Americans React to Yes Minister | Classic British Comedy
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- čas přidán 26. 08. 2024
- Hey guys! Thanks for sticking around our channel as we continue watching and reacting to all things British. This video is us watching the Prime Minister explain the EEC (EU) and the video clip can be found here: • Yes Minister explains ...
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Margaret Thatcher was a fan of the show. Paul Eddington who played Jim Hacker was treated as a dignitary when he visited Australia by then prime minister Bob Hawke. One of the most clever, sophisticated comedies ever written; understated humour at its best.
@@Xr-pd2oi A great taste in comedy once it had been explained at length using charts, graphs and a cold chisel.
I don't like Thatcher but it makes me happy knowing that Mr Eddington was well-respected and admired, poor man. He faced his skin cancer with a lot of dignity.
@MonkeyZorr that was her son Mark
@@billythedog-309 thick eh?
@@MrDaiseymay Not especially, but Margaret Thatcher had no sense of humour and l think that says a lot about her. Some people think it indicates a serious mind, but I think it's not a grave character flaw and explains her lack of empathy for other people.
'Sir Humphrey' (the "empty vessel") is a high-ranking civil servant, appointed to assist the government minister. Although the minister is their boss (hence the quasi-deferential 'Yes. Minister') the programme portrays the civil servants as the real power behind the throne, ably putting theory into practice, while making it look like it was the minister's doing all along. Apparently it was so true to life actual government ministers (and Prime Ministers) loved it!
Absolutely. The civil servants take the blue sky thinking of the minister, work very hard at turning his half-baked idea into something remotely resembling sensible policy that might - just - make it though a House of Commons vote (providing the government has a large majority, efficient and completely ruthless whips, and not too many diehard rebel backbench MPs); and then the civil servants take none of the credit if the policy succeeds, and most of the blame if it fails (as ministers love to blame institutionally inefficient or worse still covertly disloyal civil service mandarins for failing to turn their pet projects into action.)
Yes, in the UK the civil service is politically neutral, they serve and implement the policies of whatever government is in power while also fulfilling the requests for information or advice of the official opposition. Whenever there is an election in the couple of weeks preceding they do the groundwork for implementing the policies of the opposition so they are ready to hit the ground running if they win. Its very different to the American civil service where the majority are political appointments and tens of thousands of high and middle ranking managers are replaced by the incoming administration (with some appointments taking half a term to fill, e.g. the position of US ambassador to the UK was unfilled for 8 months at the start of the Trump administration, of the 1212 positions directly appointed by the US president 353 are still vacant with a nominee and 368 are vacant with no nominee two years since the election when the term of office is only 4 years)
Agree with all you say
Watcher Zero - Politically neutral is a guise, it doesn't matter which party is in government, the civil servants remain the same and so does their agenda.
Interesting fact: Nigel Hawthorne who played Sir Humphrey wrote in his autobiography that he hated the big long speeches that he had to give.
With all due respect, you completely missed the point of this clip. As others have commented, Sir Humphrey is a high ranking civil servant. In theory he is working for the Minister, but in reality he is running the government department, manoeuvring Hacker into doing what Humphrey wants. It’s the most intelligent comedy ever written, and contrary to what you assumed, it’s not taking the mick out of government - it’s showing EXACTLY how government operates. The words that come out of their mouths would be precisely what government ministers and their civil servants would say. You need to watch this show from it’s first episode to understand it’s brilliance.
Bravo well said. I'd go further and say that this show is a prerequisite for all politicians to watch before entering parliament.
It does definitely take the piss out of our government though (eg civil servant honours).
Margaret Thatcher liked it, so they said at the time. but that might have been just a ploy to scare the civil servants, a kind of bluff to suggest she knew what her minions were up to. Hard to believe she had a sense of humour, silly bitch.
Aussiemarco@ you’re absolutely correct.
@daro2096 Yes the writers; Jonathon Lynn and Anthony Jay interviewed Marcia Williams (later Lady Falkender) and Bernard Donoughue (Baron Donoughue) who both provided anecdotes about real situations that occurred during the Wilson tenure of Government.
The background music is annoying, please lose it, otherwise an interesting piece. thank you.
Yes the music has no business in this video. It's so annoying I quit the video.
