The 2007 special edition of the black political satire is packed with blood-drawingly sharp observations and ruthless, brilliant dialogue. And a lot of laughs. We eavesdrop on Peter Mannion (Roger Allam) a bemused politician who wonders if he's out of step with the modern world. Can he still call yobboes 'yobboes', for instance? Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) and his ferocious sidekick Jamie (Paul Higgins) and back too (hooray!) with language that would make a northern rugby league team blush.

All change for Thick of It cast?

One thing Armando Iannucci may well be doing is sitting at a desk somewhere writing the new series of The Thick of It. Which, in the wake of In the Loop, is going to be massively anticipated, unspeakably brilliant and, more importantly, extremely confusing. Because while In the Loop's furious and profane Malcolm Tucker and even more furious sidekick Jamie have just helped start a war, the rest of The Thick of It's band of spineless miscreants were conspicuous in their absence.

The Thick of It to return

A further eight episodes of BBC satirical comedy The Thick of It are in the pipeline, creator Armando Iannucci has confirmed. Iannucci said in an update today on social networking site Twitter that he was working on eight new scripts.

Think Yes Minister on speed - and that includes the cameraman. But lurching around with hand-held cameras is all part of the modern mockumentary, a reminder that this is on-the-fly comedy rather than a contrived sitcom. The result here is brilliant, if you can live with a slight headache.

Jim Hacker lives in the form of hapless Minister for Social Affairs Hugh Abbot (Chris Langham) but with more sweary bits. And while Sir Humphrey Appleby was all oily charm, Abbot's advisers (James Smith and Chris Addison) are more bumbling and insecure.

But nowhere in Yes Minister was there anyone like splenetic chief political adviser Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), clearly modelled on Tony Blair's spinmeister, Alastair Campbell.