Armando Shows (what's in his mind)

Working on the Channel 4 series ‘The Armando Iannucci Shows’ (2001) with the man himself was possibly the most challenging storyboarding assignment I have undertaken.

He filled the eight episodes with left-field associations, unsettling surprises and a sense of the absurd that captured the daft to the disturbing and all points between. 

The main wall in his office was a field of stick-it notes with one-line (or word) ideas that developed into a show aimed at wildly differing targets as production progressed.
A heady mix of CGI, set-build and costume/props was brought to bear to match his ambitions.

Due to the intensity of the production schedule I not only visited the office but also joined the crew on trips around London seeking likely locations, snatching time in the back of the minibus to go over new sequences with Armando. Producer Adam Tandy was also a great help along the way.

Here is but a small selection from a huge range across the series, and I won't sully them with any extra comment from my end.

Unusually, storyboards were included inside shooting scripts, I recall.