63 Facts About Malcolm Tucker

Malcolm Tucker is the fictional antihero of the BBC political satire The Thick of It, portrayed by Peter Capaldi.

Malcolm Tucker is the Director of Communications for his party in both Government and Opposition, acting as the Prime Minister's chief enforcer overseeing cabinet ministers.

Malcolm Tucker is one of several characters from the series to appear in the film In the Loop, such as Malcolm's deputy, Jamie McDonald, Senior Press Officer at No 10.

Malcolm Tucker is implied to be a recovering alcoholic on a few occasions, another trait that matches Alistair Campbell.

Malcolm Tucker's personality makes him infamous and feared along the halls of Westminster.

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Malcolm Tucker's constant scheming, although borderline "Malchiavellian" in the words of Hugh Abbot, is paradoxically aimed at a common good, namely the prevalence of the party line and the resolution of issues arising from ministerial incompetence, whereas apparently friendly characters such as Ollie come across as covertly self-serving and egotistical by comparison.

Malcolm Tucker even feels sorry for Glenn when he has a mini mental breakdown and tries to brighten his mood.

Malcolm Tucker is one of four "Spin doctors" featured on the show, the others being Cal Richards, Steve Fleming, and Stewart Pearson, the latter three of whom make up the three spin doctors that are universally feared by ministers and civil servants alike.

Malcolm Tucker is shown to frequently lose his temper and lash out when faced with any opposition from his co-workers, implying he is mentally unbalanced.

Malcolm Tucker and Fleming harbour a mutual hatred, going back to when the former forced the latter to resign in 2003.

Malcolm Tucker has very little patience for the incompetence of ministers and other civil servants in Whitehall to the point where he describes himself in series four as having "no real friends".

Malcolm Tucker considered Hugh Abbot to be bumbling, incompetent and out of touch with the public, and was constantly fed up with having to deal with his mistakes.

However, this professional respect quickly deteriorated following the General Election; Nicola's time as Leader of the Opposition was a complete disaster, until Malcolm Tucker staged a coup d'etat against her, declaring her "a waste of skin".

Malcolm Tucker tends to threaten Ollie more than other members of DoSaC like Glenn or Terri, implying he finds Ollie more irritating, probably because Ollie is often responsible for the mistakes Malcolm has to manage.

However, Tucker loses all respect for Glenn when he defects, branding him a traitor when rebuffing his attempt to re-join Malcolm's party.

Only other person he allows to criticise him without retaliation is fellow Scotsman, Press Officer, Jamie McDonald, one of the few people who is arguably more aggressive than Malcolm Tucker, who is "let off his leash" to do Malcolm Tucker's work for him when he needs to be in two places at once.

Malcolm Tucker has a long-standing rivalry with party Life Peer Julius Nicholson, who delights in his sacking at the end of series 3, but does help him return to power in the next episode.

Malcolm Tucker has a decent relationship with his personal secretary, Sam; he often shouts at her for coffee or to get him on a call with someone, but he is seen speaking fondly of her to Hugh Abbot in Series 2.

Malcolm Tucker is one of the few people who apparently likes Tucker, and is visibly upset when he is fired.

Malcolm Tucker makes few appearances in the show, but she seems to have a genial relationship towards him.

Malcolm Tucker was present every day at the Goolding Inquiry, her face evolves into visible concern towards the end of the inquiry as she witnesses an end to Malcolm's career.

Malcolm Tucker makes him scrap the announcement at the last minute to avoid confusion between the prime minister and the treasury, forcing Hugh to announce nothing at his scheduled press conference.

Hugh exasperates Malcolm Tucker by being out of touch with the common man and popular culture, so he attempts to get him to watch zeitgeist tapes.

The scandal causes Malcolm Tucker to urge Hugh to resign to save the housing bill, explaining that such a resignation would be seen as honourable, but Hugh is very reluctant to do so.

Malcolm Tucker has more pressing issues; an important story on a major IT project's overspending and possible corruption on the part of Geoff Holhurst, but he goes to ITN to help Hugh out anyway.

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Malcolm Tucker finds allies in the Department of Social Affairs when Julius cuts them out of Malcolm's prestigious "8:30" meetings, and devises plans to significantly downsize them in the upcoming reshuffle.

Malcolm Tucker uses Olly, Glenn Cullen, and Hugh to "leak" rumours that Julius will be named foreign secretary in the reshuffle, and then convinces the prime minister that Julius himself is responsible for the rumours as a gambit to guarantee a promotion.

Malcolm Tucker gets him an education expert friendly to the government position to ease his feelings and to give him something to say to explain his apparent U-turn to the Select Committee.

Malcolm Tucker makes Hugh apologise to the committee and convince them that he really is convinced the bill will help SEN children.