I have no problem with the music, when it's not competing with something else, but like you, I found it difficult to hear what was being said in Yes Minister. It became a bit of a fight to focus. If they faded out the music during the reaction video, it'd be the best of both worlds imho.
leigh pierce Ikr. What's with the music? It's really distracting.
Sadly for some reason it seems to be an American thing to play music over the top of dialogue. You find it in most American TV progammes and films. I can't for the life of me understand why they do it. It's not only irritating but one can't actually hear the dialogue a lot of the time. Apart from the music I am very much enjoying this couple's videos.
Zandranna Especially with something like "Yes Minister". The programme is very wordy, and it's important to hear all the verbal sparring - that's where the comedy lies.
The background music kills the whole thing.
Quite right
Technically its a comedy but with some hard hitting truth . If you can see more of Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister it will give you a close indication of how politics works in the U.K. and Europe. It can be difficult making a comedy of being decieved by those who rule us just as Black Adder made historical horror funny, it is a skill .
I always thought Yes Minister was a comedy until I joined the Civil Service - then I realised it was a documentary..... 😜
It is just another sad comment on human nature and what we will take from those who rule us because we have no pratical choice being just sheep and have no logical substitute for a "new " system and dictators will not allow change and revolution does not prevent poverty or corruption. America was correct to rid themselves of an unjust Empire but it is often hard to see how American expansion is not just another version. Countries STILL seek expansion .China even builds artificial Islands to expand. Nuclear weapons have put an end to Empires though the use of such weapons are illogical history shows M.A.D. is no guarentee in the old sense so countries seek other methods to expand. I believe we are light years from being civilized and using history and logic an "outside intervention may be our only hope.
It's not how politics works in the UK, it's how politics works everywhere in the world.
Oh please kill the music. It is so hard to hear speech as well as music. You are losing audience
Sir Humphreys finest moment:
"Yes. Unfortunately although the answer was indeed clear, simple and straightforward there is some difficulty in justifiably assigning to it the fourth of the epithets you applied to the statement. Inasmuch as the precise correlation between the information you communicated and the facts insofar as they can be determined and demonstrated is such as to cause epistemological problems of sufficient magnitude as to lay upon the logical and semantic resources of the English language a heavier burden than they can reasonably be expected to bear."
"Epistemological - what are you talking about?"
"You..told a lie"
I would've said the pinnacle of Sir Humphrey's extended verbosity would be the moment he was forced to admit that he was the junior secretary who made what turned out to be a multi-million pound mistake when working in the War Office in the Forties...
"The identity of the official whose alleged responsibility for this hypothetical oversight has been the subject of recent discussion is not shrouded in quite such impenetrable obscurity as certain previous disclosures may have led you to assume, but, not to put too fine a point on it, the individual in question is, it may surprise you to learn, one whom your present interlocutor is in the habit of defining by means of the perpendicular pronoun."
@@kdisley or that time he didn't have the key to number 10
@@kdisleyAnd if you can understand that without rereading it, you can say your English is truly at native speaker level!
I joined a Commonwealth government department in the early 1980s and my new colleagues urged me to both watch the series and read the books. I did, and was surprised to find that it helped me understand where the public service stood in relation to the government and how it worked in real life. Masterful writing that skilfully showed viewers the reality of government policies and processes while successfully disguising itself as comedy. If it had been written as a documentary or expose, it would never have been allowed to be printed or produced!
The 'empty vessel' is Sir Humphrey a member of the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary to Jim Hacker, the Minister of Administrative Affairs, a non existent, but of course very plausible government ministry in Whitehall. Later when Jim Hacker became Prime Minister in Yes Prime Minister, he was the Cabinet Secretary. In the U.K., the Civil Service remains running the administration of government regardless of the political party in power and must serve successive governments of varying political persuasion. The 3rd person, Bernard Woolley is Hackers PPS, his Personal Private Secretary, another Civil Servant, but more junior than Sir Bernard. The whole sitcom laughs at the wheels within wheels of the British parliamentary system and makes light of everything about the way the country's run. What makes it so special is that nearly everything is believable and hilariously funny and shows the writers must have had a very clear insight into real life within the Civil Service.
