem less conservative. Whatever the case, long before his extremely bitter final speech though, he realizes it's a lost cause.

Peter Mannion MP, Shadow Minister for Social Affairs and Citizenship (The Specials, Series 3); Minister for Social Affairs and Citizenship (Series 4)

"I'm modern! I say "black" instead of "coloured," I think women are a good thing, I have no problem with gays- most of them are very well turned out, especially the men. Why is it this last year I'm being made to feel as if I'm always two steps behind, like I can't program a video or convert everything back to old money? Because that's not me!"

Played By: Roger Allam

One of the old guard, he is resistant to the new culture of spin and blanketly refuses to take Stewart seriously. He was a junior minister when his party were last in power. During this time he also got his housekeeper pregnant and twelve years later he still hasn't lived this down. Despite this he is one of the show's few sympathetic characters. By series four, he has become Minister of DoSAC and is unhappy at having to share power in the Coalition.

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• Born in the Wrong Century: He's basically an old-school Tory who's been dragged kicking and screaming into a flashy, modern media-conscious party, and he hates almost everything about it.
• Break the Motivational Speaker: Peter seems to have made it his mission in life to verbally defeat Stewart, but for the most part, he hasn't had much success.
  • However, after spending a whole morning enduring the idiocy of the Thought Camp, he manages to temporarily flummox Stewart during the "Yes and Ho" game by suggesting a new and innovative policy: Doing away with Stewart Yes and Ho.
  • He manages it again later on, when Stewart nags that he doesn't have JB's approval to proceed with a new policy; Mannion turns around and yells "Shut the fuck up you prancing shit." Stewart appears flabbergasted.
  • He does have the satisfaction of seeing Stewart removed from office, but given that his own career also hangs by a thread due to his being stained by the same scandals that bought down Stewart, it's a pyrrhic victory for him.
• Butt-Monkey: It's quite obvious the man is well-meaning, but he's constantly surrounded by people who want to make him look like a tosser, or people who think he's a tosser. He's also not the best public speaker when it comes to delicate issues, but then again neither is Nicola Murray.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: He's accused of this during the radio debate:

  Peter Mannion: ...who should come rolling along the corridor but Malcolm Tucker, the man who was once referred to as 'The Gorbals Goebbels'?
  Stewart Pearson: Oh, don't do a joke, Peter, don't do a joke...

