My horror movie of the season turned out to be 'In the Loop.' I knew nothing about it except that it was a British 'comedy', and it certainly started out funny enough. Some of the most creative cussing I've ever heard, too. Brilliant writing.

Question, though, for those over the pond: which British politicians were the real-life paralles for which characters? I'm not as clear on those as on their American counterparts.

Don;t thinik I've actually seen it, but it is an extension of Armando Ianucci's comedy series The Thick of It.

Ianucci and co deny that the characters are specific caricatures, claiming instead they are sort of impressionist gestalts of multiple people. But Malcolm Tucker is, pretty much everyone would agree, Alastair Campbell.