Writer slams American TV buffoons

Iannucci, 48, acted as executive producer while trying to adapt the hit BBC show for an American audience.

Broadcaster ABC rejected it after viewing the pilot and Iannucci distanced himself, saying: “It was terrible ... conventionally shot and there was no improvisation or swearing.”

Now he has told the Radio Times: “The mistake is to think that because America has this tremendous influence internationally, therefore all Americans are brilliant. When we were doing the pilot of The Thick Of It at ABC there were just scores of people working on it, all called vice president this and that, and a lot of them were buffoons.”

He has enjoyed more success in the US as the creator of Veep, starring Seinfeld actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus as US vice president Selina Meyer.

“What has been great with HBO (the makers of Veep) is that they are the opposite,” Iannucci told the magazine.

“It’s very much ‘Let’s keep it small and try to make it as good as it can be’. What you realise is that they are people at the top of their game, and you are actually benefiting from their experience.”

The comedian and satire writer said of his experience of working in Los Angeles: “I get an absolute sigh of despair whenever I go to LA.

“I find it a huge, shapeless, heartless city full of people talking about television and films, morning, noon and night. I just wish they would shut up and read a book!”