Malcolm Tucker's Final Speech

Malcolm Tucker's final speech from the end of episode six of series four of The Thick of It. I heavily edited the clip to remove the non-essential contextual bits, and focus on the core part of his speech.
I think it's a very poignant summery of society and politics (in the UK, at least). It's one of the few times Malcolm's tough exterior peels back to reveal what may be an ultimately tortured soul who has to survive in a profession and lifestyle he despises; and really ends the series on a serious and potent note.
I claim no ownership over this, it's the property of BBC Worldwide. I can take it down on any party's legitimate request.

[@Andyp12]

I also love the last line he gives as they ask "Are you finished?" And he replies sadly with a defeated tone "I am finished, but you didn't finish me."

[@Andyp12]

Actually I was wrong he replies: "I haven't finished".

[@Rapscallion2009]

Did you notice malcolm was the only character who treated people from outside the political sphere with respect and equality ? Taxi drivers, nurses, his PA and people like that.

[@omgu8mynewt]

Yep, tramples all over Ollie and Ben and is rude to Nicola when he get away with it, perfectly polite to cleaning ladies and his PA.

[@Sodmylife36]

Appart from that one dead nurse that he stole his nhs and phone number

[@Bruh-zx2mc]

And? Lots of horrible people know how to pull a happy face.

[@D4K44R1]

He never raised his voice, that was the worst thing. The fury of a Time Lord...

[@brynnanwittman5142]

Haha nice

[@addison_reilly5904]

Have you watched the show?

[@yousexythang208]

The thing that really gets me about this speech is the meaninglessness of it. The first time I saw this I thought it was just Malcolm calling the enquiry out for targeting him when so many others did what he did, but then I realised that what he did and what he described are not at all comparable. He was bullshitting. He was not calling out a society that was corrupt, he was calling out the enquiry for daring to change the system in which he operated, the system that he pioneered. Look at the next episode- Malcolm Tucker and Stewart Pearson, two of the country's greatest spin doctors, and pioneers of this age of political corruption- both fired as a result of this enquiry. The age of spin, the age of Malcolm, is over. This speech wasn't a cry of protest, it was a cry for help, because Malcolm knew that his career was at an end, even before the enquiry, and he couldn't bear to face up to the fact that he was no longer wanted, or needed.

[@HenryClavo]

I thought this was a far cry for a society that has lost morality. He himself knew he was part of the problem (next episode). Nice analysis.

[@TheAnduril666x]

I'd say it was both, really; a devastating critique of politics, privacy, and celebrity culture in today's Britain, all vocalised because he was stalling and trying to deflect the blame from himself.

[@circlingthesquare6470]

