History Characters / TheThickOfIt

** He runs into his office [[spoiler: in the midst of his sacking]] to scream at everyone for making Sam cry.

** In ''The Missing DOSAC Files'', Malcolm emails Peter asking about dirt from his "sordid past," to which Peter cheerfully replies. Ollie (who's been cc'd) is baffled by the exchange.

* BadassInCharge: Commands authority and is a very intimidating British comedy character who knows how to get shit done.

* AffablyEvil: Polite and listens to cricket, he's also a leaker and a scheming bastard.

* TookALevelInBadass: In Series 3, he's been elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer, which makes him a lot harder to push around than he was previously, and puts him in a position where he can cause Malcolm some genuine trouble, which he and Steve Fleming end up doing.

* EvilGloating: When getting Malcolm sacked, "I wouldn't tell you what I just told you, before I told the press pack. That would be very unprofessional".

* LaughingMad: He inevitably attempts to cover up his HairTriggerTemper and outbursts of anger with what he thinks is good-natured chuckling, but it's always rather forced and the result is him just looking rather unstable instead.

->'''Played By''': Olivia Poulet

** He may be HoplessWithTech, but even he knows that Stewart's "Do away with computers", suggestion is really stupid.

* ManlyTears: Is heavily implied to have been crying after being sacked by Steve Fleming in the beginning of the last episode of Season 3. In fact on the DVD [[WordOfGod Armando Iannucci said he specificially told Peter Capaldi to play Malcolm as if he had been crying for two weeks straight.]]

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: He was based on a number of New Labour spin doctors. Creator/AlastairCampbell is the one most often cited, but he is also partly based on UsefulNotes/PeterMandelson and possibly on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damian_McBride Damian "Mad Dog" McBride]]. The last of these has led to some amusing LifeImitatesArt moments: in one episode it emerges that the Opposition's nickname for Malcolm is [[Series/HamishMacbeth Hamish MacDeath]]: the Conservatives gave [=McBride=] the nickname "[=McPoison=]". [=McBride=] was also forced to resign after his plans to set up a blog slandering UsefulNotes/DavidCameron were leaked, some time after the show featured Malcolm Tucker getting into trouble for posting slanderous comments on Peter Mannion's blog.

* BastardUnderstudy: To Malcolm. As the specials make clear, however, Malcolm has chosen well; while Jamie is smart and competent, he lacks Malcolm's {{Magnificent Bastard}}ry and finesse, and is basically a shouty, violent bully who ultimately poses no real threat.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Jamie is spot on when he says that Cliff Lawton's leadership speech is utter woe-is-me {{Wangst}}!

* SmugSnake: Unlike Malcolm, he doesn't have the charm or manipulation skills to be a MagnificentBastard.

* SpannerInTheWorks: In Season 4 and the Specials. To the point that he would be a MagnificentBastard if he actually meant to do any of it or did it with any degree of competence.

* TheFashionista: This is something of an InformedAttribute. [[AllThereInTheManual The official website]] states one of her functions is to advise Nicola on fashion, however Helen dresses much the same as anyone else. (This could be FridgeBrilliance, as so do fashion designers.)

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Julius is (via WordOfGod) meant to be in his mid-50s. Alex [=MacQueen=] is actually younger than Chris Addison (who's playing someone in his early twenties.) The "shiny bald head" helps.

** Creator/AlJolson fanatic. Dissing Al Jolson makes him [[UpToEleven even angrier]].

* VillainousBreakdown: As noted above, constantly seems to be in one of these. Taken UpToEleven when Malcolm successfully out gambits him.

* TookALevelInBadass: In Series 3, he's been elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer, which makes him a lot harder to push around than he was previously, and puts him in a position where he can cause Malcolm some genuine trouble.

* KickTheDog: After succesfully throwing Glenn under the bus during the "Your Own Mother's Piss" fiasco, he immedieatly calls up Ollie to gloat about watching his "friend" suffer due to his own actions.

* KickTheDog: After succesfully throwing Glenn under the bus during the "Your Own Mother's Piss" fiasco, he immediatly calls up Ollie to gloat about watching his "friend" suffer due to his own actions.

* CuteAndPsycho: A spectacularly unstable version of this trope; that cheerful grin, the really strange compliments and the "call me Uncle Steve", attitude you see when you first meet him? Get him even slightly agitated and his AxCrazy side will come to the fore. The scary part comes when he desperately tries to suppress his insanity, swinging from StepfordSmiler to UnstoppableRage and back again so violently you wonder he doesn't give himself whiplash.

