Peter Capaldi

Malcolm Tucker is giving a hapless politician the gentlerundown on why he shouldn't bother tostand for party leader. 'First ,you've got no credentials,' he says matter-of-factly. 'I mean, you are so backbenchyou've actually fallen off. You're outby the bins... where I put you. Secondly, I'm going to tell theMirror about all thedrinking. And thirdly, I'm going totell the Mail about the affair. And fourthly,you've got a tiny head.It's out of proportion. Everybody mentions it.

See, you're shaking itand I can hardly see it move. Are you shaking it now? Are you shaking itnow? I can't tell!'

This brand of psychological demolition is precisely the thing that has so endeared viewers and critics alike to Tucker, the Alastair Campbell type played with scarifying relish by Peter Capaldi in Armando Iannucci's Westminster comedy 'The Thick of It'. The latest one-off, a sequel to January's 'The Rise of the Nutters' (itself repeated tonight on BBC4 at 9pm), revolves around the Prime Minister's decision to retire six months early - a wry reflection, no doubt, on the failure of our real-life counterpart to do the same. In the battle for leadership that ensues, Tucker finds himself with his career in the balance and but a few hours to spin himself back to power.

Capaldi, born in 1958 in Glasgow, first won fame as oil company man Danny Oldsen in 1983's 'Local Hero', the fee for which he has admitted he mostly frittered away on beer and curry (well, he was young). He's also an accomplished director, winning an Oscar and a Bafta for his 1993 short film, 'Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life'. As for Tucker, his most celebrated role so far, Capaldi has said: 'I find it terrifying to play him. Exhausting, too. He does shout rather a lot.' True, and we can expect more of the same on Tuesday night. Still, a good comic character never has it all his own way. A desperate struggle to avoid humiliation: let's face it, few things are funnier.

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