The political satire is not directed at the US president or any specific leader, though. It extends the world view that Iannucci has applied to British and American political manoeuvres in In the Loop, a black comedy about stumbling toward war, and the series Veep, one of the most poisonously truthful satires ever made. He confirms your worst fears about what politicians say and do behind the scenes, and cloaks the bad news in hilarious, sharp comedy.

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The Death of Stalin, set in the Soviet Union in 1953, is endlessly funny, but more absurdist than those earlier works. The story spins off from real events. When Josef Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses, guards are so fearful of entering his room that he is left on the floor in a puddle of urine for hours. In the aftermath of his death, his closest ministers, who once trembled at his every glance, begin their scramble for power. As they do, Iannucci masterfully blends dark humour about an authoritarian regime and farcical comedy performed with perfect timing.

Life under the dictator is captured at the start when Stalin hears a radio broadcast of a musical concert and calls the station to demand a recording of it. But the concert hasn’t been recorded, which sends the already-nervous producer (Paddy Considine) into a panic.

Pulling people off the street to sit through a second concert, to be recorded only for Stalin, he blithely assures them, “Don’t worry, nobody’s going to get killed.” Under the circumstances, that’s a reassurance they need. To see how Iannucci mixes the terrifying and the ludicrous, just look at one of the confused newcomers: a peasant carrying a live chicken into the concert hall.