Young Ponymancer I see why you think that, but I have to disagree. The first time I watched this, I thought the same thing: This is bullshit, just the desperate ravings of someone finally having to face some consequences for his misdeeds... He really expects anyone to buy this after his ruthless career of manipulation and backstabbing? But if you think about it, what the inquiry did to Malcolm was unjust and his anger was understandable. Sure, on the face of it he was getting what he deserved for leaking Tickel's records to score political points against the Coalition. But first of all, leaking records is nothing next to what the Coalition was already doing to Tickel: Selling off his home in the first place, rolling their eyes at his protests, and finally trying to evict him. (Given the timing, it's also pretty clear that the eviction, not the leak of his records, was what drove Tickel to suicide.) Secondly, Malcolm leaked the records to show that Peter was "Picking on a man with a history of depression"--which was true and needed to come to light. Finally, however cynical his motives, Malcolm was the closest thing to an ally that Tickel had in politics. Think about it: Obviously no one in the Coalition was on Tickel's side, and the Opposition was useless with Nicola leading it. As early as episode 2, Malcolm was urging Nicola to "Embrace our friend Mr. Tickle," but she had supported the housing selloff herself and thought it would backfire on her if she criticized the Coalition. So she didn't do anything to take up Tickel's cause, or even acknowledge him, until Malcolm had her cornered (and Tickel was already dead) in episode 4. Basically, if the inquiry's aim was to find out who was responsible for Tickel's death and hold them to account, it was a total failure. Peter, with the blithe cooperation of the rest of the Coalition, had implemented the policy that drove him to suicide. They all got off scot free (except, in a way, Glen, the the only one ever to show remorse for his part in it). Nicola refused to criticize the Coalition for it publicly. So it's absurd that Malcolm, the only political figure who ever tried to draw attention to Tickel's plight, should have to take the rap for it. Granted, the inquiry was about "leaking," not just the Tickel affair. But that was only because Peter managed to broaden the inquiry and deflect blame from himself (remember his whispered phone call at DoSAC in episode 5, "nudging" a journalist by saying the "real story" was the medical history leak). Besides, as Malcolm so eloquently points out in this final speech, it was always pointless and hypocritical to make the "culture of leaking" a focus of the inquiry. Who cares about leaking? The only focus should have been how a Government policy drove a man to suicide. I think that's what makes this speech so poignant: Malcolm's final defeat comes at a time when he least deserves it. Peter's actions did much more to cause Tickel's death, others (the Coalition advisors, Fergus, Nicola) did much less to prevent it, but the inquiry pinned all the blame on Malcolm and pretended they'd done their jobs. (By the way, Iannucci and the other writers deserve so much praise for this... The irony is perfect.) TL;DR: Malcolm has a right to be angry in this case. As the only one who ever tried to take up Tickel's cause, he was the only one who did anything that might have prevented the suicide... yet he's the only one who ends up getting punished for it.

[@circlingthesquare6470]

Young Ponymancer Re something else you said: Do you really think the era of spin is over? That seems unlikely to me. In the next episode, look at the way everyone is handling the fallout from the inquiry (Dan: "I haven't worked all that long, or all that closely with Malcolm Tucker...") and the arrest backlog (Emma: "We need to get it out there that the police arrest backlog is not a DoSAC FUBAR, OK?" Phil: "I doubt there are any major criminals on the loose, this is about paperwork, it's not Con Air!"). Basically, everyone's gone right back to spinning like centrifuges. The only one with any moral compass, Glen, is quitting and plans to turn himself in for perjury. Yes, Stewart and Malcolm get kicked out, but Malcolm's replacement is Ollie... Is that slime-ball likely to be more scrupulous than Malcolm? If you saw reasons to hope that a new era had dawned after this inquiry, I must have missed them.

[@GwendolynnBY]

+Circling the Square Your comments are so on point and exactly why those last two episodes were so important.

[@KaraDennison]

I signed up to watch a funny show with sweary people and by the end of it I had all these emotions. Curse you, Armando Iannucci.

[@CJCarter22]

Talks about trading kidneys. Gets new kidneys with regeneration.

[@johnilarde8440]

“KIDNEY! I GOT NEW KIDNEYS! I don’t even like the color”- 12th Doctor.

[@andrewclarke2533]

Can these Doctor Who fans stop spamming every single Thick of It video out there with Peter in it. Your show isn't the only show in the world.

[@Hyperion62]

The Doctor transcends the limitations of one show or another

[@andrewclarke2533]

Hyperion no but the annoying as fuck fans can't stop themselves tryin to dominate every other bloody show

[@bentaro9743]

Scandypandy comment= dominate what's wrong with you?

[@andrewclarke2533]

I don't think you comprehend the idea of the internet, my guy. A video goes up about a show. Fans of another show, which uses the same actors, flood that video with comments about another show. This reduces comments about the video itself into a sidenote. Fans of the show do this to all shows which use actors from their own favourite show. Let people like what they like. Fucking whatever. But stop mix-maxing shows which are nothing to do with each other, especially since Doctor goddamn Who is one of the main reasons we no longer have The Thick of It.

[@LaytonMathieson]

The funny thing is, nobody mentioned Doctor Who so there's really no reason to go badmouthing the fandom. Secondly, this video was uploaded a year before Capaldi's first appearance as the doctor so your comment doesn't make any sense.

