I was fortunate to chat with Peter Capaldi last night at the 2017 CWA Dagger Awards in London; but not about Dr Who, but about his portrayal of the Spin Doctor from Hell - Mr Malcolm Tucker, a character created by writer Armando Iannucci.
Malcolm
Tucker follows the British Tradition of making comedy from the grotesque, the
very odd and pompous, like Captain Mainwaring [Dad's Army], David Brent [The
Office], Alan Partridge, Leonard Rossiter's Rigsby,
Frank Thornton's Captain Peacock, John Cleese's Basil Fawlty - to name some of
the most outrageous exaggerations of the Eccentric British Bloke.
Though
for me, Malcolm Tucker as played by Peter Capaldi is seated at the apex of the
absurd - sheer genius.
I
thanked Peter last night for making me laugh so loudly, so deeply, when i
watched the BBC "THE THICK OF IT", and the feature length film
version IN THE LOOP, which satirized the British / American special
relationship, and the commencement of the Iraq War.
Sometimes
comedy is how we cope with tragedy, and someone has put IN THE LOOP onto
Youtube, in HD - and the link is below [so if you want a deep belly laugh, as
well as understand how weird our world is, see link below]
IN
THE LOOP is probably one of the greatest political satires, so brilliantly
written by Armando Iannucci, but how Peter Capaldi crafted Malcolm
Tucker......sheer absurd genius.
ENJOY
- BUT A WARNING / IT CONTAINS BRITISH HUMOUR AT ITS MOST EXTREME, ESPECIALLY
LANGUAGE PROFANITY AND ABSURDITY
Pater
Capaldi was amused when I told him, that my own vernacular and use of colorful
Anglo-Saxon expletives was heavily influenced by his portrayal of Malcolm
Tucker.