+Robert Knight
"more junior than Sir Bernard..." You mean Sir Humphrey, surely? As for nearly everything being believable, this is because one of the two writers had actually previously been a Whitehall civil servant (and a relatively senior one). He is on record as saying all the episodes of both Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister were based on real life events in Whitehall. That is why real Ministers and civil servants found the shows so true to life.
the subjects discussed in the show are STILL relevant today, it is truly amazing, either they were ahead of their times, or our politicians have never fixed a single damned problem.
True (historical traditional) British humour just has to be savoured like a gourmet meal with fine wine - "Yes Minister" was the Perfect example of quinticential British humour, very nuanced and actually 'deep' - the show Has to be watched from the first episode of the first series. It genuinely reflects a slight toung in cheek approach to Political life.
Sir Humphrey describing the arguments for and against National Service is my favourite.
"But surely an honest polling company would not do that."
"True but there aren't many of those."
I will have to watch that episode again to see if it is "many" or "any"
Brilliant series , sadly the last of the trio , Derek Fowlds just died
This is one of the greatest comedies ever written and is a must to understand politics. The battle between the minister and the civil service with the minister's PPS in the middle. Cannot recommend enough! Note: I'm American.
I remember nearly running out of breath laughing at the episode when Sir Humphrey gets locked out of No.10.
"The Key".
@@willdsm08 Cheers. :)
I'll have to look it up and see it again...but with an oxygen tank handy this time.
It was shot in front of real number 10. PM was big fan.
yes minister was the first show and yes prime minster was the follow up, same characters he wasn't prime minister in this show. very funny and clever, still relevant and true
The scripts were just brilliant on this show.
Margaret Thatcher loved this programme and described it as how the relationship between elected ministers and the civil servants was in real life.
"Yes, Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister" is absolutely funny. Loved Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne &
Derek Fowlds. They made it such a joy for this Anglophile to watch. I purchased full sets of both from
Amazon UK, and play them on my region-free DVD player. I would suggest you watch the complete sets
of both "Yes, Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister" - and not for a reaction, but to enjoy in your personal time.
that background music is very distracting
Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. is the work of a genius showing just how impotent political office is
Another good one to check out is the New Statesman with Rik Mayall.
It unfortunately reads as quite standard by todays standards even if the character was an OTP caricature of Tories.
Hi Lillian and Felipe, I think you would really enjoy 'Yes Minister', and 'Yes, Prime Minister'. The clip you watched certainly gives a flavour of the show, but perhaps does not reveal it at its best. The insight into political office (albeit fictional), the historical context and the comedy, really present some cultural perspective. In fact, I might try to re-watch a few myself, just to see how much the landscape has changed, and what was deemed acceptable to say that may now raise a few eyebrows. The central premise was basically that the Minister was a bit of a naive buffoon, and was constantly embattled with his second in command, the more cynical and realistic Sir Humphrey (The Permanent Secretary of Administrative Affairs). It's beautifully written, and very well played. P.S. I've recently discovered your channel, and though I think we would disagree somewhat politically and religiously (I'm an atheist), I'm enjoying your honest, no-punches-pulled commentary. It's vital to garner intelligent viewpoints that differ from one's own, as there's nothing more dangerous than hiding in an echo-chamber. Peace and joy, Andy.
I also disagree politically and religiously with Lilian and Fillipe (I too am an atheist), particularly their support of Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lillian's views on feminism, but it is still interesting to observed their take of life in the UK, and to wish the family well
I'm with you guys (I'm not just an atheist but on the left politically) but it's good that we can have disagreements whilst still being respectful.
I won't get you started Dan, as you seem both immature, and overly certain about your propositions. Opening your statement with 'Atheism is for liberals who can't make up their minds on anything and are to afraid to have real opinions', is all-encompassing and inaccurate, and doesn't predispose me to converse with you too much. However, I have no problem with the possibility of no free will, as it's difficult to get past the fact that our thoughts and actions are the consequence of multiple precursor events that are out of our control, and as you said, deterministic. I'm not closed to the idea of something 'beyond' our universe, and it's easy to acknowledge the limitations of our ability to understand what may be possible. That said, as of yet I've seen no evidence of anything like a God, and all of the philosophical difficulties in explaining the universe as we see it, still exist and more when you posit one. It's religious literalism I take issue with, not 'the wisdom of ages', or traditionalism etc. Good day
That's an awful long argument but you are missing what exactly atheism is. Atheism is merely the position that you are not convinced of the existence of a god and nothing more. That's literally it.
