#tttoi

[duckodeathreturns]

A BIG YES to your Malcolm and Julius fic! I would love to read it. You've made my day.

Hi Anon (and everyone else)

Please excuse my radio silence re: the Malcolm and Julius fic. It finally occurred to me that you all probably can’t actually read my mind so you can’t know I have in fact been diligently working away on the thing with the fervent hope that I can post at least the first chapter very very soon.

I apologize because I neglected to mention/warn when I responded to the fic request that I am The World’s Slowest Writer so even though I already have 70 pages written (double-spaced, but still that’s impressive, right?) it still takes me forever to do the editing and researching – if that’s the right word – for the things that I’d not previously worked out like, for example, the layout of the original DoSa building and where it was actually supposed to be located in Thickoverse Westminster* which forced me (oh the horror!) to rewatch the first five episodes…a few times over and over again.

And then since the story takes place immediately after The Specials, I’ve obviously had to rewatch them and the Opposition Extra a bunch of times too to re-immerse myself in the world of January 2007 and the week with three Wednesdays, to say nothing of Ollie’s amazing time travel cheese adventures that end up causing Darling Julius so such distress in the Richmond Terrace conference room.

*And the original DoSa building? Well, one minor clue is here:

The time it takes Malcolm in 103 to get from his office to Hugh in the fishbowl is comedy time (less than a minute) that doesn’t make real sense, but then also in 103 you see people driving to Number 10 (and Glenn thinks it will take Robyn about ten minutes to get there on foot in 105 and no I haven’t thought about this waaaaaaay too much), but the direction he’s running at least tells you that wherever the original DoSa building was supposed to be, it was – if I’ve got my orientation right – south of Downing Street and that by itself is useful for my purposes.

So anyway, the tl;dr version is I AM working on the fic and I AM determined to start posting it before the end of the month if you will please continue to bear with me and my ridiculous slowness. Thank you for your patience!

[duckodeathreturns]

The first version of this was posted in February 2014, but it’s been revised with brand new gifs above (especially the first two that I’ve never done before) and slightly revised text below the read more (if you’re seeing this on your dash).

Also -- and almost more importantly -- as an unexpected but extremely welcome by-product of redoing these gifs, I finally made out that damn bold-face headline on the table behind Malcolm and after a bit of research can now place this episode (and consequently the next one too) much more firmly in time.  See the newly updated entries for 105/202 and 106/203 in the The Thick of It Timeline for more info and a picture. 

Don’t try this at home, people!

Malcolm Tucker is a professional in the field of communications and media relations with years of experience distilling complex information into its most essential and easily transmittable form.  As you can undoubtedly tell here from his clear and concise explanation of the messaging process.

Seriously though, I love the 8:30s and seeing Malcolm laughing and joking with the civil servant communication drones because there’s nothing he can’t handle, whether it’s a cabinet reshuffle or his favorite baldy nemesis.  And also because it shows exactly why he’s the guy shaping the message, but not, emphatically NOT, the one delivering it.

There was a young girl from DoSa

who helped herself to a samosa

and when it was done

she had another one

and asked are there any more sir?