[@digitalbritgamer6797]

This speech tells you he will be a great Doctor

[@rachelamitrano9094]

Thank you for this. Someone needs to upload the last interaction between Ollie and Malcom the "I knew Malcolm F. Tucker" speech. THAT is fantastic.

[@aetherjpg]

I read that as 'Malcolm Fucker'. That's actually a better last name for him if you ask me...

[@thedoctorand]

Technically his last speech was read out by his solicitor in the last episode of The Thick of It after he left the police station

[@arbitterm]

I would have preferred the final speech he gives Olly, about how he had to sacrifice everything to his work until there was nothing left of him. It's the only time I ever felt sorry for Malcolm.

[@kekeke4467]

even though Malcolm was swearing and rude I always thought he did what he did because he believed it was the right thing for the party and the country. The other characters are really just out for themselves.

[@kukuricapica]

He was saying that shit since season 1. He was basicaly sleeping in the work. He wasn't bad person or a bully. He was mad all the time because he had to clean up the fuck up after those incompetent neurotics. I've felt sorry for him actualy because he had no life, no friends, no family.

[@LizardGenes]

The more I watch these clips, the more I'm convinced that The Thick Of It is to New Labour and the Coalition what Spitting Image was to Thatcher and the boring Major years. In this excerpt, his last stand of sorts, Tucker outlines the endgame of politics: a porous world of nightmarish transparency, where we see humanity opened up, exposed, ousted even, for what it really is, namely, a world of morally bankrupt, politically and technologically inept clowns tripping themselves up. In the new Stalinist State, one does not need a show trial like the Goulding Enquiry; one merely self-acquits by existing in the always already corrupt system. To be someone, or no one, Tucker suggests, is to be guilty - there is no other way.

[@fistfulohorde]

Two years later...

[@themaypole]

you didn't finish me was my fave part and it was cut

[@zinki120]

"The Trial of a Time Lord"

[@eksortso]

The only thing not authentic about the speech (Malcolm Tucker's speech, not the Doctor's, you nutjobs) was the total lack of swearing. And the content of it, despite the misanthropy, is true.

[@ArihanaB]

that's quite interesting actually! because i felt like malcolm's lack of swearing in this speech made what he was saying seem much more genuine than anything else he's ever said before. To me, it was like he dropped everything and spoke honestly, with no concealation of anger through swear words - but rather genuinely showing his distain for humanity by explaining the sad truth about society

[@Wattywatasaurus]

I thought that it was very authentic that he didn't swear once. One has to remember that this is taking place at a government inquiry, and the whole UK populace is watching. So there are regulations they have to follow - he follows them to the letter. But he also has a chance to air his views honestly, rather than with a whole torrent of swearing to pad them.

[@eksortso]

Wattywatasaurus I don't know why, but you seem fixated on this point. Malcolm is smart enough not to use his typical vocabulary on television, during which he makes his philosophy explicit. His expression is authentic, but the performance is a put-on for the media to digest. Personal authenticity is a facet of integrity. The real you is not a performance piece, it's how you act when you don't know or don't care who's watching. The real Malcolm Tucker is utterly vicious around others. He hides it well.

[@JoelJoel321]

I'm going to tentatively suggest that the lack of swearing, in a way, might show just how angry he is. He's beyond trying to mask his anger and feelings with his own brand of humour, and he's just saying exactly what he thinks. I think it's pitched very well. Plus I agree with those above, he would know not to swear on tv anyway!

[@ichabod1370]

Dave Ostroske The content is the *reason* for the misanthropy.

[@ethandalton6480]

Peter Capaldi's delivery reminds me of his war speech in the Zygon Inversion

[@CMOT101]

Fuck off.

[@YSOFTWARE]

Are all Capaldi's videos populated with Whovians comments? Wow, we've done a great job.

[@katierosefun7722]

•wildly applauses•

[@DMDCello]

Wow, perfection

[@3george7]

...boom.

[@RaySpainPlayer]

'A political class that has given up on morality and simply pursues popularity at all costs.'