9.12.2016

We used to watch this series when it first aired and enjoyed it immensely. Intelligent, pertinent, frighteningly accurate, and uproariously funny. When I saw that both “Yes Minister” and “Yes Prime Minster” were bundled in the same box set, I could not resist buying it, but I wondered if the material might feel dated 36 years later, or might not be as good as I remembered. Absolutely the opposite. Writers Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn have set the bar so high that no political satire written for TV ever since has been able to compare, or even come close.The series, which first aired in 1980 during the Thatcher years, and ran for five seasons, follows the government career of James Hacker, MP,newly appointed Minister to the political career “graveyard” Department of Administrative Affairs. Enthusiastic, fundamentally honest and well-meaning, he looks forward to finally being able to fix the endemically wasteful and bureaucracy-bound government machinery. He immediately clashes with his smooth but manipulative Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, whose agenda is invariably the opposite of what the Minister wants, and who very quickly shows him that Ministers are nothing more than temporary and replaceable figure-heads, while the real power resides within the civil service hierarchy.Hacker's Private Secretary Bernard Woolley is a charming fellow caught in the middle, always trying to balance his loyal duty to his current Minister with his permanent position within the departmental structure. The fact that he's prone to bungling, often speaks before thinking, and is addicted to mixed metaphors all add to the comedic value of his persona. Other supporting characters within the government are equally excellent, while Jim Hacker's wife plays a balancing role, often reminding him of his core ethical principles and thus heightening his conflicts of interest.It's amazing how well these vignettes have aged. The games of partisan politics and the intrigues of civil servant interference in the running of government have not changed a bit, if anything some of these storylines have proved prophetic. Ultimately, it's all about that impossible balancing act of doing the right thing, in the face of innumerable obstacles. Very often, the ethical choice threatens to unleash a Pandora's box of disastrous consequences, rendering the Minister putty in the hands of the diabolically clever Sir Humphrey, who most of the time succeeds in foiling Hacker's best efforts, closing each episode with a smug, “Yes Minister” (and later in the sequel “Yes Prime Minister”).Very occasionally, when Jim Hacker manages to turn the tables and we see Sir Humphrey in a rare panic, we cannot help cheering the underdog in his very short-lived triumph.The acting is absolutely brilliant. I especially love Nigel Hawthorne who was a past master at making each diverse character he played his own. His portrayal of Sir Humphrey Appleby, serpent-sleek, Machiavellian in his scheming, but ultimately fallible and occasionally vulnerable to defeat, is absolute classic. His part also required remarkable feats of mental agility for the exceedingly long and intricate soliloquies of which there was at least one per episode. Paul Eddington also delivers an unforgettable performance as the swayable, flip-flopping political animal who, despite his basically good intentions, seldom finds any solid backbone to carry through his plan. But when he does, we all cheer and delight in Sir Appleby's discomfiture. Derek Fowlds is delightfully meek and bendable, sailing serenely through the daily conflict of his position, and frequently getting into a muddle from which either Appleby or Hacker have to rescue him.There are hundreds of quotable lines that have become classics of ridiculous or sublime reasoning, but since we have just started watching from the beginning again, I particularly like this description of one of Hacker's university pals: “He's the sort of person who follows you into a revolving door and comes out first.”A first-rate and highly insightful social commentary on politics, government, expediency and the human psyche, reminding us of what even the most upstanding character is capable of when sufficient pressure is applied. I am happy to have bought the box set because it has infinite re-watchability and, even when we know the lines by heart, it's impossible not to laugh at the witty dialogue and the inevitable demise of the best laid schemes of mice and men. Highly recommended.

