Peter Capaldi argues The Thick of It reboot would trivialise "profound" issues
Capaldi starred as Malcolm Tucker in the hit political comedy series.
Peter Capaldi has admitted that he's not "terribly keen" on the idea of a potential The Thick of It reboot, stating that it would do a disservice to ongoing issues within politics and the world.
Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, the actor told Marr of the reboot idea: "Well, you know, the reason I'm not terribly keen on it is because I think it's beyond a joke. And joking about it just in some way takes the spotlight away from the problems.
"And I think that problems are profound. And, you know, we're in the middle of a climate crisis, we're in the middle of a time when we can't trust the government, there seems to be a level of corruption that's going on that's quite extraordinary."
He added: "Listen, we could do The Thick of It, which was really funny, that would make jokes about all that, but I think it would be letting them off in some way."
When asked whether he believes a reboot would "trivialise" current issues in contemporary politics, Capaldi said: "Yeah, I think it's too serious. These are hard times politically and we have to be responsible and aware."
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The hit political comedy series came to an end in 2012 with season 4. It was a satirical series focusing on the inner workings of the British government, with Capaldi starring as spin doctor Malcolm Tucker. The series was created by Armando Iannucci and also boasted Succession's Jesse Armstrong on its team of writers.
Capaldi was one of the most memorable characters of the series, reprising the role for the 2009 spin-off film In The Loop, and Iannucci went on to create US-based spin-off Veep. Most recently, all episodes of the hit series were made available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
During the interview with Marr, Capaldi also commented on the Post Office scandal, which has been brought to the forefront in light of ITV's hit drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
Capaldi said of the scandal: "I think my reflection is really on the weakness of the government to not have acted on this before. Yes, it's great that a TV show makes a mark. But why are we even in this position? We're entertainers, at the end of the day, we're there for people to relax… and get a story or whatever.
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"The fact that this wasn't dealt with before is scandalous, as are many things, sadly, in our society. I think it's fantastic that the show's done that and that it's brought people to understand what's been going on. But that covers up the real issue… It's just yet another incident that reflects the very poor state our politics is in."
The ITV drama has gone on to become the most-watched programme of the year thus far, with ongoing talks surrounding plans to exonerate victims of the scandal, which saw hundreds of subpostmasters and mistresses wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting by the Post Office following a defective IT system.
All episodes of The Thick of It are available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight.
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