• Child Hater: "I hate school children. They're volatile and stupid and they haven't got the vote. Might as well be talking to fucking geese."
• Deadpan Snarker: He responds to most events and crises in his life with dry, withering sarcasm. When Stewart asks when a party's not a party, Mannion responds with, "When it's at your house".
• The Eeyore: Apparently, even his voice is "depressing tonally".
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • He's not a fan of JB's penchant for racist jokes, and welcomes immigration on the basis of the economic benefits.
  • Refuses point blank to use Nicola's personal life against her — at least until Malcolm persuades Nicola that Peter's personal life is fair game, at which point he performs a Heel–Face Turn.
  • He may be Hopeless with Tech, but even he knows that Stewart's "Do away with computers" suggestion is really stupid.
• Friendly Enemy: During the Opposition's visit to DOSAC, Malcolm actually gets along fairly well with Peter, cheerfully trading insults and jokes; this is most likely an attempt at diplomacy more than any actual sign of friendship, but still jarring given the bollocking Malcolm had just given Phil.
  • In The Missing DOSAC Files, after getting increasingly frustrated with Ollie's pathetic attempts at coming up with character attacks against Peter, Malcolm finally gets fed up and resorts to emailing Peter directly to see if he'd like to contribute dirt from his "sordid past," to which Peter cheerfully replies with some examples. Ollie (who's been cc'd) is baffled by the exchange.
• Grumpy Old Man: He doesn't exactly possess a sunny personality to begin with, but between being an old-school Tory in a media-conscious Thatcherite party, being disrespected and patronised on a constant basis and having to put up with Stewart's bullshit, Peter doesn't exactly have many reasons for good cheer.
• Hopeless with Tech: "What's the difference between upload and download?"'^note That said, he does understand how useful modern technology is — hence his breakdown over Stewart frivolously suggesting that the government should do away with computers.
• Hypocritical Humour: The speech quoted above; he's complaining that everyone treats him like he's stuck in the past, but his examples — knowing how to program a VCR and needing to convert decimal currency into 'old' money — are themselves not particularly relevant at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
• Jade-Coloured Glasses: One gets the feeling that Peter has long since lost almost all enthusiasm for his job/career/life long ago.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In a way; he's cynical, sarcastic and world-weary, but he also one of the few truly decent, sympathetic and principled main characters in the series. Except... (see below)
• Married to the Job: His unseen wife is annoyed about his demanding work schedule.
• Nice to the Waiter: One of his glaring flaws is averting this trope, being very flippant about Mr. Tickel and just as flippant to the youth workers too.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Tim Yeo (the love child). His appearance and way of speaking are also uncannily like Chris Patten. Like contemporary Conservative MP David Davis he is a failed candidate for leader, but he is self-described as pro-immigration, and appears to be ideologically similar to Kenneth Clarke.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He tells Nicola he won't use the bullying story only for Malcolm Tucker to declare him fair game at the end of the episode anyway.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: One of the few times his sarcasm fails him is during Glenn's resignation speech where he tells Peter that he hates him. He just stands there in stunned silence and is tellingly the only one who suggests going to help him.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: He had an affair with a housemaid that produced a son twelve years ago. No one will ever let him forget about it.
• Only Sane Man: Out of the Tories anyway, he has a lower tolerance for bullshit than most of the cast.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Downplayed. He's one of the more sympathetic characters in the series but, as the quote above suggests, it seems that a lot of his attitudes, if not actually racist, homophobic, etc., can at the very least be described as outdated. In contrast with other members of his party, who appear to hypocritically try and hide genuine racist and homophobic views behind a thin veneer of 'irony' and attempts to project an air of youthful progressiveness, Peter doesn't seem to have any genuine malice or bias against people of colour or the queer community, but he is often very thoughtless (e.g. saying an Anglo-Saxon student's name is "easier to pronounce" than a British Asian one, or complimenting gay people for being "very well turned out") and old-fashioned in his outlook.
• Pyrrhic Victory: He manages to keep his job when Stewart and Malcolm wind up being sacked (and arrested in the latter's case) in the fallout of the Goodling Inquiry, but it's made clear that the the scandal has left his career, and the future of DOSAC as a whole, hanging by a thread. That Dan Miller is also now leading the Opposition, the outcome of which Peter had earlier summarized with "We're fucked", also casts doubt on his party staying in power in the next election.
• Screw The Election, I Have Rules:
  • "If I have to wade all this shit to win the election, then I'm happy to lose it!" Stewart regards this as a ridiculous case of Honour Before Reason.
  • Repeated in Series 4, where he is disgusted enough about the illegal leaking of the medical records of a prominent anti-government policy protester, recently deceased, to leak it to the press.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: He loathes the patronising Stewart Pearson with the white-hot intensity of a thousand burning supernovas, and the feeling is very much mutual.
• Smarter Than You Look: For all his incompetence during the "Call App Britain", debacle, it was Peter who told the Prime Minister to widen the Golding Inquiry to make it an inquiry on leaking, which ultimately takes out Malcolm Tucker, of all people.

Emma Messinger, aide to Peter Mannion

"Peter, you can't say the public are fucking horrible."

Played By: Olivia Poulet

Ollie Reeder's girlfriend and also his counterpart in the Opposition. Like Ollie, she abuses their relationship to gather information on the opposing party's plans. She lives in a flat with fellow advisor Phil, but can't stand him.

