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Strong Message Here with Armando Iannucci - 5th June 2025

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Comedy writer Armando Iannucci decodes the utterly baffling world of political language.

Weird Turkish Barber Shops

5th June 2025

This week, Helen Lewis is away, so comedian and writer Stewart Lee joins Armando to look at Robert Jenrick’s flashy video in which he takes aim at ‘weird Turkish barber shops’, among other things. They discuss how the way politicians, entertainers and journalists are changing and overlapping, and Armando recalls the time he read politician’s jokes in a comedy club (spoiler alert, it was a disaster).

Hurty Words

25th September 2025

Stewart Lee returns to the show, to join Armando in discussing ‘hurty words’.

With Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension, and in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, free speech is in the spotlight again. Those who railed against ‘cancel culture’ are now getting into ‘consequence culture’. We also discuss how Marvel’s superheroes might respond to the actions of their new owners, and whether you can pray in your own homes in this country anymore (spoiler alert, you can).

The End of the Age of Terror and Death

16th October 2025

One one hand, the world is going to hell, on the other, the age of terror and death has ended, so which is it? Stewart Lee joins Armando to take a look at this maximal approach to political language.

How do you do moderate politics with caps lock on? What’s the smart way to diffuse complex arguments about politics? And given the details still to be worked out in the Isreal Gaza peace process, is this week’s Peace Summit Trump’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ moment?

Deep Disillusionment in This Country

30th October 2025

This week, Armando is joined again by Stewart Lee to look at how political actors use language.

Wes Streeting says there is a ‘deep disillusionment in this country’, and says there is a “growing sense of despair about whether anyone is capable of turning this country round”. Why is that? And does politicians speaking in that way confound our misery? We look at Sarah Pochin’s comments about black and asian people in adverts, and the responses across parliament to that. We also look at how much news is just speculation, and how politicians use speculation to further their arguments.

We also look at how we get our news – is it exhausting to have to keep fact checking things ourselves? Is it preferable to the alternative?

Armando shares his confusion at Immersive experiences, and Stewart invents a new word, and we hear about Starmer’s charm offensive.

Spooking the Markets

27th November 2025

It’s budget week, Armando is joined by two members of the Strong Message Here commune, Natalie Haynes and Stewart Lee. How do markets get ‘spooked’? Who has the broadest shoulders? And what does ‘a Labour Budget with Labour values’ actually mean? We discuss how taxes get their nicknames, why we know so much about the budget ahead of time these days, and whether Rachel Reeves could’ve taken inspiration from Taylor Swift to make the budget more exciting. In the longer edition, we also look at ‘the banter defence’, and decide a new name for ‘the markets’ that feels more apt for the way they behave.

Date: 5th June 2025. Filed Under: 2025, Armando Iannucci, Radio
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