This Unbelievable Story From The Death Of Stalin Is Actually True

17 October 2017, 16:28

In fact, real life events were toned down to make them more believable for the big screen.

The Death of Stalin is a recently released feature film directed by Armando Iannucci, creator of The Thick of It, Veep and Alan Partridge.

James O'Brien spoke to the satirist about his latest release and how recent political events were beginning to resemble satire themselves.

Iannucci said that a lot of the script was based in reality "but some of the events were so absurd that [he] thought if they were included no one would believe them."

"It opens with a concert, Mozart's piano concerto and it's playing out live on Radio Moscow. Towards the end the guy in charge of Radio Moscow gets a call from Stalin and he says 'I'm enjoying the concert, I'd love a recording, I'll send someone round to pick it up.'

"He puts the phone down, turns to the engineer and says 'are we recording this?' 'No, it's going out live.'

"He calls everyone back in, they think they're under arrest. 'We're going to do it again, we're going to do it again for Stalin.'

"At which point the conductor collapses in fear and knocks himself unconscious. They then have to scour Moscow for another conductor.

"In reality the conductor they brought in was drunk, number two, was drunk, so they had to get a third conductor in.

"But I kept that out because I thought no one would believe it."

Watch the full clip above.