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• Blonde Republican Sex Kitten: Very much her characterization, except replace "Republican" with "Tory" (well, probably Tory): She's posh, she's blonde, she's ambitious and she's a conservative. Doesn't keep her from sleeping with (probable) Labour man Olly Reeder.
• Chekhov's Gunman: In season two, she was Olly's mentioned, but never seen girlfriend in the Opposition. Starting with the specials, she becomes a regular character.
• Dating Catwoman: She shares the same job role and rank as boyfriend Ollie, but in the Opposition party.
• Deadpan Snarker: "I'm having an affair with Richard Bacon. I'm incredibly aroused by men with meat in their surnames."
• Establishing Character Moment: She spends much of her first episode being quite lovely-dovey with her boyfriend Ollie. And then comes the moment when she ruthlessly steals his idea and pitches it to her own boss behind his back. And when they go for it, since it's inevitable that Ollie will find out about it, she initially tries to weasel out of the blame by claiming Phil was the one who did it.
• Girl Friday: A pretty competent one for Peter.
• Ice Queen: Emma starts off all lovey-dovey with Ollie, but over the course of the series ruthlessly steals his ideas and coldly kicks him to the kerb on a number of occasions. She also treats Phil, Glenn and Terri with utter contempt and hatred in almost every interaction with them.
• Jerkass: An insipid, posh, bitch who is just as nasty about Mr. Tickel as the rest of DOSAC as revealed during the Goolding Inquiry.
• Never My Fault: Blames everything that goes wrong on Phil, even when it was at least partially her idea. This finally backfires on her in the Goolding Inquiry, when she blames Phil and Adam for the insensitive comments made about Mr. Tickell, only to have her own (very insulting) exact words on the matter read out in public.
• Rich Bitch: When Glenn Cullen decides to resign and delivers his extremely bitter "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the entire department, he specifically singles Emma out as a "standard-issue insipid posh bitch."
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Phil; the two have a hate-filled relationship and each would throw the other under the bus, but they do occasionally engage in friendly banter — and they've managed to successfully share a flat for quite some time without killing each other.

Philip Bartholomew Cornelius "Phil" Smith, aide to Peter Mannion

"It's a dark suit and it's only lukewarm, I STILL WIN!"

Played By: Will Smith

Emma's flatmate and Ollie's worst enemy, he is Glenn's counterpart in the Opposition despite being considerably younger. He is childish and immature, constantly sucks up to Peter Mannion and can't talk without using The Lord of the Rings metaphors. He often suffers from unflattering comparisons to Rupert Brooke and James May due to his outdated hairstyle.

