The Thick of It coincidentally ended up occurring only two days after Peter Capaldi was announced as the new star of "Doctor Who". (Even more coincidental, a cast commentary included as part of a photo gallery featurette for the episode "Rise of the Nutters" included in the DVD set, recorded several years earlier, has several cast members jokingly deciding to start a rumour that Capaldi is to be the next Doctor.) "The Thick of It: The Scripts", a book containing the scripts from the first two series and the 2007 specials, was published on 1 September 2007. A tie-in book, "The Thick Of It:
Malcolm Tucker writ runs through the lifeblood of Westminster like raw alcohol, at once cleansing and corroding" ("The Daily Telegraph"); "If you make eye contact with Malcolm Tucker, you have spilled his pint" ("The Times"); and "Iago with a BlackBerry" ("The Spectator"). Malcolm is one of four "Spin doctors" featured on the show, the others being Cal Richards (Tom Hollander), Steve Fleming (David Haig), and Stewart Pearson (Vincent Franklin), the former three of whom make up the three spin doctors that are universally feared by ministers and civil servants alike. Cal Richards, nicknamed "The Fucker", is arguably the one person in British