He’d hate us saying it, but when it comes to national treasures, Armando Iannucci (Scottish, but born to Italian parents) is up there with the best of them. As writer and producer for 1994’s The Day Today, Iannucci was part of the Britpop of comedy: what the Gallaghers, Damon Albarn and Jarvis Cocker were doing for music, Chris Morris, Peter Baynham and Iannucci were doing for satire. Then there’s a certain Mr Alan Partridge, whom Iannucci helped create with Steve Coogan for radio in the early 90s, and who now … well, who wouldn’t have wanted to be invited to Partridge’s oasthouse for an exclusive, post-lockdown haircut interview?
After creating and directing the swear-tastic The Thick of It, Iannucci brought Malcolm “Fuckity Bye” Tucker’s political mishaps to the silver screen in 2009’s tremendous In the Loop. Iannucci’s second film – 2017’s The Death of Stalin (with Michael Palin, Steve Buscemi and Paul Whitehouse) – featured less swearing but enough communism for the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw to praise it with five stars as “a ruthless force by an A-list line-up” – but the actual Communist Party of the Russian Federation to label it “revolting” and ban the film in Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Iannucci’s third film – the brilliant The Personal History of David Copperfield, featuring Dev Patel – was awarded four stars by Bradshaw as a “bracing, entertaining, richly satisfying experience”. With so much more on his CV: Veep, Avenue 5, the time he was a subject on The South Bank Show in 2006, what would you like to ask him?
Post your comment below by midday on Friday 18 February and we’ll print the answers in Film&Music on Friday 25 February and online too, even if the Communist Party of the Russian Federation try to stop us.
Iannucci features as one of the “in conversation” guests at this March’s Glasgow film festival. He is also taking part in a Guardian Live event on 30 March, joining Zoe Williams and Jim Waterson to discuss the future of the BBC – book tickets here.
