It Began...

In 1980, the British political sitcom, Yes Minister aired for the first time on BBC2. James (Jim) Hacker's party had returned to power in Parliament and Jim, being a leading member of the party, was awaiting the call to join the Cabinet. It came, and he was appointed Minister for Administrative Affairs. At the Department he, and his political adviser Frank¹, meet Sir Humphrey Appleby, Permanent Secretary at the DAA² and Bernard Woolley, Principal Private Secretary to Jim Hacker.

The Things That Made It Special...

I don't make decisions, other people do that for me

During the series, it is often said that Jim is in politics and Sir Humphrey³ is in Government, and because of this the pair often clash. Both claim to want what is good for the country, Sir Humphrey being driven by partisan politics involving the Civil Service while Jim, though occasionally idealistic⁴, tending to want to do what is popular in the country. Although conflict is the norm between them, Jim and Sir Humphrey are not always at loggerheads, as sometimes it becomes necessary for them to band together against an outside force - such as another department, or a Select Committee investigation.

Usually though to achieve their respective goals, the two often double-cross and trick each other, using press leaks and visiting people who can help them without the other's knowledge. Bernard is the one caught in the middle, watching the two connive and plan, while making his own humourous asides.

Other appealing characteristics of the show are Jim's infrequent lapses into a Churchillian tone at inappropriate times⁵ and his apparent need to always be in the papers to bolster his belief in his existence.

Humpy's Verbal Gymnastics

Sir Humphrey often used to get around others that didn't agree with him by confusing them with frankly mind-boggoling sentences. For example, when someone mentions that they voiced an opposition to something Hacker bought up in the last Cabinet meeting, but it does not appear in the minutes, Sir Humphrey said -

It is characteristic of all committee discussions and decisions that every member has a vivid recollection of them, and that every member's recollection of them differs violently from every other member's recollection; consequently we accept the convention that the official decisions are those and only those which have been officially recorded in the minutes by the officials; from which it emerges with elegant inevitability, that any decision which has been officially reached would have been officially recorded in the minutes by the officials, and any decisions which is not recorded in the minutes by the officials has not been officially reached, even if one or more members believe they can recollect it; so in this particular case, if the decision would have been officially reached, it would have been recorded in the minutes by the officials and it isn't so it wasn't.⁶

"Yes Minister"

Every episode ended with the line "Yes Minister⁷" in response to something said by Jim. The only episode where it didn't was A Diplomatic Incident, where Sir Humphrey responded with "Mais Oui Prime Minister" because Jim had just done a deal over the Eurotunnel with the French President.

Yes, Prime Minister

Nearly two years after the third series of "Yes Minister" ended in 1982, a one-hour Christmas Special was broadcast on BBC2, in which Jim Hacker came to Number Ten⁸ on a wave of popular support after saving the British sausage from beaurucrats in Brussels and Sir Humphrey became Cabinet Secretary⁹. The Christmas special spawned a new series, Yes Prime Minister, which ran for two series, before ending in 1986.

A Typical Episode

The best way to describe Yes Minister and all the complex trickery/ideas that are in the series is to outline one of the episodes. So here goes. This is the basic plot of The Quality of Life from series 2 of Yes Minister -

The episode starts with Sir Desmond Glazebrook, a city banker, discussing his proposed new skyscraper with Sir Humphrey. Glazebrook wishes to add an extra 6 stories to the building, but Hacker is opposed to the plan. Glazebrook reminds Humphrey that if they can't build those extra stories, where will Humphrey's offices be when he joins the board of directors at the bank? A Portakabin in the car park!? Humphrey understands this, but says that in order to change the Minister's mind about the plan, he must first agree with him totally.

A meeting is held in Hacker's office between Glazebrook, the architect of the building, Humphrey, Bernard and Hacker. Hacker states that he will block the bank's plans, Humphrey points out that there is a vacant site, perfect for the new skyscraper, only 400 yards away. "It would be hard for the director's to walk there for lunch... and impossible to walk back afterwards" says Glazebrooks. Besides which, it is scheduled for Phase 3. The meeting ends with Hacker reitarating that he will block any plans for the new building, but they can submit the application if they wish. Then he heads off to a city farm for a photo oppurtunity, but not before signing an Administrative Order to utilise unused local authority land, little realising in the rush to get going what it is.