@Dan Brown the word agnostic has more to do with knowledge than belief so my definition of atheism still stands. I think people get to hung up on labels but so many people who are actually atheists don't want to label themselves that way. Another one of the many insidious things religion has actually done is to get the A word to be seen as a dirty word.
Best comedy series ever by a long shot but one needs to understand the context to fully appreciate its genius.
Spitting Images is a must, though it helps to be visually acquainted with political figures and celebs of the 80s.
Just as long as they don't watch the Chicken Song. LOL
I STILL WATCH THEM ON DVD, AND THEY STILL MAKE ME LAUGH BUT, THEY ARE NO LONGER TOPICAL. THEY OFTEN RIDICULED CURRENT SITUATIONS LONG FORGOTTEN .
Kevin Elliot -
"Spitting Images is a must...."
ESPECIALLY if you're an Embittered Lefty, and veteran Thatcher/Reagan-hater !
Such a shame it came to end just when the Golden Age of Blairism and Jewish Crypto-Marxism dawned............................
Funny that.
I loved spitting image
Spitting Image was a rather cruel leftist parody on the Thatcher goverment enjoyed more by those on the left. Those who were Conservative felt that it did not attack the left as much when they made political blunders giving cause to accusations of political bias.
You should check out the clip from Yes Minister where they are at a reception in a country with Islamic law. Where they set up a secret room so they could sneak alcohol into the orange juice. Of course Hacker gets completely drunk.
czcams.com/video/F_vPvLlcUqM/video.html - the full episode!
Cheers I may watch it now.
I almost forgot the show until I remembered that episode. I just recently unearthed the first three series. Seeing it again reminded me how funny it was. How disturbing politics and govt. can be.
One of the funniest with sly refrences to drinks brands :)
Upon first seeing this on Philly PBS back in the 80's. I recognized Napoleon, Mr. Smirnoff, and Johnny Walker. It was enough for me to get it because I already caught the opening scene.
having listened a little more closely to you both, and your problems concerning this program, it becomes even clearer that you have difficulty with understanding who the characters are, and the relationship that exists between them. In addition, the difficulty of viewing a complete episode. Please either buy one dvd,to view an entire show,or either series, "YES,MINISTER" the first series, [which would be the most sensible choice] the second "YES, PRIME MINISTER", once You realise quite what the entire plot of each episode really is about, guarantee viewing satisfaction !! As you are living in the UK, obtaining one episode,or the entire first series [YES MINISTER]on ebay,for instance, would, once any confusion is eliminated,be the only way to do justice to this intelligent, generally extremely well written program.In addition, would be interesting to hear your better informed estimation of this gem!!!
that clip is yes minister before he was prime minster wait till you get the full SIR humprey speechs hes brillant
May I request that you do away with adding background music on your clips. For one thing, it's distracting, but for another, for those who are perhaps a little hard of hearing, it only makes it more difficult to hear the video clip and your own comments.
Thank you.
A late comment, but the series was based upon research from actual government contacts and possible scenarios. It’s considered to be quasi relevant to any age of politics and accurately portrays the inner working ideologies in a mixture of cynical and satirical portrayals with a classical levity and self deprecation which is very entertaining. I loved it even as a kid
The reason we watch is to see someone else's view on British things without influence, keep up not knowing the ins and outs, this way we get honest opinions. Love to see follow up vids, after you do get up to speed :)
In "Yes Minster" James Hacker is appointed as a Cabinet Minister to the Department of Administration. In "Yes Prime Minister" it follows him when he becomes PM. The equivalent of the civil service in the UK is often called the public service in other many other countries.
I'm sure there was one episode where Humphrey told Hacker our Nukes weren't targeted at Russia, they were targeted at France !
the civil service is a constant, they stay in place regardless of who is in power, as such they are supposed to be neutral politically, In practice, this means that they do their best to maintain a status quo for themselves, they carry out policy but have no say in said policies and regard ministers as short-term nuisances
so Basically they are paid to be mindless
paddyoclown More along the lines of being paid to be paper pushers, the more red tape they produce the less harm the 'Government' can do, they also take the flak if policy fails at which point they get transferred or retired with a pay or pension bonus plus some Royal appointment OBE or Knighthood etc
+paddyoclown - more like they try to avoid erratic orders from their masters. A lot of what is requested will take longer to implement than the duration of their master's term. Then new masters come in and ask for something different.
the objective of the civil service is stability. in addition to being widely regarded as preferable to anarchy, the stability of the government and the system translates directly into stability of the civil servants' positions and income. any kind of reform or unusual policy threatens to destroy this carefully managed setup, which is why they will fight as much as possible to avoid them.
