Institutions Eating Themselves: Armando Iannucci is the third series of Season 16 on The Next Reel. Armando Iannucci directed In the Loop, The Death of Stalin, and The Personal History of David Copperfield. Each puts people inside an institution that has stopped working, and finds the comedy in it.
We close our Institutions Eating Themselves series with The Personal History of David Copperfield, digging into how Armando Iannucci turns Dickens into something wildly inventive.
We unpack “The Death of Stalin,” Armando Iannucci’s dark satire on the power struggle after a dictator’s death, part of our Institutions Eating Themselves series.
We kick off our Institutions Eating Themselves series by digging into In the Loop, Armando Iannucci’s razor-sharp satire of British and American political maneuvering.
Institutions Eating Themselves: Armando Iannucci is a three-film series in Season 16 of The Next Reel. It asks one question: what happens to the people inside an institution when it stops working? The series opens with In the Loop (2009). It continues with The Death of Stalin (2017) and The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019).
One Director, Three Worlds
Armando Iannucci directed all three films. In the Loop follows British and American officials as a push toward war takes shape in meeting rooms. The Death of Stalin begins in Moscow in 1953, as the dictator's inner circle jockeys for position. The Personal History of David Copperfield follows Dev Patel's David through nineteenth-century England.
Source Material and Co-Writers
Each film begins with existing material. In the Loop grew out of the television series The Thick of It. Peter Capaldi plays Malcolm Tucker in both. The Death of Stalin adapts a French graphic novel by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin. The Personal History of David Copperfield adapts Charles Dickens's novel David Copperfield. Iannucci shares the screenplay credit on all three, and Simon Blackwell co-wrote In the Loop and Copperfield. Capaldi also appears in Copperfield as Mr. Micawber.
From Power Rooms to One Life
The first two films stay in the rooms where decisions get made. In the Loop fills them with government officials. The Death of Stalin fills them with the Soviet leadership. Copperfield leaves those rooms behind. It follows one young man through a factory, a school, and a law office. Along the way he collects phrases on scraps of paper and begins writing his life story.
Anyone who follows the full run sees how one director's instincts carry across very different material. Pete and Andy bring craft, casting, and production history into every episode.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Next Reel's Institutions Eating Themselves: Armando Iannucci series complete?
Yes, for now. All three films have aired. A series is only as complete as Pete and Andy want it to be. They may return to it in a future season.
Which films are in The Next Reel's Institutions Eating Themselves: Armando Iannucci series?
The series includes In the Loop (2009), The Death of Stalin (2017), and The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019). Armando Iannucci directed all three.
Where should I start if I'm new to The Next Reel?
Start with any of the three films. The series has no required order. Watch a film, then listen to Pete and Andy's episode on it. The whole show works as a library to dip into after you've seen a film.
What connects the films in The Next Reel's Institutions Eating Themselves: Armando Iannucci series?
Each film asks what happens to the people inside an institution that stops working. The first two watch from the top, and the third follows one person from below. Iannucci keeps returning to that problem, and he finds it both funny and unsettling.
Become a Supporting Member
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Related Listening
If the Institutions Eating Themselves: Armando Iannucci series brought you here, try two others. The Next Reel's Smoke and Mirrors series looks at politicians and the images they sell. The Next Reel's Paddy Chayefsky series includes Network (1976) and The Hospital (1971), two satires about institutions in crisis. Both are a natural next step for anyone drawn to satire about institutions and the people inside them.