Shropshire writer Jesse Armstrong is hoping to pick up an Oscar next month. He spoke to Andy Richardson.

Armando Iannucci (right), with Jesse Armstrong (second right), Simon Blackwell (second left) and Tony Roche with the Best Screenplay award for In The Loop, at the Evening Standard Film Awards at The London Film Museum in County Hall, London. Picture: PA

On March 7, some of the most powerful figures from the world of entertainment will gather at the Kodak Theatre, at the Hollywood & Highland Centre, Los Angeles, for the 82nd annual Academy Awards.

Actor Alec Baldwin and comedian Steve Martin will host the evening and reveal whether James Cameron’s 3D blockbuster Avatar or war movie The Hurt Locker will be the night’s big winner.

There will be plenty of British interest, with nominees including Colin Firth, Dame Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan, writer Nick Hornby and Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park. And, for the first time Shropshire could have a winner: Oswestry writer Jesse Armstrong has been nominated alongside colleagues Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche for best adapted screenplay. Their film, In The Loop, based on the hit BBC comedy show The Thick Of It, will be up against District 9, An Education, Up In The Air, and Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.

In truth, those who have followed the arc of Armstrong’s career are unsurprised by his elevation to the entertainment industry’s red carpet. The former Oswestry man, who graduated from Manchester University before pursuing his comedy writing career in London, has become increasingly successful during the past 10 years.

Funniest

Alongside co-writer Sam Bain, he has been responsible for some of the funniest, most cutting-edge comedy to grace our TV screens, including Channel 4’s ultra-successful Peep Show, which won a BAFTA in 2008 for Best Situation Comedy.

Armstrong also worked on the BBC Radio 4 sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Sound and the BBC Two sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look. He was part of the writing team on the 2007 British comedy film Magicians, which was made by Universal Pictures and starred Robert Webb and David Mitchell.

In The Loop, however, has elevated Armstrong’s career to a new level. On Monday he was among the the guests at the London Evening Standard British Film Awards. Armstrong and his colleagues won Best Screenplay. And, in March, he could crown his career with an Oscar.

In The Loop satirises Anglo-American politics and was released in April last year. It centred on the relationship between the President of the USA and the Prime Minister of the UK, who were looking to launch a war in the Middle East, and starred Tom Hallander, Mimi Kennedy, James Gandolfini, Chris Addison, Peter Capaldi and Anna Chlumsky.

During the filming of In The Loop, Armstrong and his fellow writers were on the set each day, offering the cast extra lines and adapting scenes off the cuff. Armstrong was thrilled that the film received such a good response and was particularly pleased that it was a hit in America.

He said: “I personally felt scared about writing for an American audience. One of the things about the TV show [is that] it feels quite real and insider-y, and I was worried that it’d be difficult to catch that with American characters.”

The process of writing was completely different to his work on previous programmes, such as Peep Show.

“Oh yeah, on Peep Show, me and Sam were the boss of each other and we’d collaborate fully and we’d iron out the little differences between us. But for The Thick Of It, Armando deals with everything so everything goes through him.

“We have a lot of autonomy to write whatever we want and we can push angles for characters and stuff, but he’s the intelligence which makes characters coherent. So it’s much different; it’s quite nice in a way to give up a bit of responsibility, to just go, ‘here’s my best shot, good luck’.”

Armstrong’s background in politics helped him to write convincingly for The Thick Of It and In The Loop. He had worked for a Labour MP, prior to the party’s election in 1997. When Labour won, Armstrong became a full-time writer.

He adds: “It was a long time ago before they were in Government and I was quite crap. I was more of an Olly than a Malcolm Tucker. I had no access to anything like Jack Straw or anything. Mainly what I remember feeling is feeling a little bit inadequate and of pretending.

“You’ve got your shirt and tie on and you’re walking five paces behind this guy who wants to help run the country and you have that feeling I think you get in all jobs . . . ‘Am I going to get found out? I can’t really do this’.

“I think me and all the writers had a very strong sense of the humanity of the characters and these people are portrayed as being back-biting, but you should be able to empathise with them because they’re not a million miles from what you would do in the same situation, especially if you’re an Olly.”

Pinnacle

It’s taken Armstrong a long time to reach the pinnacle with In The Loop. For many years, he worked as a jobbing joke-writer, between taking on bigger projects. He’s also had his fair share of flops, including Days Like These, which was supposed to be screened on ITV for 13 episodes but was pulled after seven.

Between writing their own scripts, Armstrong and Bains used to write gags and links for other shows.

In 2001, they wrote Michael Parkinson’s script for his TV Moments of the Year.

Armstrong says: “We found that it was difficult to make a satisfying comic link between Dinosaur Island With Bill Oddie and the collapse of the Twin Towers.”

He has plenty to look forward to, including the forthcoming awards season. He’s been working with a feature film with Chris Morris, the creator of Brass Eye.

“I’ve been working on a film of his which was originally called Four Lions, which is about terrorism. Me and Sam did the original draft. It’s really exciting to be working with Chris.”

An Oscar on March 7 would be his crowning glory.