The political satire continues. Nicola Murray MP (Rebecca Front) needs to find a celebrity to publicise a new "Healthy Choices" campaign. But Steve Fleming, the PM's new fixer (played with diabolical glee by David Haig) has competing priorities, demanding massaged crime figures for an urgent press briefing. When Murray's team bungles both tasks, spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) is incandescent. Stuck between Tucker and Fleming, Murray can only ask, "Could you two tell me in which order and from which direction I'm going to be shafted?"

The ailing government is spiralling into the abyss and Malcolm Tucker is both waving and drowning when he tries to charm a group of journalists. Though "charm" is an overstatement: "Journalists...one day you are writing for the papers, the next you are sleeping under them." It's typical Tucker bravado, but you can tell he's feeling insecure. There's a real sense of panic in the penultimate episode of Armando Iannucci's skin-piercing satire. Over at the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship, Secretary of State Nicola Murray (Rebecca Front) is thrilled to have won the support of tennis ace Andy Murray for a healthy-eating campaign. But the arrival of Steve Fleming (a terrifying David Haig), Malcolm's bete noire and fellow spinner, pitches everyone into chaos. There's something almost frightening about The Thick of It when it's this intense. And when Fleming and Tucker have a titanic, foul-mouthed battle, be afraid.

The Thick of It: series three, episode seven

Where does Malcolm go from here?

Locating The Thick of It

The Thick of It's Production Designer Simon Rogers explains about the locations used to film the series.

Rebecca Front: Claustrophobia isn't rare

"I, like the character I play in The Thick of It, am badly claustrophobic."

"It's like the break-up of the Beatles during the fall of the Roman Empire while Jordan's getting dumped by that bloke," said Malcolm Tucker of the atmosphere in a Downing Street much like our own. In this third series of The Thick Of It, the wizard of spin is not only losing his marbles - they were dislodged years ago - but his magical power to terrify. In an eerily controlled monologue he told Terri, the civil servant whose main ambition is to get home by 6, that he was an ex-pharaoh floundering in a Nile of s***: "But I am going to fashion a paddle out of that s***." I loved the delicacy of that verb "fashion". As Tucker, Peter Capaldi should get an OBE.

Den Of Geek review of episode 3.6

There's only two episodes left; fingers crossed, that's just enough time for Tucker to quietly bump an incompetent staffer off and get back his status as Bastard In Chief.

With the Prime Minister away at a summit in Spain, splenetic spin doctor Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) is left holding the fort in the savage political farce. Naturally he's soon driven to blue language and blind fury by minister Nicola Murray (Rebecca Front), who attempts to unveil her hobby horse policy, "The Fourth Sector Initiative" - but in the process inadvertently launches a leadership challenge.

One of the best things about In the Loop, the film The Thick of It spawned, was the way the character of government spin chief Malcolm Tucker appeared in it not as the vicious, all-knowing puppet master we love, but occasionally as someone flawed, flailing and out of his depth. There's a bit of that tonight, as he pays a call on DoSAC (the not-fit-for-purpose ministry where our heroes work) just as some remarks made by the minister on camera are mistaken for a leadership bid. Thanks to the pressure he's under at Number Ten, Malcolm's usual air of murderous command starts to unravel and he is soon raging around like Basil Fawlty on gourmet night, as his best-laid plans make matters worse. It doesn't help that the cloyingly useless Terri is offering advice. "Terri, I thought we had a deal, right?" he tells her through gritted teeth. "When I need your advice, I'll give the secret signal. Which is me being sectioned under the Mental Health Act."

The Thick of It: series three, episode six

Nicola accidentally launches a leadership bid - is she the best man for the job?