S01E01 T*
Armando worries about looking like a t* in front of other people. He worries about what other people think about him, judging him by his appearance, what he thinks and his lack of football knowledge....
The Armando Iannucci Shows
S01E04: Imagination
Armando believes that the imagination is a wonderful thing, allowing us to come up with any image, such as the cast of Cats being shot at dawn. Everyone attempts to try to become more imaginative, such as profane gardening and improving suicide notes. However, the greatest worry is people starving to death due to there being too many golf sales. This episode was originally aired last in the series, providing a surprisingly fitting conclusion in which Armando, by taunting animals with various human inventions, seems to have accidentally taught them how to take over the world.
Overview
The Armando Iannucci Shows is a series of eight programmes focused on specific themes relating to human nature and existentialism, around which Iannucci would weave a series of surreal sketches and monologues. Recurring themes in the episodes are the superficiality of modern culture, our problems communicating with each other, the mundane nature of working life and feelings of personal inadequacy and social awkwardness. Several characters also make repeat appearances in the shows, including the East End thug, who solves every problem with threats of violence; Hugh, an old man who delivers surreal monologues about what things were like in the old days; and Iannucci's barber, who is full of nonsensical anecdotes.
Episodes
S01E02 Work
Armando claims that almost everyone made a wrong decision around eight years ago, which explains why they end up with terrible jobs. From clowns becoming teachers, to sniffer dogs deciding to go to Bangkok on...
S01E03 Communication
Armando realises that most people do not talk to each other, hence why people end up going to landfills after nailing themselves into DIY cupboards. More problems arise in the form of racist police horses,...
S01E04 Imagination
Armando believes that the imagination is a wonderful thing, allowing us to come up with any image, such as the cast of Cats being shot at dawn. Everyone attempts to try to become more imaginative,...
S01E05 Time Passing
With time passing ever more quickly, Armando worries about growing older. He admires Hugh for keeping the past alive, but panics about turning into one of the old men with bushy eyebrows that gave him...
S01E06 Neighbours
Armando wants to know what his neighbours are really like. He discovers what they think of each other, their prejudices, and one woman's experience with her stolen dresses, now being worn by people like Eddie...
S01E07 Morality
Armando is worried about people's morality. Whilst one priest inspires his congregation so much they will not leave him alone, another shows pornographic masses. Armando starts to wonder if there is anything we do which...
S01E08 Reality
Armando has trouble sleeping, from his fridge making a sound of a trumpet, being beaten up by an intruder, and his recurring nightmare involving his most dreaded expression, "Except for those viewers in Scotland, who...
Cast
Armando Iannucci
Himself
Stephen Mangan
Television Executive #4
Alan Ford
Alan The East End Thug
Tony Gardner
Television Executive #1
Darren Higham
Television Executive #2
Melanie Hudson
Television Executive #3
Hugh Cecil
Hugh
James Smith
Various Characters
