imagine... profiles the stellar career of one of the great satirists of our age, Armando Iannucci

​What kind of conditions are needed for satire to flourish?

Well, there has to be something bonkers going on, or someone behaving in such an outlandish manner that they’re ripe for ridicule.

In the 1960s, Britain was at the forefront of a satire boom, with the Beyond the Fringe quartet (Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett) credited with getting it going; the baton was then picked up by the likes of David Frost, Johns Bird and Fortune, and those working for Private Eye magazine.

Then, 30 years later, Armando Iannucci picked up the baton, leading a new wave of comedy that poked fun at established norms, from politics to the media industry.

Born in 1963 in Glasgow to a father from Naples and a mother with Italian heritage, Iannucci ditched his initial calling to become a priest to study English literature at the University of Glasgow and University College, Oxford. It was while writing a doctorate on 17th-century religious language that he realised what he really wanted to do was make people laugh, inspired by Woody Allen, the man he once described as his “all-time comedy hero”.

In 1992, Iannucci enjoyed his first big success with On the Hour, a Radio 4 series he co-wrote with, among others, Chris Morris, which parodied current affairs shows; it also featured the first appearance of Steve Coogan as the then-sports presenter Alan Partridge. The TV version, The Day Today, followed and became a cult hit; almost everything Iannucci has touched since then seems to have turned to gold.

Last year, his accomplishments were recognised with a CBE, with the man himself stating: “I’m proud to work in the British TV and film industry. It’s the best in the world, yet weirdly I’ve been spending more and more of my energy defending our public service television from attacks on its independence and funding. I’ll take this award as a cue to keep going.”

He added it had been a “huge surprise” and was “delighted”, saying: “But as with all awards, you know, I’m very happy to receive them, but I feel that they shouldn’t affect what you do next”.

What he did next was work on a stage adaptation of Dr Strangelove, with Coogan playing the roles taken by Peter Sellers in Stanley Kubrick’s classic film. “In these sad times, what better way to cheer the nation up than a stage show about the end of the world?” asks Iannucci.

He took time out of rehearsals to speak to Alan Yentob about his work, and the result of their chat forms the basis of a fascinating documentary for the long-running Imagine strand.

Throughout there are clips from Iannucci’s other works, including The Thick of It, Veep, The Death of Stalin and The Personal History of David Copperfield, as well as testimony from those who’ve worked with him, such as Morris, Coogan, Peter Capaldi, Michael Palin and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Like Iannucci’s projects, it’s an insightful show. It doesn’t, however, mark the end of an era – you get the feeling there’s so much going on around the world, there’s plenty for the satirist to get his teeth into for years to come.