Armando Iannucci

Well, Doctor Strange is one of those films that's always been in my top five movies of all time.

Well, Doctor Strange is one of those films that's always been in my top five movies of all time.

I think it's the best dark comedy film ever made. I'm a huge Kubrick fan. The other reason I said yes was because, and this was several years ago, at the time, climate change was becoming a much more stark reality. There was a kind of a sensation of, we don't do something immediately about this. The world isn't going to come back from it.

I think it's the best dark comedy film ever made. I'm a huge Kubrick fan. The other reason I said yes was because, and this was several years ago, at the time, climate change was becoming a much more stark reality. There was a kind of a sensation of, we don't do something immediately about this. The world isn't going to come back from it.

That sense of us as a collective species still being unable to save ourselves from our own behavior.

That sense of us as a collective species still being unable to save ourselves from our own behavior.

Everyone on stage realizes there's a good chance the world might end, but they can't quite admit it. It's like a very slow motion car crash that you're watching. And everyone's caught up in it, but unable to, because of their own desire to retain their own status and to prove their point over the enemy, leading to annihilation.

Everyone on stage realizes there's a good chance the world might end, but they can't quite admit it. It's like a very slow motion car crash that you're watching. And everyone's caught up in it, but unable to, because of their own desire to retain their own status and to prove their point over the enemy, leading to annihilation.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, dread, yes. I think we're all anxious about something, but for each person it's a different thing. Or we can't quite put a finger on it. There's just a cumulative atmosphere of dread and foreboding, but not quite knowing what.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, dread, yes. I think we're all anxious about something, but for each person it's a different thing. Or we can't quite put a finger on it. There's just a cumulative atmosphere of dread and foreboding, but not quite knowing what.

Oh, absolutely. It's a way of articulating. It's a way of processing it. It's a way of dramatizing it.

Oh, absolutely. It's a way of articulating. It's a way of processing it. It's a way of dramatizing it.

I'm not arguing comedy is better. It just gives you another way in. And I think comedy... I think it just allows you to open up your mind a bit. If you find yourself laughing at something and then asking yourself, should I have laughed at that? Well, if you've laughed at it, then... You should. It's spontaneous. I think that's why autocratic leaders hate jokes about themselves.

I'm not arguing comedy is better. It just gives you another way in. And I think comedy... I think it just allows you to open up your mind a bit. If you find yourself laughing at something and then asking yourself, should I have laughed at that? Well, if you've laughed at it, then... You should. It's spontaneous. I think that's why autocratic leaders hate jokes about themselves.

Because it's spontaneous.

Because it's spontaneous.

It's out of their hands. They like stuff where they can tell you what to do. And comedy allows what might otherwise feel a forbidding and inaccessible theme. It allows you that entry point. You know, before making The Death of Stalin, I went back and watched The Great Dictator.

It's out of their hands. They like stuff where they can tell you what to do. And comedy allows what might otherwise feel a forbidding and inaccessible theme. It allows you that entry point. You know, before making The Death of Stalin, I went back and watched The Great Dictator.

So not even with the benefit of hindsight, right in the middle of it. And he treads this line between high comedy, fantastic, memorable, comedic moments like, I don't know, Ed Hinkle, the dictator, just playing with a globe, picking earth up in his hands and dancing with it. And then scenes set in the Jewish ghetto, which are not funny, not meant to be funny.

So not even with the benefit of hindsight, right in the middle of it. And he treads this line between high comedy, fantastic, memorable, comedic moments like, I don't know, Ed Hinkle, the dictator, just playing with a globe, picking earth up in his hands and dancing with it. And then scenes set in the Jewish ghetto, which are not funny, not meant to be funny.