Glenn Cullen

Glenn Cullen is a special adviser at the Department of Social Affairs, a party veteran who's been round long enough to remember when politics meant something other than headlines. He's rumpled, put-upon, and permanently exasperated by the young thrusters and their focus groups, trying to hold onto some scrap of dignity while Malcolm Tucker treats him like furniture.

James Smith plays him as the show's weary conscience without ever making him noble about it — Glenn is petty, defeated, and often just as venal as everyone else, but he's the one character who seems to notice the absurdity swallowing him. The comedy comes from watching principle curdle into fatigue in real time.