Armando Iannucci on satirising Alastair Campbell

Armando Iannucci does his research. The writer and producer of The Thick of It - the comedy series about ineffectual MPs and the Machiavellian spin doctors who control them - maintains a "repertory company of gossipers" in Westminster, whose insider knowledge gives the programme its authenticity.

In fact, he told Decca Aitkenhead in the Guardian, real politicians often confide in him: "It's worse; it's a lot worse than this." The show's lead character - the eye-wateringly profane spin doctor Malcolm Tucker, played by Peter Capaldi - is often said to be a perfect caricature of Alastair Campbell. And when all three men met at the Channel 4 political awards, the resemblance was uncanny.

"Channel 4 thought it would be a great idea to sit me and Peter Capaldi next to Alastair Campbell and [his partner] Fiona Millar. And Fiona was very funny, because she kept saying, "It's so like him, do you know that? It's so like you, isn't it? It's just him!"

And he was going, "Oh, come on, come on." But as he's talking to you, he's going through his BlackBerry, pulling faces, going 'Oh Jesus, oh twat, piece of shit', half under his breath. Peter thought it was great, of course. Peter was taking notes." ·