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:
Criticism of the BBC on-line changed the headline. The BBC was criticised for its coverage of the events before the invasion of Iraq, in 2003. The controversy over what it described as the "sexing up" of the case for war in Iraq by the government, led to the BBC being heavily criticised by the Hutton Inquiry, although this finding was much disputed by the British press, who branded it as a government whitewash. The BBC's chairman and director general both resigned following the inquiry, and its vice-chairman Lord Ryder made a public apology to the government – which the Liberal Democrat Norman Baker MP