25.2.2011

The three excellent actors, Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds, in those two long running (several if not many years) mini series, are absolutely flabbergasting.The subject is simple. Jim Hacker, a Member of Parliament, becomes minister and later he will become prime minister. Banal. But what is less banal is the encounter of this newly appointment minister and later prime minister with the permanent secretary of his ministry first, Sir Humphrey, and cabinet secretary later when Jim Hacker moves to 10 Downing Street.Sir Humphrey, a knighted civil servant, is the most beautiful exemplar of the civil service functionaries: red tape, corporatism, elitism, systematic maneuvers and manipulations of ministers,prime ministers and other political officials to make them do what they, the civil servants, want them, the ministers and prime ministers, to do on any subject.And the subjects evoked in these numerous episodes of this political saga are quite evocative of corruption and aristocratism if not feudalism, and at the same time marvelously funny. It is true Bernard, the private secretary of Jim Hacker, a civil servant too but with a corrosive sense of black humor, is always there for a side remark that is superbly funny, like when the French President is trying to smuggle a dog into Great Britain in his diplomatic luggage, suitcase, briefcase or whatever. And Bernard to suggest a "doggy bag".At the same time this wit, this humor, this brilliant never ending linguistic, situational and existential irony, sarcasm or fun deals with fundamental problems.First of all the dictatorship of the civil service. The top civil servants are paid more than the ministers and prime ministers they serve and as such, as much as out of a feudal tradition, they are knighted and pretend to really manage the country in any way possible. This red tape defending privileges and rejecting the people into some kind of distant mist is a real problem in any democracy where politicians change but civil servants do not.Then education, real estate speculation, military expenditures and waste, foreign shady business if not plain behind the scene affairs, terrorism, the health service, the press and its passive or active manipulation or being manipulated in all directions possible, the blackmail of the ministers by the civil service or of the civil servants by the ministers, religion, universities, culture and so many other real concrete problems turned into a farce by the civil service and turned into a grotesque episode of political bravery by the politicians.This political satire and these caustic misrepresenting burlesque parodies of real life are a masterpiece in the field and is duly signed BBC. That kind of burlesque is no longer possible anywhere in the world with that finesse, that bright expertise and it is able to shame any other attempt from anywhere in the world because it is absolutely flippant and foolish but on subjects that are hefty and heavy and the moral of the story is not just fun but it is also ethics, ethical behavior and how it is possible to mend that frozen system into some thawing action.There is one limit and apparently only one: the queen and the crown and the royal family, royalty (but of course not royalties) and the monarchy are not supposed even to be evoked in any funny way. The rare mentions of the crown are always to remind us this crown is the standard by which ethics should be measured, the model for all politicians, the norm of all action.Of course the Queen is in no way present, even as a picture in these episodes, and her only appearances is a few times as a stamp on a letter, and no close-up view of it, of course not.Enjoy that marvelous buffoonery that is as light as air and as deep as the sea.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

16.8.2007

What to say? 'Yes Minister' and 'Yes Prime Minister' were Margaret Thatcher's favourite sitcoms, which should be evidence enough that they were in no way timely. Thatcher liked to think that she was battling against the establishment, but in fact she presided over a fatal politicising of the civil service. Her press secretary Bernard Ingham, ostensibly a Civil Servant, was in reality little more than her trained snapping Yorkshire poodle.No, the glory of these shows is not that they were true to the time in which they were broadcast. They were true about political customs in British government in an age that had come to an end shortly after Thatcher's election, but that isn't what's great about them.

22.9.2019

Ministers are transistory, often initially with no knowledge of the Department they have been assigned. Now entrusted with Administrative Affairs, Jim Hacker (who is not very bright) relies on his Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby to show him the ropes. All too soon he will discover Sir Humphrey exists solely to stifle any initiatives, the aim to keep everything gently ticking over until the next Minister comes along.What makes the show so funny (and somewhat disturbing) is that writers Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn know exactly what they are about - at their fingertips ample proof of how the Civil Service works, devastating examples of widespread disasters and inefficiency - all kept well hidden under a smokescreen of misinformation,

6.2.2016

One of the outstanding comedies on British Television in the 1980s was Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister.This handsome DVD set brings together all of the Yes Minister / prime minister series. It is a great set and well presented. There are subtitles for the hard of hearing too.When the first couple of series were screened in the 1980s I didn’t get to see it all the time but liked it and thought it was funny. Then a work colleague gave me the book Yes Minister for my Birthday and when I read it I was hooked and made every effort to see the rest of the series.Now, all these years later, it has been wonderful to see every episode together in this great DVD collection.Yes Minister follows the political career of one Jim Hacker,

9.8.2008

I've just finished watching all five series over the course of about a month. The tragedy of the 'Yes Prime Minister' episodes was that while Eddington and Hawthorne's acting just got better and better, the writing plateau-ed, and conceivably declined.Whole speeches get repeated -- e.g. "The Morning Star is for people who believe another country should run this country ..." -- but of course, these were written pre-video, so the writers' assumption must have been that, over an interval of nine years, people simply wouldn't notice the repetition. Tedious re-working of "need-to-know" convolutions crop up repeatedly, right to the final episode. But the jewel of the series -- the relationship between 'Humpy'

27.8.2009

Blackadder is pantomime, Only fools and horses is more like a soap - Yes Minister is Britain's greatest sitcom albeit a political one. You'll be hard pushed to find a more brilliantly written comedy than this. It focuses on the newly appointed Minister of Administrative Affairs and his department including the conniving permanent secretary played by the late Nigel Hawthorne.Firstly, the fact that this series focuses on government hypocrisies makes it timeless as it's probably more relevant now than it was then.Secondly, it doesn't rely on sexual innuendo or mindless visual gags. Instead it relies on intelligent conversation which does not under estimate the viewer. The series runs on dialogue,

