The Thick Of It: When life imitates sweary art
As a writer on the show, it has been a peculiar joy to watch as life imitates sweary art.
In the second episode of the series, Nicola Murray - our fictional leader of the opposition - decides to support a government policy of scrapping primary school breakfast clubs. Within hours of broadcast, a report was published in a Sunday broadsheet highlighting cuts facing real-life breakfast club initiatives.
In the following episode, our coalition characters, Fergus and Adam, launch a community bank - "the We Bank"- with £2bn-funding. The following Monday, Business Secretary Vince Cable announced a new £1bn "business bank".
Even while we were writing back in January, policies we'd put in the show were penny-crayoning themselves into reality.
Less than a week after the meeting where we originally brainstormed the "Silicon Playgrounds" idea, Education Secretary Michael Gove announced plans to scrap ICT in schools and instead get children to design apps during lessons. It's almost identical to the policy our fictional minister Peter Mannion announces in the opening episode.
Indeed, Life has imitated Art so uncannily that Life's impression of Art would probably have a good chance of winning Britain's Got Talent, beating even the most energetic urban dancing dog troupe.
Such is the prescience of the show, many in the media have assumed the writing team have moles within government and opposition - but, of course, we don't.
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