The Thick of IT - Cast and Characters

Cast and Characters

See also: List of The Thick of It characters

Most episodes focus on the department's incumbent minister and a core cast of advisers and civil servants, under the watchful eye of number 10's enforcer, Malcolm Tucker. Over its run, the series has developed a large cast of additional characters, who form the government, opposition, as well as members of the media.

• Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) Series One to present - The aggressive, profane and feared director of communications for the government. He serves two main roles: acting as the prime minister's enforcer to ensure the cabinet ministers all follow the party line, and managing the government's crisis management PR, usually in the form of spin. He regularly uses smears or threats of violence to achieve his ends. Tucker also appears in In the Loop. The Guardian used the character in their coverage of the 2010 general election and the Labour leadership contest in a column written by Jesse Armstrong. The character is not entirely based on Alastair Campbell as many have suggested, and is patterned in part on Hollywood agents and producers, notably Harvey Weinstein.

• Glenn Cullen (James Smith) Series One to present - Glenn is senior special adviser to the minister. A long-standing friend of Hugh's since the campaign days, he acts as his chief adviser. He is generally politically adept, often being a voice of sense within the series, although due to his age is often ignored and emasculated by younger members of staff. Despite a number of mishaps, such as swearing at a member of the public who confronts Abbot, he keeps his job due to his loyalty to Hugh. Following Hugh's departure, he expects to retire, but is unexpectedly kept on as adviser to Nicola Murray. His home life is troubled, being divorced and with a disabled son. Originally intending to stand for parliament at the next election, his association with Nicola leads to him failing to receive enough support to become a prospective parliamentary candidate. Despite his generally unfortunate experiences, he is possibly the only major character to whom Malcolm shows any (if occasional) warmth; Tucker deliberately implied Glenn's usefulness after his mini-breakdown in "Spinners and Losers" and expresses what appears to be genuine remorse after punching Glenn in Series 3, Episode 3.

• Oliver "Ollie" Reeder (Chris Addison) - Series One to present - Ollie is a special adviser to the secretary of state (formerly junior policy adviser) to Hugh Abbot and his replacement, Nicola Murray. An Oxbridge graduate from Lincolnshire, he is arrogant, inept, inexperienced, somewhat gawky and is often inadvertently the cause of departmental mistakes. However, the minister often takes up his ideas believing them to be vote-winners. During series 1 it is revealed that he once had a relationship with journalist Angela Heaney (Lucinda Raikes) who makes occasional appearances through all three series. He was seconded to 10 Downing Street after he slept with opposition party worker, Emma Messinger (Olivia Poulet) and was told to use his relationship to gather information on opposition party policy. He is described by Terri as "a bit morally bankrupt and dangerously unreliable".

• Terri Coverley (Joanna Scanlan) - Series One to present - Terri acts as director of communications for the department. Notionally responsible for press relations at DoSAC, Coverley was head of press recruited from supermarket chain Sainsbury's as part of an ill-advised scheme to make government run like a business. Professional but prudish, she is often left to "mop up" the bad press garnered by the department. As a civil servant, compared with the MPs and advisers she is relatively safe in her job, a fact which she repeatedly states to their annoyance. She takes a leave of absence during series 2 due to the death of her father.

• Rt Hon Hugh Abbot MP (Chris Langham) - Series One and Two - He is the Secretary of State for Social Affairs (later Social Affairs and Citizenship). He is an inept cabinet minister who is generally out-of-touch with his electorate. While he believes he has some influence, he often finds himself at the mercy of events and bearing the brunt of Tucker's vitriol. He reads the New Statesman and has two children, Alicia and Charlie, whom he barely sees. Replaced by junior minister, Nicola Murray in a reshuffle at the beginning of series 3, without appearing on-screen.

• Rt Hon Nicola Murray MP (Rebecca Front) - Series Three to present - Nicola replaces Hugh Abbot from series 3. She is promoted to Social Affairs and Citizenship Secretary as a last-minute choice in a government reshuffle in the run up to a general election. Inexperienced and naive, she begins her tenure poorly with a number of public embarrassments over her husband's career. She also finds it difficult to maintain a healthy balance between her home and work lives, conflicting with Tucker when he demands that she send her daughter to a state comprehensive school, rather than her preferred choice of a private school. Relatively powerless in the cabinet, her dour public image, largely encouraged by Tucker, leads her to be referred to as "glummy mummy". Although she and Tucker regularly clash, he is occasionally shown to be much more sympathetic towards her than her predecessor, particularly when he suggests that the government might quietly ignore her wishes regarding her choice of school for her daughter "in a term or two.". Nicola is elected as Leader of the Opposition before the start of Series 4.