28.8.2015

Most of us will have watched a few episodes of 'Yes Minister' or 'Yes Prime Minister' and probably enjoyed the sparkling satire and witty dialogue with no concessions to a 'dumbed down' audience. This collection gathers together the core material from both titles and a Christmas Special from 1984 in 38 episodes on five sets of DVDs.It had been years since I last saw any of them but now having missed most of the recent re-runs on the BBC I felt the need to see them all again. And there are not that many, and almost all lasting for only an all too brief half an hour, seven each in the first three series of 'Yes Minister' plus the one hour 1984 Christmas Special, and eight each in the two 'Yes Prime Minister'

1.3.2007

Yes Minister was a satirical British sitcom that was first transmitted by BBC television and radio between 1980 and 1984. The sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran from 1986 to 1988. Together, the two series comprise 38 episodes, all but one of which last half an hour.Set in the private office in Whitehall of a British government cabinet minister (and, in the second series, in 10 Downing Street), the series follows the ministerial career of James Hacker MP, played by Paul Eddington, and his various struggles to bring in legislation or departmental changes, opposed by the will of the British Civil Service, in particular his Permanent Secretary (senior civil servant), Sir Humphrey Appleby,

2.11.2010

Presumably if you're old enough to have seen this excellent series on television you won't be buying this box set for anything other than the programme itself - which is just as well as the box is a serious non-contender.The BBC can count themselves fortunate in having such a rich archive - leaving aside the bits that they have wiped or lost - of classic television comedy, because their idea of value-for-money packaging is seriously lacking.This is most ironic when you consider the BBC's news programmes which are the archetype of style over content, all flim-flam and fluster and precious little news.However, the Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister series'

8.12.2009

Johnathan Lynn & Sir Antony Jay wrote a great master piece that affectionately debunks the civil service and the political class.To say that this is sharp satire would be an understatement and it is good to be reminded of just what excellent actors the late Nigel Hawthorne & the dearly departed Paul Eddington really where.There is not the space in this review to do the writing and all the actors involved in this enterprise justice.There are many delicious twists & turns as things verge on being a comic parody of Machiavelli himself.The tongue twisting statements of Sir Humphrey and dear Bernard's nervous stammering a joy to behold as are Jim Hackers attempts to liken himself to Sir Winston

7.1.2007

The Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister series are some of the finest television ever to have come out of the BBC. Gently satirical comedy of the very highest order and, while some of the material might now be considered a little dated, this will remain a classic for decades to come. Armando Iannucci's too-clever-by-half The Thick of It attempts to cover similar territory from a 21st-century perspective and is nowhere near as successful (in this reviewer's opinion).What a shame, therefore, that this long-awaited complete boxset is such a feeble offering. Not only are there NO extras - and no literature - but this is just a new box around the original five series' DVDs and, for some unfathomable reason,

7.3.2010

As others have said, amazing how many present day issues are echoed in this series, and if it looks a little dated in places, and the humour is notably gentler than its modern counterpart, the equally wonderful The Thick Of It, the brilliance of the plotting more than makes up for it. Nigel Hawthorne's reciting of civil service gobbledegook sometimes looks like a party piece, included so that Paul Eddington can look baffled (and disturbingly, if you listen to the speeches a few times you realise they actually make sense) but on the whole this is a classic series that everyone should own. In particular, watch out for the way in which Hacker becomes Prime Minister.

7.1.2011

The 'Yes' series box-set comprises the wittiest and most intelligent British comedy ever broadcast. Probably the driest as well. Some have complained about the colour and sound, but there's nothing seriously wrong - it is an environment of dark woods and grey suits after all - and you really can't afford to wait to see this in supposedly ideal conditions.What makes it so wonderful is that so many years later, it is completely contemporary. We're in exactly the same situation now, with the same hot potatoes.You may find it refreshingly, or astonishingly, phallocentric; though make no mistake, when the minister is at home, there's no doubt over who really wears the trousers.

30.8.2019

I don't sit down and spend days & days watching 'YM' & 'YPM' ---- I catch the odd episode now and then just to remind me that ONCE there was a funny side to politics.I'm sure that one day a very clever writer and a very brave producer who will sponsor his work will come up with a magnificently funny series on BREXIT ---- until then I will dose myself with limited quantities of this absolutely classic politically incorrect subtle comedy feast of entertainment.English subtitles if you need them but Jim Hacker, Sir Humphrey and Bernard speak so beautifully you may not need them. By the way those characters play Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds in this 18 hour box set. Yes,

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