Campbell has a go at ‘In the Loop’

Alastair Campbell has taken a swipe at satirist Armando Iannucci - not for the spiky caricature of him in his new film, In The Loop, but because the film "bored" him.
 
Ahead of next month's cinema release, Campbell (above right) was asked to a sneak preview of the big-screen version of Iannuci's acclaimed corridors-of-power sitcom The Thick Of It, on the aasumption that he would be wildly offended by Peter Capaldi's portrayal of the prime minister's rabid press secretary Malcolm Tucker (above left) who, as everyone knows, is based on Tony Blair's famous spinmeister. Indeed, Capaldi's character even looks like him.

But Campbell, apparently, was unconcerned by this. His complaint is that the film is unrealistic and unfunny. Campbell was asked after the screening if Capaldi's depiction of a press adviser doctoring the evidence and manipulating the media and politicians in the build-up to a war offended him. "I was too bored to be offended," writes Campbell in the Guardian.
 
He despairs of Iannuci's cynicism, and wonders whether the satirist really thinks all politics is basically crass, all politicians venal, all advisers base. "From watching In The Loop, I suspect he does." Campbell then twists the knife by suggesting that Iannucci "like Rory Bremner", is becoming less funny the more serious his subject matter gets.
 
As for Capaldi, Campbell did find something positive to say. He remarked that on the one occasion he met the actor he found that he "had sound views on state schools, always a nice surprise in London media circles".
 
Campbell's otherwise dim view of the film and its makers is not reflected elsewhere. In The Loop, which also stars James Gandolfini from The Sopranos and Steve Coogan, has had praise heaped upon it by other previewers. ·