The Thick of It Cabinet Office. This concept enables different political themes to be dealt with in the programme, similar to the Department of Administrative Affairs in "Yes Minister". Hugh Abbot, played by Chris Langham, is a blundering minister heading the department, who is continually trying to do his job under the watchful eye of Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), Number 10's highly aggressive and domineering "enforcer". The programme also features James Smith as senior special adviser Glenn Cullen, Chris Addison as junior policy adviser Ollie Reeder, and Joanna Scanlan as civil service press secretary Terri Coverley. The series was revamped for the third series
The Thick of It of some "The Thick of It" writers and production members. Armando Iannucci originally conceived of a modern political satire after "arguing the case" for "Yes Minister" in a 2004 Best British Sitcom poll for BBC Two. His idea was commissioned by Roly Keating, the controller of BBC Four, who granted Iannucci limited budget, telling him to "turn that into what you can." Iannucci created the first series of three episodes, which aired in May–June 2005, and a second series, also of three episodes, which followed in October. The series is written by a team of writers led by Armando Iannucci,