Given that the Civil Service managed to miss the impeding economic and banking crash, and the Brexit Situation I am not sure that they are exactly excelling. Most of the time I was in agencies or govt departments the general idea was to find out if any work or problems could be better shunted out to another deparment of agency to deal with as it better fitted their remit. While still writing reports detailing the time and money spent on what we were (supposed) to be doing.
This is Yes Minister where the main fellow was a politician in charge of the Department for Administrative Affairs.
The empty vessel guy was the civil servant in charge of the administration and enactment of the politician's policies in the department.
He basically tries to railroad the Minister away from doing what the Minister wants towards what he wants the Minister to do.
So the main basis for the comedy is how each of the two main characters tries to trap the other into doing what they want.
The other guy is the Minister's private secretary, like a go between between the two so he gets caught in the middle.
There is also a Yes Prime Minister series where the politician is of course PM rather than just a Minister.
In the UK we have:
The Prime Minister who heads the Cabinet which is the MPs in charge of departments or Ministers.
Then the Chancellor of the Exchequer (I charge of all the money)
The Home Secretary.
Foreign Secretary
Then under them other Cabinet Ministers for lesser departments.
Then you have backbench MPs.
Hello Lillian and Felipe (and of course your lovely children)- welcome to UK. I've only just picked up on your channel and I love your take on our TV shows!. Yes Minister and its successor Yes Prime Minister were originally broadcast in the early and mid 80s and depict the initially naive and bumbling Minister of Administrative Affairs (a fictional Government Department ) (Jim Hacker) and his Permanent Secretary (Head of the Department's Civil Service staff) (Sir Humphrey Appleby.)
Sir Humphrey Appleby is a career Civil Servant whereas Jim Hacker is a newly-promoted Government Minister. It depicts collision and collusion in the corridors of power and is a true classic gem of British comedy IMHO (I'm a HUGE fan 35~40 years after it was originally shown). It is a classic "Servant is smarter than the Master" comedy (there are lots of others on British TV such as "Jeeves & Wooster" and "Dad's Army*" to name 2).
(*) Best look it up on Wikipedia!
For a while, we, the viewers watched Yes, Minister as a situation comedy- until we realised we were probably watching either a documentary or a series of Civil Service training videos! The writers had quite a few insights into the inner workings of Government and our Civil Service from sources within those august organisations- a lot of what is depicted as fiction usually happened. The worrying thing is- although the technology has moved on (there's no mobile phones for instance in the originals) the stories are still relevant today!
Watch the Two Ronnies sketch called Four Candles or Fork Handles
God yes lol
Ah, the two Ronnie's - very cleverly written sketch in a bar with a posh lady 'mistaking phrases' for something rude. Genius
Oh yes Four Candles is one of the best play on word the Ronnies did! and Pisspronounciation. and Spoonerisms. all written By Barker I think
It doesn't make me angry
I'm 62, and still working as a nurse, so if I'm doing 'awight' it's because I've worked hard all my life to achieve it, thank you.
I remember this episode to this day, must have watched it decades ago. You really need to watch a full episode of this series, this was not enough.
Frightening how relevent that show still is today.
Sir Humphrey is a civil servant - a non elected non political assistant to those elected to office. The British civil service is one of the finest exponents of subtle influence in the corridors of power in the world - they've had centuries of practice and they're very good at it. What they most seek (unofficially of course - none would ever even consider admitting to it) is the continuation of their own positions in those corridors of power. The series Yes Minister and its successor Yes Prime Minister depicts the civil service in a remarkably accurate way through the use of a fictional and mildly comic production.
The Men in Grey, as I like to refer to them; Those who have menial, administrative jobs in the Houses of Parliament, but also quietly influential positions within the corridors of power at Westminster
The humble vessel was sir Humphrey and he was a civil servant for the uk government. Each episode was a tug of war between the minister and sir Humphrey on a different issue. Really really funny.
