REVIEWS A COMEDY OF TERRORS

GLASGOW-BORN writerdirector Armando Iannucci continues to make hay from the grubby business of politics in The Death Of Stalin. Set in 1953 Moscow, this delicious, razor-sharp satire builds on the giddy success of TV sitcoms The Thick Of It and Veep, and the Oscar-nominated 2009 film In The Loop, which brilliantly lampooned US and UK military intervention in the Middle East.

The script, co-written by David Schneider and Ian Martin, is polished to a dazzling lustre.

“I have a bad back,” moans one member of Stalin’s inner circle.

“Too much social climbing,” sneers a rival.

The vast arsenal of one-liners is delivered at a delirious and frenetic pace by a well-drilled

ensemble cast. Wisely, no one attempts a cod-Soviet accent, which could be a distraction from the high-tempo verbal ping pong.

Instead, we have a bewildering melting pot of English and American voices that reflect the escalating pandemonium following Stalin’s inglorious demise.

Bizarrely, Jason Isaacs chooses a Yorkshire burr, as thick and satisfying as freshly poured treacle, for his foul-mouthed and bullish Red Army general, who prefers to make his point with the pull of a trigger. Ee bah gumboots, it’s grim out east.

Moscow is a city under the yoke of tyrannical General Secretary Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin), who mercilessly executes dissenters in the ranks. When his meddling creates unnecessary panic at a live radio recording of a piano concerto, virtuoso soloist Maria Yudina (Olga Kurylenko) voices her displeasure in a letter. When the General Secretary reads her swingeing missive, he collapses and dies.

The following morning, chief of security Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale) is first on the grim scene and gathers classified documents that could prove