Anti-omnishambles

This series of The Thick of It has been amazing. Way beyond what we have come to expect from a political comedy in the last twenty years. There are the beautiful characters and performances (Rebecca Front being mad and angry has been a revelation, Chris Addison's Ollie is a detailed study in annoying, James Smith plays Glenn Cullen with the battered dignity of a knackered old satchel and Joanna Scanlan is quietly worrying as disinterested Terri). The storylines are inspired (party conference speech ruined by loudmouthed grieving widow on Twitter, Radio 5 Live interviews derailed by phone-in revelations, etc) and each one showcases another desperately shallow and botched attempt at professional politics in Britain today.

Malcolm Tucker is the obvious giant of the show, a creature so monstrous and yet thoroughly understandable that you can't quite hate him. The amazing meltdown scene with Terri where she tells him he's wrong and he actually demonstrates some kind of self-knowledge, seeing himself for what he is to her shallow bafflement, is a truly standout scene, for my money the best in a wonderful series. We have been spoiled with eight weeks of artfully wrought political suicide and a portrait of life inside a dying government that in years to come will be taken as fact.

The insults are marvellous, my favourite being 'omnishambles' (almost as good as Tucker calling Toby in the film In the Loop 'Love Actually'). It's this level of inspired detail on top of the immense amount of research and across the board perfect performances that makes The Thick of It the best comedy on TV since Spaced. And we are living in an era of good sitcoms, it's a miracle. Outnumbered is a national treasure, The IT Crowd and The Inbetweeners are a new genre of nerdcom, people love Peep Show though I can't watch it because it makes my flesh crawl too much, and Gavin and Stacey is heartwarming and gorgeous in a way that old sitcoms used be – entirely because of the peripheral characters. Thank god the old cliche about Britain being shit at sitcoms has passed, and we can move on from Americanised trash like My Family. Watching something as good as The Thick of It makes you realise just how inspiring, truthful and funny a good comedy can be.

'Maybe he's dressed as Pat Phoenix and wanking into a desk tidy.'

Repeats of The Thick of It specials in the wake of the success of In the Loop have given me the opportunity to snigger all over again at the verbal extremities and staggeringly believable performances.

Best bit: terrifying Jamie locks himself in a stationery cupboard with potential leadership candidate Claire Ballantine and emerges moments later revealing that 'She's addicted to online poker', which leads to my favourite line from the entire series: 'You know what they're calling her already? Ugly Betty'.