Comedy Connections: Yes Minister 3

in January 1986 a more assertive Jim hacker faced his eager public for the first time as Prime Minister this is what I see it all now a new deal for Britain hackers grand design time to time in our great island story it falls to one man leave his people out of the valley of the shadow and into the sunlit uplands of peace and prosperity coal would sometimes say do I have to say this line I can just act it with my face and so the first couple of times have happened we said well shows what you mean and he did and it was funny so after that we would knit there would nearly always be a line or two in the script which would say Paul needn't say this line if he doesn't want here your predecessor the previous Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has just died of a heart attack tragic whole sequence of thoughts could flash across his face and you knew what they were he had the most immense skill as a comedy actor he would develop and expand the things the comic things that he had created in the rehearsal and his timing to an audience was absolutely extraordinary now look I realize you have to have large your colleagues but you also have a broad alliance to Kevin's and its policy I agree you yes you agree with me I agree with you ah I do who do you agree with with you as the series goes along he gets better at running things and better at dealing with Sir Humphrey if you're wanted again at number 10 you're resentful you mean when I think red and if they became more wily and just as you thought that he might not have the intellect cope and deal with anything he managed to best them to help hacker get the hang of things the writers hurried back to their mole in Whitehall for more inside information why did you allow Sandford to come in here when I explicit you drilled a notch oh well I couldn't stop him I thought he's bigger than me he confined to the Cabinet Office uh-huh lock the communicating door he has a key take his key away from me take his key away tell me his key away from him you take his key away fight we did discover that there is a green baize door between the Cabinet Office and number 10 and that it would be theoretically possible for someone to be locked out on this door pay for this bloody I have the genius of creating what was just an off-the-cuff suggestion into real ah I must protest in the strongest possible terms my profound opposition to a newly instituted practice which imposes severe and intolerable restrictions upon the ingress and egress of senior members of the hierarchy and which will in all probability shut the current deplorable innovation be perpetuated precipitate a constriction of the channels of communication and culminate in the condition of organizational atrophy and administrative paralysis which will render effectively impossible the coherent and coordinated discharge of the function of government with an her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland you mean you've lost your key and the best in large entertainment TV performance the winner is Nigel Hawthorne for yes Prime Minister the public laptop the new series and the accolades just kept on coming we won the BAFTA the best program of carihuela which is great Nigel and Paul were always nominated together for best comedy performance and it was always Nigel that one and not Paul and and I thought that was just a shame so did Nigel he got embarrassed a Nigel I think really wished Paul at 1 while I told them because he didn't need to keep winning and Paul got more and more disappointed Paul had to be this comedy buffoon character and yet a credible just credible minister of the crown whereas it was much easier for for Nigel and also Nigel was playing a kind of character that people knew nothing about it's the part that wins awards everyone knows that that's why the same people keep winning him all the time every year the theatre on television movies you know you can't win a prize if you haven't got the prize-winning part two of Britain's favourite public figures have received awards in the Queen's New Year's Honours List but you won't find their names in the usual guides to politicians and civil servants they're actors Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne they said we just get your reaction to the news I said what news they said well your your co-stars have been awarded the CBE and I said what for and that was that was in there was headline Bernard says what for good aware did where's mine that the comedy was interrupted by harsh reality when Paul Eddington was diagnosed with skin cancer Paul was beginning to show signs of his illness and we were worried whether Artie could really stand up to the strain of another series I know exactly who reached the papers The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country people don't really notices but he is mostly behind his desk x is read by the people who actually do run the country Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people around Ghana we minimized him out hacker had to move and he minimized it and he remained just as funny morning stars read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is I'm driving to stare what about the people who read the Sun Sun readers don't care who runs the country as long as she's got big tits the pressure was growing because the show had become such a kind of institution by this time and people expected it to be sensationally funny and interesting every week we done all the things that were really fun and it wasn't it would start to be a bit repetitive we thought well quit while we're ahead in 1988 after two series Yes Prime Minister ended but by now Sir Humphry Bernard and Jim hacker was seen as unofficial ambassadors for the British government Paul in particular found it hard to shed hackers image Paul went to Australia for example I mean he was greeted like a prime minister rather than like an actor you know and he'd be treated as if he was the prime minister of a minister he thought it was terribly funny I wanted Paul to stand apart easy in school I wanted him to change his name by default in Jamaica for hands and for an election he would have won he would have and I said if you become an MP I promise to write all your speeches and we can have tremendous amount of fun and he said but this would he was Paul was kind of responsible person he said that would bring the whole edifice tumbling down in ruins and I said well yes it might though he said no no I can't either Paul Eddington carried on acting in his last major part in the chamomile lon reunited him with his good life co-star Felicity candle he died of cancer in 1995 Nigel Hawthorne built on the success of Yes Prime Minister winning awards for the title role in the madness of King George in 1999 sir Humphrey became Sir Nigel Antony J also received a knighthood for services rendered Tony got his knighthood for something that I was very eager for him to keep under wraps and it did more or less stay under wraps till after show he wrote party political broadcast for mrs. Thatcher that went on right through the the yes ministry so they were they were more more kg than civil servants thinking I'm going to make fun of them whatever they say but they will they took it very well and were very helpful because it did I mean it obviously helped my understanding of how things happen in politics eerily audit for political services to the Conservative Party something that I could never have got and would never want it Sir Anthony J continued writing political speeches and books and making films for video arts Jonathan Lynne's future lay in America directing hit movies such as my cousin Vinnie and the whole nine yards I've made one or two very good films and one or two that are less good due to the pressures of the Hollywood system which he took me a while to understand but I'm still at it um and I'm still having a good time as for the long-suffering Bernard according to the hacker Diaries he rises to become head of the civil service bringing with it the inevitable knighthood Sir Bernhard Woolley so in the end I did get my K Derek folds left Westminster far behind to appear in over 300 episodes of the ITV series heartbeat agent they're very observant David so Jim hacker entered the political Hall of Fame and sir Humphrey became synonymous with the civil service from an uncertain start Yes Minister went on to win more BAFTAs than any other British comedy series since then politicians have come and gone but the trials of hacker Humphrey and Bernard remain as relevant as ever civil servants to wear the same suits politicians are still just as devious spin is just as common so I think it stands out very well the truth the truth and nothing but the truth the whole truth of course not very little has changed in Westminster I've just finished Alastair Campbell's Diaries and it seems to me that life goes on very much the same way as it was portrayed in the series we're no real power we're just a sort of American missile base that's all I enjoy the fact that we got it right we managed to be both funny and informative I have a problem and I need your help yeah earlier can't you run the country on your own it's one of the loveliest sounds to a comedy writers here is that is the sound of people laughing in his bags I think he wants to govern Britain well stop him Bernhard great scripts - wonderful wonderful actors who became you know - my best friends in a world whom I thank them and I miss him we must stick by one's friends yeah loyalty yes finished Matt Damon is thrown into the Lions Den as an inexperienced lawyer courtroom drama the Rainmaker on bbc1 after the National Lottery euromillions draw thanks you

Channel: Humphrey Appleby

Views: 731,881

Rating: 4.8568382 out of 5

Keywords: Comedy, Connections, Yes, Minister

Id: rktJtt3wKdI

Length: 12min 15sec (735 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 27 2010