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• '80s Hair: He sports a shoulder-length mullet.
• AM/FM Characterization: In addition to his constantly referencing fantasy and science fiction, he's clearly a fan of Queen, as he mentions them quite a bit in dialogue.
• Butt-Monkey: As of Series 4, everyone treats him with total contempt, possibly because Emma is no longer there all the time to draw attention away from just how spectacularly incompetent he really is. He remains so rude, obnoxious and arrogant, however, that it's hard to feel sorry for him.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He doesn't make references based in reality.
• DeadpanSnarker: While most of his jokes fall flat, his wit occasionally shines through.
  Phil: So what have we just greenlit?
  Adam: Well, we are starting a community bank with two billion pounds.
  Phil: Is that the two billion pounds we keep in the biscuit tin?
• Flanderization: In his first appearances during the first special (and the Opposition Extra that runs concurrent with the second special), he's an inexperienced and easily-jangled but fairly savvy worker with a desire to pony up to Peter Mannion and an obsession with The '80s. However, during the third series, he starts behaving very unprofessionally in his attempts to mess with Ollie, and in the finale, he's judged useless enough to be delegated to coffee duties. By the fourth series, he's little more than a useless, immature "8-year-old trapped in the body of a 12-year-old," about whom every interaction ends with either a punchline about how much he loves sci-fi and fantasy or something about him sucking up to Peter; admittedly, the worst of his uselessness is partly due to the fact that he's no longer teamed up with Emma.
• Fanboy: Much to the annoyance of everyone around him, he constantly mentions fantasy and science-fiction in conversation. He even has his action figures still in the box.
• Geek Physiques: Glenn describes him as an 8-year-old in a 12-year-old's body.
• Heroic BSoD: After dealing with Stewart's overly-saccharine mode of negotiations for most of his career, Phil was not prepared for a bollocking from Malcolm - after Malcolm is through with him, he looks like he's just soiled himself. In fact, in a deleted scene, Phil admits to being so frightened, he left the building in a daze and didn't stop wandering until he reached Greenwich. (For those not familiar with London, it's about six miles (ten km) from Whitehall to Greenwich.)
• Hero-Worshipper: To Peter Mannion to the point of being a world expert on the man.
• Jerkass: More so than Ollie Reeder, he unneccessarily mistreats Glenn, he's inappropiately insensitive about Mr Tickel's mental issues and constantly makes politically incorrect comments than even shock Emma.
• Manchild: His childlike personality has been mentioned quite a few times.
• Nerdy Bully: He makes geeky references, mistreats Glenn, tries to bully Emma and says stupid shit about Mr. Tickel's death such as, "I'd rather die taking my enemies out that's a noble death".
• Neat Freak: "There's no happiness without order. It's a Nazi quote, but none the less stands the test of time."
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: His outdated fashion sense and gangly physique are reminiscent of Jacob Rees-Mogg.
• Older Than They Look: While Phil's age is never stated on-screen it's hinted that he's around the same age as Ollie (who is, at the beginning of the series, implied to be in his mid-twenties). Will Smith was born in 1971.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: One of his key traits is his sycophantic behaviour towards Peter.
• Proud to Be a Geek: Despite the derision his hobbies receive from everyone.
• Small Name, Big Ego: By Season 4, his beliefs greatly outweigh his actual capabilities.
• Undying Loyalty: If Phil has any redeeming feature it's his devotion to Peter. He even says during the Tickell fiasco that Mannion will resign, "over his dead body."
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Emma; the two have a hate-filled relationship and each would throw the other under the bus, but they do occasionally engage in friendly banter — and they've managed to successfully share a flat for quite some time without killing each other.
• Wandering Walk of Madness: After a harrowing first-time bollocking from Malcolm Tucker, he wanders off in a traumatized daze and, according to a deleted scene, actually left the building altogether; he was so terrified that he didn't stop walking until he reached Greenwich - a good ten kilometres away!
• You Need to Get Laid: Second place to Glenn when it comes to jokes about his lack of a sex life.

Affers

"You can see why people don't vote!"

Played By: David Dawson

Emma's little brother, he lives with Emma and Phil. His involvement in politics seems to extend to fucking off, darling, when Emma needs to discuss something with Ollie in private.

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• Funny Background Event: His purpose in the show, really.

Cal "The Fucker" Richards

"Fuck, what I REALLY need to do, is shoot you all in the back of the head. FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! But I can't, because it's illegal!"

Played By: Tom Hollander

Brought in as a PR advisor ahead of the general election. He is an aggressive and psychotic bully with a very cruel sense of humour.

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• Ax-Crazy: Looks very disappointed when he reflects about how it would be illegal to shoot everyone in the back of the head.
• The Dreaded: The mere mention of his name brings about an atmosphere of panic.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humour: Telling Stewart he's fired then laughing it off as well as telling Phil to overdose on barbiturates.
• Evil Counterpart: To Malcolm of all people.
• Friendly Enemy: The Missing DoSAC Files reveals that despite being political opposites, he is apparently good friends with Malcolm, to the point where they play tennis and Malcolm seems to be an honorary member of the family.
• Jerkass: Possibly the biggest jerk on the entire show.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Let's just say he didn't get his nickname out of the blue.
• The Napoleon: Short of both stature and temper.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Andy Coulson, Richard Littlejohn in the tie-in book.
• No Indoor Voice: Prone to SHOUTING when angry, which is almost all the time.
• Sadist: Loves scaring the shit out of everyone during his introduction.
• Suddenly Shouting: When Stewart Pearson is pitching what to smart bomb the PM with, Cal just goes, "FUCK! THAT IS BRILLIAAAAAANT!".
• Shrouded in Myth: "The Fucker, he comin', he comin' to your town..."

Mary Drake

"I'm here in an angry capacity."

Played By: Sylvestra Le Touzel

A senior cabinet minister, Mary has the direct ear of the Prime Minister.

