Armando Iannucci

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2006

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the satirist Armando Iannucci. He has lampooned news journalism with his creations On the Hour and The Day Today and plumbed the shallows of the chat show circuit through the vain and insecure Alan Partridge. His most recent work has been more biting: his Westminster satire The Thick of It dissects the relationship between politicians, their spin-doctors and the media they want to control. Decisions are made on the hoof, in haste and in response to media pressure - there's not a politician, civil servant or journalist who isn't compromised in the process.

A highly academic child at a Jesuit school, in his teens he harboured ambitions to become a Catholic priest. His parents thought he might become a doctor or lawyer, but after getting a first-class degree from Oxford, and spending three years writing a thesis about religious language with reference to Milton, he concentrated on comedy instead. He joined the BBC and ended up producing the radio comedy programmes he had listened to as a child.

He is currently involved in developing new comedy for the BBC and is this year's Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media at Oxford University.

This programme includes language which may offend some listeners.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Opening of Mahler's 9th Symphony by Gustav Mahler Book: Complete Short Stories by H G Wells Luxury: Virtual sherry trifle

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Nicola Cochlin. Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them. My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right. In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world. Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela, Louis Braille and Lady Jane Grey,
0:24.7	History's Youngest Heroes, with me, Nicola Cochlin.
0:27.8	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:30.3	Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.
0:35.3	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:38.5	The program was originally broadcast in 2006
0:41.3	and contained some strong language.
0:44.1	The presenter was Sue Lawley. My castaway this week is a writer and producer.
1:04.9	His latest creation, the thick of it, a television sitcom about politicians and spin,
1:09.7	is currently walking off with prizes all over the place.
1:12.9	Its remorseless parody of a government minister
1:15.7	twisting and turning to the savage demands
1:18.0	of the Prime Minister's Enforcer
1:19.6	is brilliantly performed and very funny.
1:22.8	Before that, he turned his attention to the media
1:25.0	and invented that archetype of modern comic heroes
1:27.9	Alan Partridge. Like all good comedy, his work succeeds because it's based on the shrewd
1:33.7	observations of a serious mind. So it's no surprise to learn that he got a first-class degree
1:38.6	from Oxford and spent three years writing a thesis on religious language with particular reference
1:43.2	to Milton.
1:49.5	But in the end, comedy beckoned, because, as he says, it allows you to do anything. It can be as believable as you like, as mature or as silly, as intelligent or as daft.
1:55.9	He is Armando Yanucci. To carry on with that quote, Armando, you also say, as offensive or as safe,
	...

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