Yes,many european countries ended up with an even,uneven economy dictated to by The EU,In the seventies our country was denied existing trade deals and had to fend for itself despite our service to Queen and Country through two world wars.New Zealand
I love your videos but I frequently find the addition of a background music soundtrack to be distracting and unnecessary
VEEP is similar and American, but the tone of VEEP and Yes Minister are very different. Actually VEEP is more easily comparable to the other English comedy political show ''The Thick of It'' .
Yes Minister and Yes PM were popular shows 20 years ago and i watched them with a lot of interest sitting in India. I do not think anything close to this kind of political satire has ever been attempted.
This show was heavily laden with real issues of the day that were actually fed to the writers from politicains/gov members but of course wrapped up in a different colour. Not to undermine but a strange political humour. It is well known within the inner circles that some politicians/rain makers would watch this show to gauge what was actually happening within government. As in some or a lot of cases this type of info would come out via this show before the official channels. Sadly I know you need to do this legally but he clips you see on this show are far from doing justice for your first impressions.
Accurate as it was in the past as it is today.
Nothing has changed.
The PM family would have got much more from it, and understood a lot more too, with a little research beforehand to grasp that it is the bureaucrats (aka civil servants), supposedly serving the minister in an objective and impartial manner, who actually manipulate him to get their own way.
Going into it thinking it's just about chaos and muddle is getting the wrong end of the stick entirely.
This is sophisticated comedy which, unfortunately, is strongly based in reality.
And holds true even today - let alone several decades ago...
You do have an equivalent - Veep. Which was written by Armando Iannucci, who had previously written a British series called "The Thick of It", which was like an updated version of Yes Minister.
The Humble Servant (Sir Humphrey) is the cabinet secretary. The real life cabinet secretary is the most powerful unelected representative in the UK
Why music for goodness sake?
Worth remembering that the British system is for the elected ministers to choose the direction of travel but the civil servants, who are not part of the party system, are the ones tasked with carrying out the orders. They are often the experts leading from the bottom.
Sir Humphrey Appleby is the Permanent secretary to the department that Jim Hacker is the Minister. Sir Humphrey is a stereotypical high ranking civil servant. This series was hailed for, among other things, its accuracy to the actual workings of the civil service at the time. Mostly due to the writers having a source who used to be in the government.
The underlying theme of the show was that ministers do not run their departments. Senior civil servants make the decisions and manipulate the minister to make the "correct" decision.
The best comedy show ever, set in the 80s but oh so true now
A way around the copyright is to watch an episode (showing on the highlights) and then give a review afterwards.
Very Good show Yes Minister, the amazing thing is it hasn't aged at all
In US terms, the Politician is the President, The Empty Vessel is his Chief of Staff, and the other guy is the President's diary-keeper.
In the Australian Public Service 'Yes, Minister' and 'Yes, Prime Minister' are seen as documentaries, not comedies. For an updated view, try 'The Thick of It'.
Yes, Minister, and, to a lesser extent, Prime Minister, are the best comedy writing of all time... and completely British. Cynical, sarcastic, cruel, and intelligent.
The 'empty vessel' is a Civil Servant, who works in parliament and assists MPs & Ministers & The PM. Members of congress will have back up teams, as we saw in West Wing, but they have differing titles, but do similar jobs, I am guessing. Hope that clears up the issue of Sir Humphry.
Politicians here have often said that there is more than a little truth in this show. One of the writers, Anthony Jay, was a longtime political journalist and knew Westminster very well.. Mrs Thatcher liked the series so much she had a mini episode written for her! It is of the 80s and has dated a bit, imo. If you want to know what British government is like behind the scenes are like nowadays you might be better off watching Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) in 'The Thick of It' which is extremely funny but very sweary!
There were two separate series. The first was called "Yes Minister" which followed the career of MP Jim Hacker just after he has become a minister in the government for the first time. The later series sees Hacker assume the role of Prime Minister and was called "Yes, Prime Minister".
The first series was made in 1980/81 and really depended on the Conservative government of Mrs Thatcher as its inspiration. Because she led her government from 1979 to 1990, it was easy for the writers to find plenty of inspiration.
The EEC (European Economic Community) was the original name for what is now called the EU (European Union).