* FauxAffablyEvil: He tries SO hard to be genuinely affable, sugar-coating everything, covering up his anger with laughter, avoiding swearing and smiling constantly...but the effect is more that of a man permanently in the middle of a bad VillainousBreakdown.

* {{Jerkass}}: He's a vile, sexist bullshitter with Nicola and not good at hiding it. He's especially obnoxious when taking pleasure in Malcolm's sacking.

** His public declaration in Series Four that Nicola is unelectable as party leader is seen by pretty much everyone, even his political enemies in previous seasons, as just stating the obvious.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: UsefulNotes/PeterMandelson. Malcolm even jokes that he's gay due to the moustache.

* SuddenlyShouting: "Will you please FUCKING well--!?".

* TyrantTakesTheHelm: At first his colleagues are happy to see the back of Malcolm Tucker but when they realize how creepy, charmless and bad-tempered his replacement is they decide they want their jerk to come back from his TenMinuteRetirement.

* TheAce: All characters - Malcolm included - note his exceptional political skills.

** In the first series, talking to Dan, Hugh jokes that if he'd resigned the day he'd been appointed he'd be Prime Minister now. When Hugh later decides to resign, he finds Dan has beaten him to it.
* DeadpanSnarker: "Steady on Malcolm, that's a bit strong"

* {{Jerkass}}: Of the passively-rude variety, a very sleazy man who eventually throws Malcolm Tucker to the wolves to save his ass.

* DontExplainTheJoke: He constantly explains his bad jokes only to make them even worse

* {{Jerkass}}: Hugh has almost no redeeming or likeable qualities at all. He's cowardly, self absorbed, insensitive and treacherous.

* {{Jerkass}}: Hoo boy. He was a rather nasty person to everyone at work. Although...

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Once in a very long while, he'll indulge in this. Though he'll rip your teeth and fingernails out if you ever think of mentioning it or pointing it out. Also seen in 'The Missing DOSAC Files' during the transcript of his voicemail to Cal Richards, when he ''[[ManlyTears tears up]]'' at the prospect of a little girl's rabbit being named after him, as well as the picture the girl drew of him and Cal having a picnic.

* RantInducingSlight: [[spoiler: When Mr. Tickell has committed suicide]], Glenn is having a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment on behalf of what his party has done to cause it. But when his colleagues refer to Mr. Tickell as "Mr. Tickle" one too many times, he cuts loose on them.
--> '''Glenn:''' "[[PronouncingMyNameForYou TICK-ELL!]] His name was Tickell! [[spoiler: We drove a man to his death!]] ''We are responsible for this.''"

* [[TookALevelInBadass Took A Level In Competence]]: In Season 4 she has advanced from her place as Peter's sidekick (at a similar level to [[ButtMonkey Phil]]) to a position where, regardless of what her job title is in theory, in practice she is able to bark orders at Peter without being called out for it and she is treated as Stewart's equal (or possibly superior, since she has a constant hotline directly to the PM, which Stewart doesn't have).

->'''Played By''': Joanna Scanlan

* UncertainDoom: His fate after the end of the show is not set in stone, but judging by out-of-universe comments by series creator Creator/ArmandoIannucci, [[DroppedABridgeOnHim he's likely either dead]] or in prison, though this is only to cement the point that the show is truly over. However, Tucker has subsequently made sporadic [[TheCameo cameos]] in other media, from a ''Big Issue'' magazine feature chronicling a fierce Brexit debate between himself and Franchise/AlanPartridge (another Iannucci character) to an authorised cameo in Creator/AlanMoore's ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen, Volume III: Century'', where he has an unseen radio interview with real life journalist Jon Snow.

* {{Expy}}: While the absolute polar opposite in terms of personality and manner, Jamie was loosely inspired by Niles from ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' according to Creator/ArmandoIannucci. Like Niles, Jamie was created with the intention of being similar to the main character, in this case Malcolm, "but more so". Just as Niles is even more foppish, fussy and pretentious than his brother Frasier, Jamie is even more bad-tempered, sweary and Scottish than Tucker. On the same token, Jamie criticially lacks Malcolm's wit and ManipulativeBastard instincts, just as Niles lacks Frasier's social confidence and luck with women.

* AntiHero: He's an UnscrupulousHero who started off as the ArchEnemy of Hugh Abbott, then was made the main character, when the Hugh's actor committed a RoleEndingMisdemeanour and the writers realised an unfettered spin doctor is a far more entertaining character than a worn-out, ineffectual, middle-aged politician.

