"Britain's Best Sitcom" - Yes minister (1/4)

25 years ago British politics were still a closed world we knew who the movers and shakers where but not exactly how they moved and shook rage' was allowed into Westminster so at least we could hear the harrumphing and grunting of backbenchers but the backroom boys who wielded power was still faceless and then Along Came yes Minister and shone a light in that whole world ensured that politics was full of cack and that's why I'm nominating yes minister as Britain's best sitcom you know I'm glad you asked me that question Humphrey is not gone will you tell him or shall I yes minister charts the many attempts by Jim hacker MP to get things done occasionally with the help of ease parliamentary private secretary Bernard and always against the wishes of Whitehall heavyweights a Humphrey Appleby I don't think we need to bring the truth in at this stage I don't what the truth about something I'm tellin getting hacker to do Whitehall's bidding wasn't always easy but southernfry never gave up as he and the series followed hacker from newly appointed cabinet minister all the way to number 10 he's the Prime Minister is indeed he is Bernhard Carr nice husband unbanned place in the country in this publicity and a pension for life what more does he want I think he wants to govern Britain well stop him Bernhard pilot for yes mister was made in 1979 but wasn't transmitted until after the general election of that year in case the BBC was accused of trying to affect the outcome so already the cooperation knew that it had something politically contentious on its hands what it didn't realize was also had something extremely funny and this brings me to my first reason for nominating it as Britain's best sitcom it was funny even though it used the driest material known to mankind because if you think about it each episode consisted of middle-aged men talking about things like government expenditure shortfalls and Appl deficits it was just like no other sitcom well I don't know whether I really want power Bernhard if the right people don't have power do you know what happens the wrong people get it politicians counselors ordinary voters but aren't they supposed to in a democracy this is a British democracy when we started writing as medicine we didn't honestly know if anybody laugh at it we did but then you know we would wouldn't wait there's no reason really when you think about it why Yes Minister should have been a hit it was unique as a sitcom it really was unique there's no sex there's no action on paper it's a complete dud you see Minister when money is allocated to the health or social services Parliament of the country feel cleansed purified absolved it is a sacrifice but capture to concoct a comedy program after that and not merely a comedy program that one that has so many sharp shafts about the system our system of democracy is I think an achievement of genius after you Bernhard what do you want I want to have a clear conscience a clear conscience yes when did you acquire this taste for luxuries Yes Minister was all about lying and deceit about being duplicitous while remaining thoroughly charming and its most charming and duplicitous character well some free Appleby he's my second reason because the hon tree is such a brave choice on the part of the writers to have as one of those central characters a civil servant after all if every week you're trying to come up with an original funny twisting plot the last thing you need is a man who's determined to make sure that nothing happens at all ever ah Minister allow me to present sir Humphrey Appleby permanent undersecretary of state and head of the DA a sir Humphry should not merely be preserved in celluloid he should be preserved in SP he is a wonderful caricature the the Mandarin it is necessary to get behind someone before you can stab them in the back it was a tribute to the way nigel played the part that he made that despicable character this Machiavellian character attractive and he made him a kind of Dometic ecstasy it is not for a humble mortal such as I to speculate on the complex and elevated deliberations of the mighty he could have run the whole country without all these tiresome ministers that he had to deal with my job is to carry out government policy even if you think it's wrong well almost all government policy is wrong frightfully well carried out he wanted to be in charge but he didn't want to be absolutely in charge he wanted to manipulate the people who were thanks got a lot of problems coming up yeah there he hasn't mentioned probably because he doesn't know that he could justify almost anything smoking related diseases cost the NHS one hundred and sixty five million pounds a year yes but we've been into that it has been shown that if there is extra one hundred thousand people had lived to a ripe old age they would have cost us even more in pensions and Social Security you know so how if we can find rationalizations for things and and and make sense of him in his own terms and frequently they're right which is the awful thing about government frequently Sir Humphrey was right his character is beautifully drawn in the writing of course but Nigel added this room a wonderful sort of boiling point inside him you just felt sometimes he's going to explode when things didn't go his way where's my Keegan you must have a spell where's my key the Prime Minister had told me to have it removed great what you my jelly it's nothing to do with you thank you the most irritating thing he did was his dear lady what do you excuse us dear lady dear lady yeah lady which was this only a Dimas oily slimy patronizing