Armando Iannucci: Veep, the Beeb and I

He lampooned Westminster in The Thick of It, now Washington is loving his White House satire. Here Armando Iannucci tells Sarah Sands how he ticked the box on both sides of the Atlantic
Armando Iannucci is the president of political satire
Rex Features
Sarah Sands2 June 2014

In Washington, politicos now talk about how many “Jonahs” were at their meeting — a reference to the over-confident, underwhelming, would-be political adviser who irritates everyone around him in Veep, the HBO comedy about a fictional US Vice-President. It is evidence of the way in which the show, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Vice-President Selina Meyer, has entered the political lexicon. The satire, created by British comic writer Armando Iannucci, is so “inner sanctum” that a Veep video sketch starring Louis-Dreyfus, Barack Obama’s wife Michelle and his own Vice-President Joe Biden was created for the White House Correspondents’ dinner last month.

Iannucci, a quietly-spoken Scot, satirised Westminster in The Thick of It. It was devastating about the opportunism of politics, yet Malcolm Tucker, based on Alastair Campbell, became an anti-hero. Veep has had the same effect in Washington. In the administration, every young politico wants to claim they are Dan Egan, the smoothly ambitious press aide. The phrase “pencil-fucked”, used in Veep to describe redacted speeches, was picked up by the cast overhearing some advisers from The Hill in a Washington bar.

The last time I saw Iannucci was before Christmas, when he was filming a London-based episode that appears late in series three. It was the day of Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, a momentous occasion derailed by the Obama and Cameron selfie and by a rogue sign-language interpreter; both incidents could have been written by Iannucci.

We meet this time in a Soho hotel suite. Iannucci, raised at the BBC, where he helped create the character of Alan Partridge as well as The Thick of It, is now the prized possession of HBO. He is an illustration of the changing face of TV. He says of his new bosses: “HBO is on the side of the creative. It is a bit like how the BBC was 10 or 15 years ago when they said, ‘Oh yes, we trust you.’

“The BBC lost that with competition from Sky and Channel 4 and started hiving off the commissioning side from the programming side. People were making decisions who hadn’t come up through programming. But I’m optimistic now that, because Sky and Netflix and Amazon and YouTube are putting money in, people who make stuff are realising there’s more than one game in town.”

As for the BBC’s travails over Jeremy Clarkson and nervousness over certain nouns, Iannucci sighs: “There is a lot of headless chickening going on. I will man the barricades for the BBC, they have been good to me, but they have a tendency when accused of a crime just to hand themselves into the police station. What is the worst that could happen if they were rude to the Daily Mail?”

He considers it inevitable that the BBC must turn to a subscription model rather than the licence fee. “The BBC should make a mint from the brand internationally. It needs a new attitude that says it’s not filthy to make money. As for the licence, you have people on laptops saying: ‘What is a television?’ There will be a subscription model.”

Power crazed: Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Vice-President Selina Meyer in Veep

So how did he crack Washington, and how does it differ from Westminster? “In DC there is more influence, a lot more money and it’s the same pool of people. Those 500 names have more in common with each other than with anyone else. It’s a bit like a campus. When the young people are burnt out they stay there, marry each other. It is like ancient Rome or Constantinople.”

He notes, too, the obsession with status. “People really mind where they are in the pecking order. Someone will try to impress by saying they can get you into the White House Christmas party, and the immediate response is: ‘The 5.30 or the 8pm?’” Where he found common ground was in the politics of deadlock. In both the US and in the UK, it is government by attrition. The numbers are too close and opposition is everywhere. If West Wing suited the optimistic climate of the late Nineties when President Clinton and Tony Blair were in power, then Veep is a reflection of our harder times. Iannucci says: “I think you are seeing the frustration of the public. The constitution in America rests on the principle of co-operation. As soon as you say we’re not going to do that, it breaks down.”

It is significant that the most critically acclaimed political dramas are Veep, a devastating satire, and House of Cards, in which the President is a murderer. “People are disillusioned with Washington, it doesn’t feel real.” He points out that the notion of mainstream parties is losing its hold, and compares this with the fragmentation of television.

“People are just drifting away. It’s like saying you can watch BBC or ITV, and that’s it. We don’t have faith in traditional leaders. It’s not that people distrust them, they don’t understand them.”

One of the most enjoyable episodes in the third series hinges on a visit by the Vice-President to a massive digital company. Selina Meyer finds it hard to hold the attention of the teenage-looking CEO until tax is mentioned. His employees are far more excited by the next speaker, a star of a Harry Potter movie. The shift of power is both comic and serious.

Iannucci says he and his team did their research in San Francisco and talked to Facebook, Google, Spotify and Twitter. He was struck first by the calibre of global figures arriving to pay homage to these companies. “One day it’s the Dalai Lama, and nobody bats an eyelid.”

The second thing he observed was the insistence that everyone was having fun. “It’s as if everyone is trying too hard, like recovering alcoholics.” He was further unsettled by free food, laundry and entertainment being laid on to keep staff on the premises. “The message is there is no need to leave the building. Facebook gave everyone a bonus if they moved within a mile of campus.” He shakes his head, mystified.

He wryly observes, however, that the future is uncertain. He relates a story about sixth-formers being shown around by Google head Eric Schmidt. One of them put up a hand and asked what was going to happen once Google was over. “If you look at the digital world, they peak after five years or so and something better comes along. So what happens to the 1,000-year reich of information?”

Iannucci’s response to power and politics is quizzical. He is a former Lib- Dem supporter who is now leaning towards Labour. What would clinch his vote is “more passion ... and I would like to see mainstream politicians speaking up for immigration”. As for the Scottish referendum, he maintains a writer’s detachment. “Long-term, I wonder if it will make any difference. Economies are now intermeshed: do states and countries matter?”

Iannucci becomes more steadfast when describing his wife and three children. He would like to work more from England. “Having been away, I appreciate it a lot more. I appreciate how green it is.” It is cheering that the man who has captured better than anyone the vortex of political life has a serene family life and an appreciation of parks. He is also expletive-free. Iannucci possesses what his characters lack, a sense of the absurd and a sane set of priorities. He looks to me a happy man.

The third series of VEEP premieres exclusively on Sky Atlantic HD in July. Catch the rerun of the second series on Tuesdays on Sky Atlantic HD.

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