Great Glaswegians: How a Glasgow-boy became the greatest satirist of his generation

Armando Iannucci was born in Glasgow on 28 November 1963 to a Neapolitan father and second-generation Italian immigrant mother.

His father was a committed anti-fascist, writing for newspapers and joining the Italian partisans at a young age. In 1950, his father moved to Glasgow and ran a pizza factory in Springburn.

Born and growing up on Byres Road, Iannucci was educated in the city first at St Peter's Primary School and then St. Aloysius' College before heading to the University of Glasgow and then left the city to study English Literature at University College, Oxford.

He earned his first break in radio at BBC Radio Scotland, producing shows such as No' The Archie McPherson Show. After a run of programmes at BBC Radio 1, he would come to national attention with On The Hour - a BBC Radio 4 satirical news show poking fun at current affairs broadcasting.

On The Hour was the continuation of collaborations between comedians like Steve Coogan and Rebecca Front - who would go onto become mainstays of Iannucci’s television output in the following years and play main roles in some of his best loved shows.

The radio show would transition to TV as The Day Today. This would highlight Iannucci as one of the country’s leading satirists and set him on a trajectory of consistent hit programmes. It helped bring to the fore Chris Morris, Coogan, Richard Herring and Stewart Lee - who would all go on to produce groundbreaking shows of their own.

Iannucci followed The Day Today up with I’m Alan Partridge - which he created and produced alongside Coogan and Peter Baynham. This would become one of his most iconic creations. The two seasons of the show produced in 1997 and 2002 would become landmark moments in British television.

With the end of I’m Alan Partridge in 2002, Iannucci would return to satire with The Thick of It. Starring fellow Glaswegian Peter Capaldi, The Thick of It took aim at the machina of British politics and its often calamitous and unsavoury nature. Running between 2005 and 2012, the show would go on to influence not just TV, but politics - with many of the terms, and occasionally policies, seeping into the House of Commons.

After creating one of the all-time great TV shows about British politics, it was no surprise when there was a clamour for the show to be transposed to US politics. Iannucci created VEEP - this time focussing on the often calamitous and unsavoury nature of US politics. Running for seven seasons, the show garnered critical acclaim and a slew of awards.

Alongside his TV output, films such as In The Loop and The Death of Stalin cemented Iannucci’s legacy as one of the nation’s greatest ever satirists.