Hatcher's job in the original series is Minister of Administrative Affairs - which is a fictional government department and does not exist in real life. He decides his job is to streamline government business and make it more efficient. The civil servant who is supposed to be directing this policy for Hacker is Sir Humphrey Appleby (played by Nigel Hawthorne). In reality, Hawthorne really wants to keep matters the way they are and tries to frustrate Hacker's plans - although in an extremely gentlemanly, polite and very British way.
It is a gem of a series and humour at its cleverest.
The best episode was the special between the two series where Hacker becomes Prime Minister.
In it both sides the government members and the civil service workers are working together.
When you look at the civil service in Yes Minister, this is about as close as you will ever get as to how the UK civil service actually does work.
Yes minister “the key” is the best episode
The guy you think is the UK representative in the ECC (EU) is actually the cabinet secretary. The most powerful unelected person in the UK. The cabinet secretary has many tasks one of them being advisor to the prime minister. Essentially the cabinet secretary is the power behind the throne
Probably the most intelligent comedy ever shown on TV.
In Australia Parliament shut down as all sides of politics left to watch the show. It was actually very acurate.
Go ahead and watch the full episodes just for fun. It's delightful.
got both box sets, Yes Minister and the follow up Yes Prime Minister
The series started as Yes Minister, and he eventually was elected to PM and it then became Yes, Prime Minister. Hilarious
A very intelligent comedy series, especially with it's use of words by the almost Machiavellian Sir Humphrey. I would think it would be difficult for you to understand the complexity of the series without starting from the beginning of Yes minister. You will be well rewarded if you did. I've only just found you but I'm really enjoying your reactions and opinions. I agree about the music, it's annoying.
Sir Humphrey Appleby is the Permanent Secretary to the Department of Administrative Affairs, I.e the chief civil servant of that department. Jim Hacker is the Minister of Administrative Affairs who later becomes Prime Minister and Bernard Wooley is the Minister's personal permanent secretary.
One of my favorite shows ever. I bought the box-set...
I think I should explain the core plot of this show.
There are non-permanent members of parliament (in this case the Prime Minister) who are the policy makers.
There are permanent civil servants (in this case Sir Humphrey) who's job it is to make the policies work.
The show is not based on the shambles that goes on behind closed doors.
The show is based on how the civil servants (the permanent ones) manipulate the government (the non-permanent ones) in order not only to make life and work more easy for the civil service, but to ensure that civil service jobs and departmental budgets are at least preserved, if not increased.
a permanent secretary is 'THE BOSS'
you can watch the full episode and edit your reactions down to 10mins , most allow 10mins as a fair use.
We’ll give that a shot!
Dont forget most of the time we watched these they were going out on TV in 'real time' and how did we react? Was Yes Minister a BBC2 programme (ie a Brain and preferably a 2.2 min degree required to assimilate the nuances) . Note the studio audience reaction is relatively muted in that they are waiting for the punchline ( I once went to a recording of the ITV Series 'Fresh Fields' which had the mix of the slow burn and the thrown in laugh out loud throwaway killer line that runs in British comedy.
1:15 yes you do VEEP is a comedic political show that is very much like Yes Minister it's also created ironically by a Brit and the show became a massive success.
humphrey's description of the European Union is spot on
When I worked for a company that was basically the league of nations , the email that went round regulary was:
HEAVEN is where: The police are British The chefs Italian The mechanics are German The lovers are French and it's all organised by the Swiss
HELL is where: The police are German The chefs are British The mechanics are French The lovers are Swiss and it's all organised by the Italians.
(expand as required to add The Belgians, Dutch, Swedish, etc
The 'empty vessel' is the senior civil servant in that Ministry. He is not connected with Brussels.
even Maggie Thatcher liked the series
You need to watch all of this start to finish, from Yes Minister to Yes Prime Minister - a lot of the political comedy is still relevant today. Watch it for your own entertainment.
A better Yes Minister sketch would be the one on smoking. Absolutely hilarious and is up on CZcams.
The point is that regardless of whoever gets elected as Prime Minister, the bureaucrats (Sir Humphrey) remain in control. Incidentally, an ex president said the same when asked what he'd learned from his time in office :" I learned that the power does not lie with the throne."
I think your critics are saying still react to the usable clips. But also research by watching some full series genesis episodes off camera
Btw I recommend Red Dwarf
There is an American show called "Veep" which does a similar thing to Yes Minister.
