Yes, Minister Series 1-3 DVD

There is a certain type of comedy that I’ll fall instantly in love with: sharp plots, witty lines, characters who feel real and a pinch of relevance will net me every time. Yes Minister is the perfect example of this. Though it was made in the eighties, and has a very distinct eighties feel, it’s the sort of comedy that will never go out of date. Probably.

Starring the great Paul Eddington and the utterly sublime Nigel Hawthorne as ...
...respectively, we are witness to the daily struggles of a Parliamentarian as he tries to get anything done when confronted by the overwhelming force that is the British civil service, and its conviction that nothing should ever change, as things work perfectly well the way they are.

The heart of the show is the conflict between these two characters. When Hacker is introduced, he is entering the Department of Administrative Affairs as ... more

There is a certain type of comedy that I’ll fall instantly in love with: sharp plots, witty lines, characters who feel real and a pinch of relevance will net me every time. Yes Minister is the perfect example of this. Though it was made in the eighties, and has a very distinct eighties feel, it’s the sort of comedy that will never go out of date. Probably.

Starring the great Paul Eddington and the utterly sublime Nigel Hawthorne as Jim Hacker MP and Sir Humphrey Appelby, his Permanent Secretary, respectively, we are witness to the daily struggles of a Parliamentarian as he tries to get anything done when confronted by the overwhelming force that is the British civil service, and its conviction that nothing should ever change, as things work perfectly well the way they are.

The heart of the show is the conflict between these two characters. When Hacker is introduced, he is entering the Department of Administrative Affairs as a well intentioned but somewhat naive Minister. Humphrey quickly takes advantage of this, using the Minister’s inexperience to stop his policies for improvement, which would only get in the way of the civil service running the country efficiently. But Hacker is no fool, quickly learning that Her Majesty’s Opposition are only the opposition in exile, and the real opposition is the civil service. He soon finds way of fighting against them, occasionally winning, and even more infrequently finding that if he wants to keep his job, he’s going to have to work with them.

One of the greatest delights is watching the development of Hacker’s character across the years, as he transforms from naively believing that Humphrey is there to help him, to being able to manipulate the civil service for his own ends. Eddington, as well as being a superb actor, is a master of comic timing, and the moments when Hacker slips into a Winston Churchill impersonation are highlights of every episode.

But Eddington is at his very best when playing against the brilliance that is Nigel Hawthorne. Sir Humphrey Appleby is one of the great British sitcom creations. The long convoluted sentences of civil service speak that Hawthorne reels off, not to mention the biting observations of the politics of Europe, are comic gems, not least of all due to the superb delivery, and the baffled reactions of Hacker. There is such fantastic chemistry between these two that it really is just a joy to watch them perform onscreen.

They are joined by Derek Fowlds as Bernard, Hacker’s Private Secretary, who can always be relied upon to point out the absurdity of a mixed metaphor. As a character, he bridges the gap between the other two, a civil servant and yet he often finds himself on Hacker’s side.

Though I do not believe there is a single episode that is less than thoroughly entertaining, for me the height of the show was reached at the end of the second series, culminating in my favourite moment. The episode is about a parliamentary committee investigation into waste in the government, and Hacker has decided to tell the truth, after colluding with Humphrey for most of the episode to try and cover up the situation. It’s a gamble and Humphrey is furious due to it placing the civil service in a bad light, and he succeeds in convincing Hacker that he’s going to lose his job when the Prime Minister finds out. In the final scene, Hacker receives a letter from the PM, and though we are convinced this will be his downfall, it’s the PM sending him a handwritten letter to invite him and his family to the country. The PM is delighted and Hacker’s reaction is tremendous and a fantastic payoff. He knew he was in the right, did the right thing and is so darned happy at the end, you want to leap into the screen and hug him. Ahem. Well, maybe that’s just me.

But all good comedy has a point, and whilst Yes Minister is commenting primarily on our system of government and its frequent absurdities, it touches upon other issues and weaves a careful line between comedy and drama. One of the most memorable moments of the series is in fact more dramatic than comedic. The penultimate episode of series three, The Whisky Priest, is perhaps even more relevant now than it was then, and concerns the sale of arms to terrorists, in this case Italian terrorists. One scene in particular is utterly compelling, where Humphrey appears to have no moral standards when he seems completely unmoved by the fact that terrorists are using weapons Britain has sold, and Hacker tells him, in a scarily cold voice, that he is going to hell. It is not a moment to laugh at. And though the comedy quickly returns, it certainly gives you pause to think about your own moral standards.

The episode also points out the difficulty of Humphrey’s, and by association, civil servants’ positions, in that it does not matter what they think of government policy, their job is to carry it out. Indeed, as the service remains the same no matter what party is in power, it would be quite impossible for a civil servant to believe in all the policy that he carries out, and perhaps Humphrey’s stance can be understood in that way, though this episode shows him at his most amoral and least sympathetic.

Part of the joy of Yes Minister is the sheer lack of political correctness, though this does, very infrequently, show the shows age. There is one particular joke concerning trade unions that anyone alive and paying attention to the world in the eighties would get, but unfortunately those of us who were mere toddlers realise why the moment is funny, but aren’t familiar enough with the trade union names to laugh. There is also a degree of, entirely appropriate, sexism in the series. The civil service, even more so at this time, is effectively run by white, male graduates from the Oxbridge universities, and the series constantly pokes fun at their insular attitudes and in one particular episode their attitude towards women. This story introduces us to the show’s only high-ranking female civil servant, well played by Eleanor Bron. The character is competent, levelheaded and bored by the monotonous work of the civil service, leaving to become a director of a company, and feels perfectly capable of making her own way in the world without the benefit of quotas or affirmative action policies. I admit to sympathising with her a great deal as her attitude reflects mine on these particular ideas, but regardless of the view taken by the character, the sharp way in which the issue is dealt with in a comedy is worthy of comment. It manages to raise the question and look at it in several different ways, but leaves the viewer to decide on their own answer of what is right.

Whilst there is no doubting the quality of the scripts nor the talent of the actors involved, a great deal of the comedy depends upon being vaguely aware of British politics and the way we see the government, and even the stereotypes we apply, hopefully in jest, though sometimes earnestly, to our European neighbours. Of course, the truly disturbing aspect of the show is that it is quite believable that this is precisely how our country is run.

Yes Minister ran for three series’, totalling twenty-two episodes, including the 1984 Christmas Special Party Games, where Hacker finally makes it to the illustrious office of Prime Minister. Each series has a single DVD, with the Christmas Special thrown in with series 3. The DVDs were released as a part of the BBC Classic Comedy series, and so the fact that they have nothing in the way of extras can perhaps be compensated for by the price. Each DVD generally costs around the ten pound mark, and for over three hours of stunningly good comedy, they’re well worth the money.

 

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