This is series two of a classic piece of BBC comedy starring Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds.
The premise of all the "Yes, Minister" series is a view of the functioning of Whitehall from the point of view of the Right Honorable Jim Hacker, Minister for the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs.
A particular device used in his comedy are the dialogues between the Head of the Civil Service for the department, Sir Humphrey Appleby and Jim Hacker, which act as a hilarious expose of the functioning of the Civil Service and their opposition to their Ministers policies.
The episodes on these DVDs are:
- The Compassionate Society: A hospital has been open for over a year, and has no patients because it has no healthcare staff - but it is fully staffed with administrators! A very funny episode exposing the attitudes of the Civil Service to their administratove brethren... Score: 10/10
- Doing The Honours: Jim Hacker tries to convince the Civil Service to make budget cuts by threatening to withhold their honours. Suffice to say, Sir Humphrey is appalled and schemes with his fellow Civil Servants to overturn the plan.... Again, a very humorous episode. Score: 7/10
- The Death List: Jim Hacker makes impassioned comments about the bugging of individuals, until he finds that surveillance has revealed that his name is on a hit list of a terrorist cell. Possibly the weakest of the episodes, as it has a few obvious jokes, it is nonetheless very amusing. Score: 5.5 /10
- The Greasy Pole: The ways and whiles of making an official report work to your advantage when plans for a new, but controversial, chemical plant are unveiled. A good, satirical episode. Score: 8/10
-The Devil You Know: A cabinet reshuffle threatens to remove Hacker from his post and send him to be an EU Commissioner. But his likely replacement is not an entirely savoury prospect for Sir Humphrey, and so a clever scheme is hatched. Score 7.5 /10
- The Quality of Life: Using the environment as a political tool is Jim Hacker's latest wheeze, but unwittingly agrees to allow the Inland Revenue to turn a local city farm into a car park! Step in Sir Humphrey to "save the day" and help a friend in the banking business. Score 6.5/10
- A Question of Loyalty: The loyalty of Hacker to his Civil Servants becomes noticeable when a committee examines waste within his department. All is going well for Sir Humphrey, until Hacker is reminded of his loyalties of a higher authority. Score 7/10
Extra Features:
These are regrettably few, if you enjoy extra features. Although few extras should be expected of a series from 1981, the DVD does have Writer's Profiles, which are simply textual mini-biographies of the principle writers.
Overall, this is an excellent purhcase for the price, and the opportunity to own some of the best of BBC comedy. If you like extra features, this is not going to be an eye-opener, but the quality of the main feature makes up for this a thousand times over.
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Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
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Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn's superb sitcomYes, Prime Ministerentered 10 Downing Street ... more
with Jim Hacker now Prime Minister of Britain, following a campaign to "Save the British Sausage". Whether tackling defence ("The Grand Design"), local government ...
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![Yes, Prime Minister - Series Two [1987] [DVD]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/79206899.jpg "Yes, Prime Minister - Series Two [1987] [DVD]")
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