The success of In The Loop was gratifying to those here in the UK who have watched with splits sides in an atmosphere of air turned blue by Iannucci’s impeccable body of work.
Beginning for me with his work with Chris Morris and the On the Hour (later The Day Today) team, through the often overlooked Armistice series, via the curious terror of Alan Partridge and onto The Thick of It, Iannucci is one of Britain foremost comic writers and directors. All of which is scant preamble to the excellent news that Iannucci’s follow up to In The Loop will be a political comedy series for HBO entitled Veep based on a Senator who becomes Vice President and today news came that Julia-Louis Dreyfus will play the leading role of Selina Meyer.
Loop fans will note the return of Anna Chlumsky, who will play Meyer’s Chief of Staff and there’s nothing to suggest that Iannucci will deviate from his usual acerbic and aggresively satirical style for US audiences. Indeed it is a sign of the high esteem in which the writer/director is held in that HBO would engage him to write a political comedy, hardly the easiest sell in the world, for them.
EW, who reported the story quotes Dreyfus,
It is a true delight to work with HBO and Armando Iannucci. I take the role of vice president very seriously, and although everyone says this is a comedy, I don’t think there is anything funny at all about me being a heartbeat away from the presidency.
Hoping for a cameo from one Malcolm Tucker? Me too.