Even if it is not to react to you should watch whole episodes as this is the finest wordplay I have known in observing comedy for 60 years between The Head Of The Civil Service=Sir Humphrey and The Prime Minister played by 2 Late theatrical knights~ Sir Paul Eddington and Sir Nigel Hawthorne.
To see more of the late Mr Paul Eddington's work I recommend 'The Good Life' when he plays the neightbour Jerry Leadbetter, one of the four main cast along with Ms Penelope Keith as Margo Leadbetter, Ms Felicity Kendal as Barbara Good and the late Mr Richard Briers as Tom Good, it was a huge hit and its still a hilarious show. It's about a married couple (The Goods) who decide to find a meaning to life by adapting self-sufficiency - in the back-yard of the middle-class suburbia they livein that is. It's all much to the horror of their social-climbing friends and neighbours (the Leadbetters) who have to look at the pigs and goat they have in the back-yard.
Humour can hold a lot of truth.
Psst! The radio version (as you may have noted it's a lot of spoken humour) is having a repeat season on BBC Radio 4Extra on Thursdays at 8am, 12 noon and 7pm
Watch the two Ronnies. Especially Ronnie Corbett.sketch in telling a story.superb
Satirical comedy and very good showing how politicians and civil servants really are lol fine line between comedy and real life, in fact M Thatcher enjoyed the show she took part in one episode, you will find that somewhere on youtube.
Glad you liked the show it is a brilliant program that was watched by all the government at the time. And we are European's, But we dislike greatly the EU politic show.
This show also aired on Dutch television. I believe it to be the most intellectual of all British sitcoms and along with Only Fools and Horses the most funny. It brilliantly shows the machinations of the experienced staff of civil servants who survive one government after the other. In The Netherlands we say "to laugh is to recognize". This sitcom had me rolling with laughter every sequence.
One of the most underated and little known comedies which is so well observed, subtle, and uses no studio audience or canned laughter is the BBC's 'Early Doors' about the regulars in a back street northern Manchester area pub. It was first broadcast about 15 years ago and catches the warmth, honesty, and atmosphere of such pubs perfectly. Sadly such establishments are now a dieing breed. There were only two series made. They are both well worth a viewing.
Radio 4 (extra) had the slightly earlier 'The Men from the Ministry' which was similar but appeared set in the 1950s at times. I dont think in that there was much appearence of the elected ministers, and even though it covered much of the same ground as Yes Minister it has not aged as well as the TV series has.
This is Yes Minister, he's only a humble MP in the cabinet. Later he becomes Prime Minister in Yes Prime Minister....
I so enjoy your videos Postmodern Family. By the way, I googled the meaning of 'postmodern' and 'postmodernism'. The explanations were so arty farty that I still don't know what it means!! :P
It’s a movement, un-ironically, which declares that the truth is that there is no truth. This has spawned a nasty host of horrible ideologies emanating from social “science” departments, such as “genderism,” “male toxicity”, “3rd wave feminism”, etc. We, very much ironically, call ourselves a postmodern family because we passionately believe there absolutely is objective truth, and thus disavow these base ideologies. We learned irony from you Brits. 😂😂😂
In the yes minister video the guy talking to the mp is a civil servant he works for the uk government. Not the eu . Great series .
yes enjoyed that , and hoping your stay in the UK is a pleasant one..
The whole premise of the series Yes Minister, and Yes Prime Minister is to demonstrate that it's not the elected politicians that control the direction government takes, it is in fact that behind the scenes it is the top civil servants that influence things, without of course the elected politicians being aware of their own manipulation. This is of course a comedy series, but no doubt there is an element of truth in it. How much truth? Well, that is debatable!
It starts with him as a normal minister and eventually he becomes prime minister. It was Margaret Thatcher's favourite show!
Glad to see you did watch this but the best line was very portent (from Sir Humphrey) "Our foreign policy has been the same for centuries - divide and conqeur - we had to get into Europe to spoil it.''
I think you’ve missed the point of the programme. Also, as for Farage taking his pension... please tell me any normal person who leaves their job and gives up their pension that they accrued whilst in that job?
Farage was being his usual hypocritical self, he talked about fighting EU corruption but was one of the most corrupt MEPs. Of course he also claimed to stand up for democracy but was cheering on Trumps coup attempt.