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• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When we first meet Mary, she seems like a nice, sane voice of reason. Next time around, she's not so nice.
• Chekhov's Gunman: She first appears as one of the participants in the Coalition's "Mind Camp" and is present when Peter suggests firing Stewart. Several episodes later she reappears, firing Stewart and replacing him as head of communications.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Appears briefly at Stewart's "thought camp" in S4E3.
• Has a Type: Likes her men weak and white if her dialogue is to be believed.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Theresa May.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: She ousts Stewart by the end of the series. Everything suggests she's going to be much more unpleasant.

The Junior Coalition Party (Series 4)

A smaller party that is in coalition with the party in government as of series 4. There is something of a fraught relationship between the two parties. Comparable to the Liberal Democrats.

Junior Coalition Party

Fergus Williams

"I'm in fucking charge, and I'm going Nordic drama."

Played By: Geoffrey Streatfeild

Junior Minister and member of the junior coalition party at DoSAC. He detests Peter Mannion, who he thinks is absurdly old-fashioned.

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• Accidental Unfortunate Gesture: Has a habit of making "imaginary tits" with his hands when speaking in public.
• Girly Run: As seen in S04E03, when dashing about in a panic.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: In S04E01 in an Establishing Character Moment, Fergus completely loses his temper at Terri for something fairly mild. Though it was frustrating and she was deliberately being unhelpful, his response was rather disproportionate. At several points throughout Series 4, Adam is gesturing at him to calm down.
• Handshake Substitute: Adam and Fergus regularly brofist hand bump. (Which looks ridiculous on people of their age.)
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Adam; the two of them have a really strong friendship, unlike almost everyone else on the show.
• Jerkass: Prententious, egotistical, constantly angry and just as loathsome as Adam, especially in his interactions with Glenn and Terri.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Nick Clegg, Danny Alexander.
• No Indoor Voice: Fergus tends to get compulsively shouty in a crisis.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He's egotistical and he takes himself way too seriously
• Smug Snake: He thinks he'd be better at being the Minister than Peter is. Let's just say that these beliefs outweigh his actual capabilities.
• The Starscream: To Peter, whom he vehemently hates.
• Those Two Guys: Along with Adam.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Formerly.
  Glenn: You, Fergus, when you asked me to join you, all you had was your principles, but over the last two years, you've bent like a human fucking palm tree, swaying to the guff of these six-toed, born-to-rule pony fuckers.
• Workaholic: Peter hates that Fergus spends more time at the office than him, making him seem like a slacker.
• Villainous Breakdown: After his attempt to smear the rest of the office ends up with him and Adam as collateral damage, Fergus explodes even more violently than usual and doesn't stop exploding until news of the inquiry reaches him.

Adam Kenyon

"It's not like we're the Independent, we can't just stick a headline saying 'CRUELTY' and then stick a picture of a dolphin or a whale underneath."

Played By: Ben Willbond

Introduced in the Specials as the night editor at the Daily Mail and Angela Heaney's irritable and bad-tempered boss. One of Malcolm's favoured targets during late-night political scheming, Keynon plays a large role in what is made public about the events of "Spinners and Losers". By Series 4, he is a Special Advisor to Fergus Williams.

