The Thick of It to satirise Ed Miliband's rise to power

Work on the script for a new series of the show started in March 2011, less than a year into the coalition party’s first term. The writers were not short of inspiration for the shape that the new series might take. Series producer Adam Tandy said that the new coalition government “provided us with the perfect opportunity to reboot.

“The fact that no one won power at the election was an opportunity we had to embrace whole-heartedly,” he said.

The inexperienced coalition party will set up an office in the department too. These Lib Dem equivalents will be referred to in the DoSAC office as “The Inbetweeners”.

The writers have given some clues as to the direction that this series will take. First, we are told that the last episode will feature "a Leveson-style enquiry". Also, one of the writers, Drew, has offered a tantalising prediction. "The coalition was always going to break down," he said.

When asked if the writers thought that making Murray leader of the party had affected the satirical impact of the series, Gray said: “Finding out that she’s leader is funny in itself. People who watched the last series will know how inept she is.”

Rebecca Front, the actress who plays the part of Murray, called her character “a woolly thinker” and said she was “already floundering” in her previous MP’s role.

How does she think Murray was raised asteroid-like through the ranks?

“What was mentioned in rehearsals was that there was probably – as there really is - a complex voting procedure. She was there as a dark horse candidate, and nobody actually seriously thought she would win but somehow she might take votes away from the person people didn’t want to win,” she said, then added, “It could happen I suppose.”

She also hinted that the comedy of the next series hangs on its relationship to real-life headlines.

“There have been so many The Thick of It moments in politics recently – the caravan tax, the pasty tax. The reason why the script is so close to reality is because Armando Iannucci and the writers are so well informed – and there’s an element of fluke too.”

When asked how they felt when reality mirrors ficiton, one of the writers replied: "Depressed."

Armando Iannucci, who co-wrote and directed the last three series, has neither written nor directed any of this series, though he has acted as "master overseer". The writers have all had their scripts edited by Iannucci - sometimes up to 20 times before it makes the cut.