Malcolm Tucker then manipulates Nick into suggesting Ben Swain, who is soon shot down as well.

Malcolm Tucker secures his place by convincing Tom of Nick's "betrayals".

Malcolm Tucker decides to send as many party figures as possible, including Nicola, to support Bentley's election; and, to teach Nicola a lesson about how cruel the press can be to ministers, schemes an embarrassing photograph of her grinning with two thumbs up in front of a large poster that, due to a crop, appears to read "I AM BENT".

Malcolm Tucker tries to improve Nicola's image by taking her to a dinner at the Guardian; but this is compromised when a huge data loss occurs in the immigration database that DoSaC is responsible for.

Malcolm Tucker is further infuriated when Nicola accidentally lets go of the data loss in the presence of a freelance journalist.

Malcolm Tucker makes Nicola call the journalist in and remedy the situation by sacking a scapegoat.

At a party conference in Eastbourne, Malcolm Tucker is tipped off by Angela Heaney's enquiries that health statistics that Tom is going to announce in his speech are actually fake numbers lifted from an online blog.

However, the punch story is leaked and shows up on internet blogs and Malcolm Tucker has to send Julie away from the conference to avoid her talking with the press and he suspects an inept party press officer, John Duggan, is responsible for the leak.

Malcolm Tucker eventually discovers that it was Julie who tweeted about it.

Malcolm Tucker tries to get her to improve her performance by passing instructions to Ollie, but to little avail.

Malcolm Tucker is forced to go to the studio himself when a caller accuses Mannion's party of receiving donations from a company notorious for unethical labour practices, which donates a great deal to Malcolm Tucker's party.

Malcolm Tucker is unable to prevent that fact from being broadcast, and when Stewart Pearson tries to capitalise on the leak, the two exchange threats about scandals related to their respective parties.

When rumours of a leadership challenge from Nicola Murray surface, Malcolm Tucker has to drop everything and ensure that the rumours stop spreading, going so far as to put the entire DoSAC building on lockdown.

Under the guise of being on holiday, Malcolm Tucker invites several of his journalist contacts to what is ostensibly a friendly lunch at his house, where he makes it clear that despite rumours to the contrary, he's still "at the heart of government".

Malcolm Tucker quickly descends onto the scene, and both he and Steve Fleming are forced to deal with the resulting scandal.

Malcolm Tucker receives help from long-standing rival Julius Nicholson, who agrees to pardon Malcolm from his alleged wrongdoings in his inquiry report concerning the crime statistics on the condition of Malcolm's return.

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However, Nicholson is forced to blame it all on Steve Fleming who, due to Malcolm Tucker's machinations, is made to look guilty in trying to influence the inquiry report.

Malcolm Tucker swiftly descends back onto the scene to hand Fleming his resignation letter.

Malcolm Tucker regains his position and gives a foul-mouthed battle speech to ministers and civil servants about the impending election.

When Nicola takes a train to Bradford to spearhead a PR stunt in the hopes of improving her image, Malcolm Tucker encourages Ben Swain to resign from his position as Shadow Minister for DoSAC to precipitate the putsch, with the promise that he will re-enter Cabinet as Foreign Secretary.

Malcolm Tucker denies leaking the medical records under oath, making him susceptible to possible perjury charges.

Malcolm Tucker was missing from the panel for several days because of this.

Malcolm Tucker gives a final foul-mouthed rant to Ollie, that Ollie calls, "the kind of video that you leave on Youtube after you've blown your brains out, " that reveals some personal thoughts and feelings from Malcolm.

Malcolm Tucker insists that Ollie will never be him and that he will not survive the job of replacing him.

Malcolm Tucker asks Ollie to find another station for him, begging that "I need my dignity".

Malcolm Tucker is sent to be a willing and very active pawn in the efforts of a warmongering United States Assistant Secretary of State towards an intervention in the Middle East, which the British Prime Minister and American President want.

Malcolm Tucker joked that he has no plans for Tucker to appear in Veep as Tucker is either dead or in prison.

Malcolm Tucker makes an appearance in Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's 2012 comic book The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century 2009, where he is seen being interviewed by the journalist Jon Snow on television.

Malcolm Tucker won the award for Best Comedy Performance-Male at the 2010 awards.

Malcolm Tucker won the British Comedy Award for Best Actor in 2010 for his portrayal.

Malcolm Tucker was nominated for the Royal Television Society Award for Best Comedy Performance in 2006.

Malcolm Tucker came second place in the International Cinephile Society Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Malcolm Tucker was nominated for the London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actor of the Year, he came second place in the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor, he came in third place in the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy said, "Malcolm Tucker remains one of the most incredible TV creations of all time".