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• The Dragon: To Fergus, although they often act like they are on equal footing due to their Villainous Friendship.
• Even Evil Has Standards: When reacting to Phil he asks, "Can we not act like compassionate individuals for once!?".
• Face Doodling: Does this to Claire Ballentyne's experimental front-page photo in a moment of stress.
• Forgets to Eat: Angela tells him to eat something in "Spinners and Losers" because "your blood sugar's low, it makes you very irritable."
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Particularly where Ollie or Phil are concerned.
• Handshake Substitute: Adam and Fergus regularly brofist hand bump. (Which looks ridiculous on people pushing 40.)
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Fergus. It is stated on the website that Fergus and Adam frequently play squash together, besides which they actually do get along... in comparison to many of the other characters' relationships with each other.
• In-Series Nickname: He and Fergus are known in the office as "The Inbetweeners," "The Proclaimers," and "Bradford & Bingley."
• Jerkass: Bad-tempered, immature and in a world populated by Malcolm Tucker, Jamie Macdonald, Steve Fleming, Cal "The Fucker" Richards, Dan Miller, Ben Swain and even Ollie Reeder, Glenn still gives Adam the title of the most loathsome person he has ever met.
• Jerk Jock: Adam complains Phil acts like a child, but he acts like an obnoxious cool kid to Phil, Terri, Emma and Glenn.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Despite being no less confrontational than usual, Adam does occasionally have a piece of sage advice — the most notable example occurring in the depths of the Tickell crisis, in which Adam points out that they have to release a statement to the public before things get any worse, otherwise media speculation will make it impossible to respond.
• Just One Little Mistake: Late in the final season, he and Fergus decide to sabotage Peter and the others by having Glenn leak the records of everything bad that was said about Mr. Tickell at DoSAC. The only problem being that Adam forgot to redact the document before he sent it to Glenn: it turns out quite a lot of the abuse showered on Tickell came from Adam and Fergus.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Declares one on Ollie over the phone by dawn.
• Silver Fox: Adam is grey-haired yet conventionally attractive. Given that Adam says he entered politics for "the pussy", he presumably works it.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: As of Series 4, he seems to be Phil's new worst enemy.
• The Starscream: Along with Fergus, to Peter.
• Sanity Slippage: Starting off rather hopeful for the night, Kenyon spends most of "Spinners and Losers" getting more and more frustrated with Ollie's conflicting reports, culminating in an explosive rant after Ballentyne is ditched almost as soon as she's selected. By dawn, Adam is looking particularly broken, and looks downright despairing when he realises that the next candidate is a complete unknown (Ben Swain); finally, he calls Ollie personally to declare him the target of a furious vendetta.
• Tranquil Fury: Especially when compared to Fergus who explodes once his limit is reached. Adam tends towards the Angrish and threats when his temper is lost and even at his most hysterical does not raise his voice to high volume.
  Fergus: "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!"
  Adam: (visibly restraining Fergus) "Right, Fergus. (to the room) What the fuck is going on?"
• Too Dumb to Live: Didn't think to redact the document BEFORE having Glenn leak the email to the Guardian. Luckily for him and everyone else at DOSAC, Malcolm Tucker winds up taking the brunt of the blame.
• Villainous Breakdown: Reduced to falsetto hysterics by the realization that Glenn sent his unredacted email to the press and brought Terri in on the gig.

The Media

The Media

Angela Heaney

Played By: Lucinda Raikes

The Party initially considered Angela a rather soft and compliant journalist who could be relied on for a nice sympathetic story. This was in no small way helped by the fact that she was Ollie Reader's ex. "The twatbubble from the Standard" then got a job at the Daily Mail and became somewhat less compliant.

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• Amicable Exes: Subverted, Ollie is willing to rely on her for a nice story but he clearly resents her for clearly being rather dominating during the relationship if his dialogue with Malcolm is to be believed.
• Give Me a Reason: Uses this line when threatening to write a very embarrassing story about DoSAC's "day of spin." This backfires when Malcolm threatens to ruin her career if she does.
• Quirky Curls
• Smug Snake: Almost every line out of her mouth towards Ollie Reeder is dripping with condescension.

Marianne Swift

"It was a public conversation..."

Played By: Zoe Telford

A freelancer at the Daily Mail and the Guardian. Marianne first got drawn into the affairs of DoSAC when she overheard Nicola Murray discussing immigration with an off-the-record Guardian journalist. Malcolm later called on her in a desperate attempt to save his career from Steven Fleming.

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• Jerkass Has a Point: Proven correct when she says the thing with Steve Fleming will end in tears as Steve sacks Malcolm at the end of that episode.
• Smug Snake: Very smug and sly with Nicola Murray before she then tells the Daily Mail about the immigration data loss.

Geoffrey

"...so you're not currying favour then?"

Played By: Peter Sullivan

The Guardian editor in series three, he first appears at the disastrous lunch meeting where Nicola Murray fails to convince him that she is neither smug nor glum. Later he finds himself among the journalists Malcolm tries to enlist to help preserve his reputation and career.

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• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Alan Rusbridger, real editor of the Guardian.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Inverted - he agrees to dine with Malcolm in Season 3 - ep 7.

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