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 equally unflattering terms, being portrayed as aggressively hounding politicians and asking awkward, often outrageous questions, or otherwise being discourteous and harsh. In the first batch of three episodes, Hugh Abbot is installed as a new minister following the forced resignation of his predecessor Cliff Lawton. These episodes follow his attempts to make his mark on the department by introducing new policies while following the party line enforced by Malcolm Tucker. Due to a series of complications and mistakes, this leads to the minister coming close to resignation on a number of occasions. The second batch of episodes takes place before