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The air turned blue in the normally refined atmosphere of the Glasgow Film Theatre this week.

Not thanks to the copious amounts of alcohol offered to guests in the auditorium at the start of the Glasgow Film Festival - but thanks to the much anticipated UK premiere of In the Loop.

Based on the cult TV series The Thick of It - it reunites many of the original cast and crew, only this time the action moves from Whitehall to Washington, where Tom Hollander's bumbling government minister becomes a patsy for both pro- and anti-war politicians.

Of course, there's one familar character to keep him in check - Peter Capaldi's wonderfully machiavellian spin doctor Malcolm Tucker, who inspired the title (he didn't need to be kept in the loop, he said, he WAS the BEEPING loop).

Malcolm, as his fans know, likes to use an expletive or two, hence the reason the film's director, Armando Iannucci had to apologise in advance to Peter's elderly mum, and the elder matriarch of his own family.

No apologies needed for the film, though, which translates brilliantly onto the big screen with its original British cast, firmly supported by a strong American cast, among them Mimi Kennedy and James Gandolfini.

Afterwards, the audience stayed in their seats for a Q+A session with the film's writers, director, cast and producers.

And Peter Capaldi admitted playing Malcolm is an occupational hazard.

"I stand in my kitchen ranting through my lines, it's a bit like being on a Christian Bale set, which is difficult because I have a teenage daughter and I can hardly turn round and tell her not to swear now," he says.

Chris Addison, who played Ollie in the original series and plays a similarly opportunist policy adviser called Toby in this version, says the title became even more apt as he circled Washington in a motorcade for a scene in the film.

"They were genuinely Dick Cheney's outriders," he explained.

"Apparently Cheney famously used it to go absolutely everywhere, even if he just wanted something from the shops.

"So there we were circling the White House in his motorcade and hanging out the windows, doing the scene over and over again, and everyone in Washington probably thought, what on earth is Dick Cheney up to now?"

For Armando Iannucci the premiere was something of a homecoming. He went to St Aloysius school, a block from the cinema.

"I remember missing double maths to come here to see Felicity Kendal," he recalls, "it was a big part of my school life and it's lovely to be back here particularly having the whole family along."

And the most surprising thing about American politics?

"Everyone is so young. We joke about it in the film but it's absolutely true.

"Do you know they sent a 22-year-old to Iraq to rewrite the constitution? That's quite a frightening thought and I'd never seen that portrayed in film before."

In the Loop is in cinemas from April 17th.