So I know this is an old post and there's not much point in me replying to it but that's never stopped me before, so...
I think to understand Malcolm's mindset in the inquiry and afterwards, one needs to take into account not just his testimony, but the testimonies of everyone who came before the inquiry. Malcolm is accused of being a bully by most of the others (though some like Ollie try to lessen the nature of it due to their egos/pride), and in Malcolm's first (I think) appearance at the inquiry, he brushes off these claims by trying to paint himself as a kind of victim, saying that people have cast him as a "boogeyman". However, more accusations of Malcolm being a bully are presented even after this. Nicola also makes the implicit accusation that Malcolm is responsible for the sudden wave of political leaking that results in one of the members of the inquiry board disappearing for a short amount of time. And since this occurs just after the whole photo incident, it's fair to say that Malcolm is responsible for it, at least in part.
If you take each of Malcolm's appearances at the inquiry, in the first he's absolutely the Malcolm Tucker we all know and love: intelligent, just the right amount of charming, able to deflect and twist questions he doesn't particularly want to answer. He's prepped for this inquiry and it's clear he knows exactly how he's going to handle it. As Fergus points out afterwards, the inquiry itself is being spun by him. His mistake is letting the ease of it go to his head and drawing attention to the photo that ends up incriminating him. His cockiness is still present at the second appearance right up until the moment he's presented with the enlarged photo showing Tickel's NHS number and other details. That's when he realises he's screwed up and because he's in such a public setting (those are all journalists sitting behind him), there's nowhere for him to hide. Malcolm likes to operate behind closed doors and in that instant, he's completely exposed and it clearly throws him. His answers afterwards aren't slick and pre-planned, they're stunted and faltering and you can almost see him internally panicking and screaming every inventive curse he can think of. He actually commits a very obvious case of perjury in this second appearance by claiming that he didn't recall having this private information when the enlarged photo is clearly proving otherwise. Plenty of others commit perjury (Terri, Glenn, Peter), but proof of Malcolm's is displayed on a TV screen in front of a room full of journalists.
He's told the committee that newspapers are out to get him, so he could easily claim that he never had the info and hence the photograph must have been doctored, even if he had no evidence (it would then be up to the paper itself to prove the enhancement was genuine).
I could be wrong about this, but isn't the implication that the committee commissioned the enlargement of the photo? It would certainly make sense; Malcolm's told them about how he staged that particular photo, the committee are presented with the original photo (one of the board members says "they've enlarged the photo for us"). If that's the case, Malcolm would just be digging himself into a bigger hole by trying to claim that that picture had been doctored, plus it would negate the boast he made about staging the picture in the first place which I'm sure he wouldn't do on account of pride.
His third appearance at the inquiry is Malcolm now pretty much at rock-bottom. He knows he's been painted as a bully and an arch-manipulator by pretty much everyone else (I think the only person who was maligned as much was Terri), and that his reaction to the photo at the last appearance was very much a beginning of the end. The nice-guy facade has disappeared and now everyone is shown the real Malcolm Tucker: he is defensive, snarky, cynical and unapologetic for everything he's done. His answer of "I don't remember" to all the questions concerning the photo is essentially meaningless. He knows the inquiry and the journalists and the public have already made up their minds about him. That last monologue he has about "you can't cuff a country so you come after me" is him lashing out at a society he has helped to shape and which has now turned on him. He's a spin doctor, he knows how fickle the general public are and how to twist the media to suit your own agenda. In one of the Season 1 episodes, he talks about a "good resignation" (ie leaving before people have time to get sick of you). Deep down, I think that's what he wanted to do for himself, and operating mainly behind the scenes afforded him to stay on longer than most. His being thrust into the spotlight at the inquiry and then having all kinds of (accurate) things said about him ruined that chance. In the end, I think that monologue is as much of an eye-opener to Malcolm as it is to everyone else; that's the moment he realises that this is a world that can and will turn on anyone without the slightest bit of thought and even he isn't immune to it. By the end, I think he's just shattered by it all and ready to end it. The "I'm finished anyway" is a last little bit of defiance and a hint of his plans in the last episode to turn himself in quietly and preserve what dignity he has left.
Someday I'm gonna make a movie then laugh watching people over-analyse it
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