He is a man used to a room full of laughter when his work is shown so when Armando Iannucci's film In the Loop is screened in Glasgow on May 14, the audience will be in for a chuckle.

The Scottish director has an impressive repertoire as the mastermind behind TV series The Thick of It and its spin-off film In the Loop, the co-creator of Alan Partridge and writer of American show Veep.

The screening will be accompanied by a pre-recorded Q&A with the Iannucci at the Drygate Brewery as part of the new Restless Natives multi-disciplinary arts festival in the east end of Glasgow.

You are from Glasgow and your film, In the Loop, is screening at a new festival in the city. How often do you get back to Scotland?

Probably about three times a year. I've still got family there, my mum's still up in Glasgow. My brothers are there and friends from school.

Do you think independent arts festivals like the Restless Natives are important?

Absolutely, and also I like the way it's getting out of the centre and using space elsewhere and taking it to a different part of the city, I think that's great.

I think people are so used to just watching stuff and used to screens all the time that I think they have an appetite to see stuff for real, to get out and actually share the experience with lots of other people. Having said that, I'm on screen for this one because I couldn't be there.

Where does the inspiration for your characters come from?

I research. For something like In the Loop, I actually not only went around Whitehall but we went around Washington and we went to the Pentagon and to the State Department. Then you gradually meet people who start forming a kind of composite of a certain type and that then informs what that character is going to be like.

I ask some very dull things like, what time do you get in in the morning, what time do you go home, what are your interests, what are the people like that you work with? Because that way you get a sense of what their daily lives are like, they become a bit more three-dimensional.

In the Loop sees some actors from The Thick of It return to the screen but cast as new characters, why did you decide to do that?

It was just because I liked them as a company of actors rather than their characters. Also, in The Thick of It, the department they are all in is social affairs and that is a very domestic department and In the Loop was an international story so I thought it needed a new minister, an international minister and therefore we would see some of the faces pulled from The Thick of It. It's a parallel universe.

Would you ever do a Scottish Parliament version of The Thick of It?

I don't think so because I think I'm the last person to comment on Scottish politics as I'm just not there and around long enough to get the full picture but if someone else wants to have a go then go for it.

Did you always want to be a director?

I always wanted to go into comedy and I always enjoyed writing comedy. I didn't think when I started out that the thing I would most enjoy would be directing, but it is.

I enjoy being able to fashion something, being able to come up with a story to then flesh it out with the actors and realise that world as you film it and then craft the story again in the edit. It's a very satisfying process to be involved in from beginning to end.

Who do you enjoy collaborating with the most?

Through doing The Thick of It, I have built up a relationship with about a dozen writers who I now like to work with on individual projects. That has been a great benefit to me really, the fact that there is a team of us.

I'm also trying to develop stuff with younger writers as well because I think it's always good to keep that process moving.

Do you think Malcolm Tucker will ever make a return?

I have absolutely no idea. There are no plans and obviously the actor is busy engaged in another role but who knows. I mean, nobody's died but I think we all felt at the time it was a good time to put it to bed and not do any more.

Peter Capaldi stars in The Thick of It and In the Loop, is it hard for you to picture Malcolm Tucker as Doctor Who?

Not any more, I mean to start with, yes, it was but funnily enough I kind of always imagined him as Doctor Who.

When David Tennant stood down I had a thought he might be asked and then when Matt Smith stood down it sort of came as no surprise when it was Peter.

I've sort of forgotten it now, now that I watch him as the Doctor, I think of him as the Doctor, I don't think of him as the guy who used to be Malcolm.

What is your favourite Alan Partridge moment?

I think the fireplace awards when he's trodden on a spike so his foot is bleeding and he's quite drugged up and suffering from lots of blood loss while presenting the fireplace awards, that always makes me laugh.

You fired yourself from Veep after four seasons - are you missing American politics?

I don't envy them now because American politics is so crazy that to try to top it is going to be quite hard, really. So, I sort of felt I got out just in time.

Do you have no regrets about missing out on this year's election campaign?

No, I'm beginning to take politics more seriously rather than as a source of comedy. I'm getting increasingly worried as to what's happening in politics at the moment really.

You are working on a new screenplay, The Death of Stalin - what can we expect from it?

Well, the clue is in the title. It's based on true events - it's really a country, an empire, the Soviet Union that has lived under more than 20 years of terror from Stalin.

You know if you had said the wrong thing or if you knew the wrong person you would have been taken away and shot.

What happens when the person in charge of that terror dies? Does the terror still get you?

A nation under terror is quite a relevant topic now so I just thought it would be interesting to look at how terror is generated.

Do you think you will ever move away from comedy?

Well I don't know, I mean there are bits of The Death of Stalin that are quite serious and terrifying so that is going to be interesting.

Actually, not looking for the joke but playing it for real, so that is going to be an interesting exercise, I think.

The thing is there's also a kind of comedy about it and I think that's where my instincts are really.

What else do you have planned?

I'm talking to HBO about doing something new which is sort of in the early stages. I've written a comedy with one of the Veep writers, a movie script about artificial intelligence which hopefully we'll be making pretty soon.