ha kind of soft attack on me can you prove it no it's my antenna oh I think Prime Minister that we are in the realm of female intuition he was to be sent up and not taken too seriously you know we named it took him serious Oh full of all the qualities Sir Humphry look for in a politician top of the list was that the politician had to be dead or at least as inert as this bust so sorry must have been really pleased that his master possessed these qualities more than any other living politician he's my next reason for voting for Yes Minister he's Jim hacker MP vain bombastic obsessed with the press and his popularity and nursing a Churchill fetish Jim Hawk has still managed to be the only MP we've ever genuinely liked who are you talking about but as they say it's a custom more honored in the breach than in the observer really Bernhard Bastian Humphrey really always express yourself in this round version pompous way more honored in the breach than the observance is distraught destroy the most beautiful language in the world the language of Shakespeare and that is Shakespeare Prime Minister well Jim hacker was a wonderful character because he was a sort of buffoon worth it actually there is Jim had to be both stupid and yet credible as a minister because if you made Jim too ignorant and too silly everybody would say well yeah but nobody like that in real life would ever become a minister Oh Bernard my supposed to be voting aye oh no no no it's an opposition amendment it's the second reading I don't know what it is just don't want to go through the wrong door Paul was said to me he said I know who Jim hacker is he said he's a mouse learning to be a rat typical why not ring Humphrey and tell him you disagree don't worry I'll see him first thing bring him now ah it's 2 o'clock in the morning in the fast asleep I couldn't happen what's his number this comedy timing was superb and you only need to look at his double takes or his slow burns as something sinks in he's a plant Oh do you understand yes no Paul Eddington is brilliant he doesn't get the the flashy scenes that Nigel Hawthorne ah but he is so good at just one of the great reactors you know bad news better yes and no your predecessor the previous Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has just died of a heart attack tragic I love Paul's performance I thought it was a wonderfully shrewd well observed self-deprecating performance it was very clever because he was scoring laughs against himself throughout most of it one wonders yes what does one monster it was so polished and so precise and so totally different as a Humphrey the contrast was wonderful look at Latin hardly anybody knows that that is tempura move tanto nose head new timer analyst this dysfunctional relationship may have been set in high office but was driven by the sort of everyday office politics we can all relate to it was backstabbing from the moment the first clocked in I believe you know each other yes we did cross swords when the minister gave me a grilling over the estimates in the Public Accounts Committee I wouldn't say that you came up with all the questions I hope nobody would ask internal opposition's about asking awkward questions and government is about not answering well you answer all mine anyway I'm glad you thought so Minister there's much of the Jeeves and Wooster in in in in hacker and erm and Sir Humphrey in as much as you have the slightly silly ass man who supposedly the boss and you have the extremely brilliant factotum who really runs things in the background anyway Minister I'm sure you know what you're doing you only say that when I've made an appalling caca it was really a symbiotic relationship that one couldn't possibly have worked without the other you know they were two dissimilar organisms who were trying to live together for their mutual benefit and if one went down then the other went down not with Titan we could obliterate the whole of Eastern Europe right the whole of Eastern Europe it's it's a Terran it's a bluff I probably wouldn't use it yes but they don't know that you probably wouldn't there's probably do yes they probably know that you probably wouldn't but they can certainly know that I probably would probably certainly know that you probably wouldn't they don't certainly know that although you probably wouldn't there's no probability that you certainly would what although Nigel Hawthorne sir Humphry is is Machiavellian devious and snide and snobbish and all those things and continually undermining Jim hacker somehow by serendipity Jim hacker seems to come out on top sometimes which is very you know rewarding for us all Prime Minister you handled it brilliantly and asked him to resign on an obscure administrative issue of your choosing rather than on an important policy issue of his choosing nobody will support him because nobody will really understand why he's gone it's a masterstroke just occasionally Jim used to win and then we would get letters with Bravo on the often up things like that you mean I mean you may now leave if you're wanted again at number 10 you're resentful you mean when I think red if it's quite interesting that when we were writing it for one reason or another it turned out that Johnny was kind of guardian of the soul of Jim and I was kind of guardian of the soul of Sir Humphrey I think both Johnny and I felt had we been in their position we'd have done the same so we really rather loved both of them but we did see their fault

Channel: Humphrey Appleby

Views: 288,224

Keywords: Best, sitcom, Yes, minister

Id: TBtKm9HuFs4

Length: 14min 47sec (887 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 27 2010