At the city farm Hacker is tricked by the manager of the farm into stating on television that he will save the farm from imminent closure. Meanwhile, Humphrey is handing the executive order just signed by Hacker over to the Treasury Secretary, meaning that the Treasury can use the land where the city farm is for Inland Revenue car parking.

Back in Jim's office, the story over tax inspector's parking has leaked to the press¹⁰ and the manager of the farm bursts in and calls him a Judas. "My husband is features editor of the Express and by tommorrow morning your name will be manure," she says and storms out. Horrified at the thought he could be out of office very quickly, he is saved by Glazebrook coming in and announcing that if was allowed to add an extra 9 stories to the building as opposed to 6, the Phase Three site would be left vacant and the city farm could be moved there. Unknown to Jim it is Humphrey that has been colluding with Glazebrook to come up with this plan. Naturally Hacker jumps at the chance to save his image and all is well again, isn't it? "Yes, Minister".

The Cast and Crew

The Actors

• Paul Eddington (James Hacker): Born in London on 18th June 1927, Eddington was mainly a stage actor until he achieved success on TV as Jerry Leadbetter in 'The Good Life'. Yes Minister bought him TV stardom and international recognition¹¹ as Cabinet Minister James (Jim) Hacker. It was for this he recieved a CBE¹² from Margaret Thatcher. After the series ended he went back to the theatre and continued to appear on TV as well until he died in 1995 from skin cancer.
• Nigel Hawthorne (Sir Humphrey Appleby): Born in Coventry on 5th April 1929, Hawthorne had been a very successful theatrical actor before Yes Minister throughout the two decades preceding the series. However, Yes Minister brought him to prominence and he won BAFTAs, Tonys and Oscars for later performances, including The Madness of King George, originally a stage production¹³ starring Hawthorne, then a film, for which he won the Olivier Award in 1992 for the theatrical version and an Oscar nomination in 1994. Like Eddington, he was made a CBE for Yes Minister and then a knight in 1999. He died of a heart attack Boxing Day 2001 after suffering from cancer for 18 months.
• Derek Fowlds (Bernard Wooley): Born 2nd September 1937, Fowlds had previously been seen in many TV, film and stage productions, probably most noticeably as Mr Derek, the human sidekick to children television favourite Basil Brush. His latest main role is in Heartbeat as Sgt Blaketon.

The Writers

• Antony Jay: Jay meet Lynn (the other writer of the series) whilst working in John Cleese's video production company and as well as the award winning Yes Minister, he has writen a number of bestselling books including Management and Machiavelli (1967) and The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations (1996) in addition to those based on Yes Minister co-written by Lynn. He has also produced documentaries and business training films.
• Jonathan Lynn: In the mid-'60s Lynn joined the Cambridge Circus satirical revue and appeared as a comic actor on-stage in London and New York. He had occasional roles on British television before progressing onto directing theatre in London's West End, for the Royal Shakespeare Company and occasionally on Broadway. He started writing in 1974, when he produced his first screenplay, The Internecine Project. Then, in 1985, whilst Yes Prime Minister was still showing, he directed the film Clue based on the game Cluedo. It's all star cast reached a memorable finale in one of three separate endings producing different deductions. After Yes Prime Minister ended in 1987, Lynn directed many Hollywood films including My Cousin Vinnie (1994), Sgt Bilko (1996) and The Whole Nine Yards (2000).

Thatcher

Its closely observed portrayal of what goes on in the corridors of power has given me hours of pure joy.
Margaret Thatcher, PM of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1979-1990

Thatcher liked the series so much that, on 20th January 1984, a 4-minute sketch was aired during the National Viewers and Listeners Awards featuring herself, as the PM, Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey. Seriously, here is the Thatcher Script

After it ended...

After the final series of Yes Prime Minister was screened in 1987, a book was released which covered the plot of all the episodes, written in the style of Sir Bernard Wooley upon his retirement as Head of the Civil Service. It included diary entries from Sir Humphrey and Hacker, as well as government papers released under the 30 year rule, what happened to Hackers proposed "Freedom of Information Bill" and cartoons and press cuttings from all the major papers.

Misc

• The Party Hacker is part of is never named.
• The DAA is completely ficticious and was probably chosen so that the writers could cover the broadest possible number of comic situations. One week it would be industry, the next hospitals.
• In 2001 an Indian version of Yes Minister was launched, called Ji Mantriji. Certain references were changed (ie, Russia was changed to Pakistan, cricket to football) but it was still a satire on bureaucracy. Click here the the BBCi News Story on Ji Mantriji