Armando Iannucci thinks Britain’s current political climate has made it more difficult to satirise.
The 56-year-old writer is one of the country’s best-known satirists – but he’s confessed that the modern-day political landscape has made his job more challenging than ever.
He explained: "I think satire requires some kind of universally recognised code of behaviour that you’re then disrupting.
"But if there is no longer a code of behaviour, I don’t quite see how you can do the disrupting, because they’re doing the disrupting by saying there’s no code of behaviour."
One of Armando’s most acclaimed comedy creations is ‘The Thick of It’, which satirised the inner workings of modern British government.
Armando has always rebuffed criticism of the show, challenging politicians to prove that "public political behaviour can be inspirational".
The writer – who was also one of the co-creators of ‘I’m Alan Partridge’ – told the Observer newspaper: "In things like ‘The Thick of It’ we never showed anyone breaking the law, we just showed people bending the rules to try to get themselves out of a hole, while the media and public forced them to go through more and more contortions.
"In fact, people have said to me the more sympathetic characters in those shows are the elected politicians.
"So I always said to any politician who said you’re disillusioning people in politics, OK, well prove me wrong then. Prove to me that public political behaviour can be inspirational."
Armando Iannucci says modern-day politics is more difficult to satirise