* SpotlightStealingSquad: From the Specials onwards. {{Justified|Trope}} to a large extent in that he was one of the two original main characters, and since the other one suddenly exited the series off-screen with nothing but a {{Handwave}} (see RoleEndingMisdemeanour on the main page) focus was naturally shifted to him, even if the show was technically re-tooled as more of an ensemble piece following Hugh's departure.

* OnlySaneMan: Out of the tories anyway, he has a lower tolerance for bullshit than most of the cast.
* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Downplayed. He's one of the more sympathetic characters in the series but, as the quote above suggests, it seems that a lot of his attitudes, if not actually racist, homophobic, etc., can at the very least be described as outdated. He In contrast with other members of his party, who appear to hypocritically try and hide genuine racist and homophobic views behind a thin veneer of 'irony' and attempts to project an air of youthful progressiveness, Peter doesn't seem to have any genuine malice or bias against people of colour or the queer community, but he is often very thoughtless (e.g. saying an Anglo-Saxon student's name is "easier to pronounce" than a British Asian one, or complimenting gay people for being "very well turned out") and old-fashioned in his outlook.

** Accordingly, his demeanour towards working-class characters or anyone deemed a social inferior is sincerely empathetic, gentlemanly and devoid of condescension, as opposed to the obnoxious and patronizing behaviour displayed by characters such as Mannion or Pearson towards hotel receptionists or campaigning youths.

* EveryoneStandards:

* HypocriticalHumour: The speech quoted above; he's complaining that everyone treats him like he's stuck in the past, but his examples -- knowing how to program a [=VCR=] and not needing to convert decimal currency into 'old' money -- are themselves not particularly relevant at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Downplayed. He's one of the more sympathetic characters in the series but, as the quote above suggests, it seems that a lot of his attitudes, if not actually racist, homophobic, etc., can at the very least be described as outdated. He doesn't seem to have any outright bias against people of colour or the queer community, but he is often very thoughtless (e.g. saying an Anglo-Saxon student's name is "easier to pronounce" than a British Asian one, or complimenting gay people for being "very well turned out").

Powerful and influential [[strike:brushed aluminium cyberprick]] young minister who has long been rumoured to be planning a leadership bid. Eventually succeeds in Series 4 given Nicola's [[BlatantLies fabulous success]] as Leader of the Opposition.

* StrawmanPolitical: He's basically the modern post-Blair stereotype of the modern British SleazyPolitician -- young, blandly handsome and charming enough to be seen as an up-and-comer, but with a persistent air of oily, smarmy insincerity and vaguely robotic sociopathy. Overall, he's the kind of politician who looks good on the surface and manages to tick all the boxes, but ultimately comes off as someone who has no real ideals or convictions beyond climbing the slippery ladder no matter who he has to knife in the back in order to do so.

* StrawmanPolitical: He's basically the stereotypical modern British SleazyPolitician -- young, blandly handsome and charming enough to be seen as an up-and-comer, but with a persistent air of oily, smarmy insincerity and vaguely robotic sociopathy. Overall, he's the kind of politician who looks good on the surface and manages to tick all the boxes, but persistently comes off as someone who ultimately seems to have no real ideals or convictions beyond climbing the slippery ladder no matter who he has to knife in the back in order to do so.

* UngratefulBastard: [[spoiler:Malcolm's machinations got him elected leader of the opposition. Dan repays him by throwing him to the wolves. Though it's probable Malcolm would have done the same to him to save the party.]]

* DeadpanSnarker: Big time, especially when he's not actually resorting to outright abuse.

* DragonInChief: Malcolm is technically subordinate to the leader of his party, (even if said leader is [[spoiler: Nicola Murray]]!) but you could be forgiven for forgetting that, considering two of the party leaders were TheUnseen, and the third was... not exactly a powerful figure.

** When Nicola makes a flippant remark about "uniformed pensioner", Malcolm is quick to remind her of the sacrifice they made so she could be in power.

* LargeHam: Peter Capaldi clearly enjoyed himself a lot.

* SmugSnake: Almost every line out of her mouth is dripping with condescension.

A freelancer at the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Guardian''. Marianne first got drawn into the affairs of [=DoSAC=] when she overheard Nicola Murray discussing immigration with an off-the-record ''Guardian'' journalist. Malcolm later called on her in a desperate attempt to save his career.

* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: "This is about a guy sharing his ghee."