This show needs to be remastered and released again. It’s a pure gem, writers and actors alike. I am at awe with the prouesse of the actors, especially Sir Nigel Hawthorne. Memorizing those triads and the the way he acts and mimics them is a pure joy to watch.
If we ever have a British Prime Minister that has the same command of the English language as Sir Humphrey I will definitely move to Britain and work so hard to become his own civil servant.
We have an MP of this calibre.....Jacob Rees-Mogg. Unfortunately he won't stand a a candidate because he has a young family of several children, and doesn't want to disrupt their family life. Perhaps he might be persuaded when they're grown,,,I hope so. He has a brilliant mind, a great dress sense, is articulate, studies everything carefully, and always gets the best of any argument. Check him out on You-Tube.
@@annemariefleming Rees-Mogg is an idiot who disguises his stupidity with flowery language and obscure facts which on inspection turn out to be wrong. He is a total waste of space.
Check out the American comedian Cid Caesar. From the fifties. He was the best at talking nonsense....in various languages...sort of!!! Search for German general scene! You'll be glad you did.
And people today think we’ve ‘progressed’! I wish they could name just one comedy series that has passed the superlative heights that this one achieved over 30 years ago! Surely, when compared to today’s mundane offerings it’s undeniable that we’ve actually been regressing instead!
I used to work in the civil service back in the early eighties and Yes Minister was a true reflection of it down to a tee. The BBC will never make another excellent series like this ever again, when you look at the tv programmes of the seventies and eighties you see quality not the rubbish you see today.
Jajalaatmaar, the BBC has never made another programme like this since the eighties regarding the civil service. But I do remember the original House of Cards Which was about the politics at that time. Another series was the famous Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy starring Alec Guinness which is a 5* spy production written by John Le Carre. If you get the time watch these 2 series, you won’t be disappointed by the quality of acting.
This was an absolutely genius script, played by great actors. I'm from Portugal, and I bow myself to the British Comedy and Culture and all what it gaved to the world. Thank you!
It is one of the best shows ever!!! I keep watching it again and again from time to time, and I just started couple of days ago. Too bad they only made 5 seasons altogether and one movie. They should have done more, also other great show is Allo Allo!!!! these never get old or a person gets bored from them.
I watched this series on Turkish television back in the late 80's. Although the Turkish dubbing was quite good and I absolutely loved this series, the original version, especially Sir Humphrey's speeches, are tremendous.
When the office first appeared, l thought, now here's a show with the insight, dialogue and performance to rival Yes Minister. But, as much as I did enjoy The Office, l recently borrowed a Yes Minister CD from my local library and I was as just as captivated by the brilliance of this show as I was when it first appeared all those years ago. It seems that it just doesn't get any better than Yes Minister and particularly the performance of Nigel Hawthorne - superb.
Genius.. Sir Humphrey, the best actor of his generation. Thank heavens for CZcams and Box sets that we can still see work of this quality.. for sure the BBC no longer makes ANYTHING like it.!! WF
Sadly it will never be the same, the whole country has gone to the dogs, either that, or i am getting too old! -- Nothing really like those programs i reckon, replaced by Mrs Browns Boys. 🤬🤯
I have the entire DVD & watch the whole thing once a year. And laugh all the way. My favorite character is Sir Arnold who is smoother than silk but more treacherous than Attila the Hun. Best scenes are when Sir Humphrey tells the Minister or Prime Minister, this is the most courageous thing that you have done. Right there Hacker gets a panic attack.
That's what Al Murray, the publican comedian, said in one of his shows. He actually argued that the human brain is designed to think in English and so therefore the Brits have an inmate advantage in this area. If so, It certainly hasn't been on display throughout the brexit drama
He says he refers to himself "by means of the perpendicular prounoun", which is fine. But then he says "it was I". In THAT context, he should say "it was me".
In the late 1980s I completed a Grad Dip in Public Sector Management; clips of the show were used to illustrate points. Can't remember if they were used to train us students in what to do or what not to do. They were great fun to watch. Ceased to be a public servant within 2 years of graduating.
I've seen this in action. It is the reason the public service moves at snail pace. Every person is intimately engaged in arse protection. The most important thing is the Process, outcomes don't matter. And it is absolutely true. You never tell a minister anything they don't need to know. So they can have plausible deniability.
True, but its much better to let others find out you have a secret, and then reveal it, just not the secret you actually want to keep, but a secret you want to tell... Preferably someone elses secret.... 😉
I recently saw "History Makers: Machiavelli" by Overly Sarcastic Productions. I can't do their video justice but I will state a bit of Machiavelli's life that may show "The Prince" was supposed to be taken ironically. "The Prince" was a job application dedicated to a man in the Medici family. The Medici family tortured and banished Machiavelli some time before this book was made. Overly Sarcastic Productions has more information that conflicts with what people imagine him to be but I would rather have people see their video.
Nigel Hawthorne at his very best! Superb timing, poilshed delivery and flawless, sophisticated, poise - one of the greatest products of the English film and theatre industries!! IMO he should've been knighted - but perhaps his greatest legacy now lies within the English language and the Civil Sevice: the phrase "Doing an Appleby!!" R I P Nigel - and thank you! 👍
@@spongebobsquaretits As a Knight Bachelor yes, but I my meaning was that he should have been promoted from CBE to KBE. Why knight someone as a "Bachelor" - a knight not belonging to any Order - when they already hold the rank (in this case CBE) immediately below a knight in an Order? Seems absurd to me!
Sir Humphrey, what a brilliant understanding of the English language. I did hear that he used beta blockers so that he could continue without stumbling. Even so, his intellect was brilliant !
In my opinion, Yes Minister was better because the victories between Humphrey and Hacker were evenly divided. There was even one episode where they work together - regarding the transportation policy. In Yes Prime Minister, Hacker won only twice and defeats were more pronounced.
saikat93ify “,Dear Jim’...JIM.? Look! It’s in her own hand… And it’s signed! Do you know how much this is worth?” “I believe the going price is 30 pieces of silver.” Oh that was Hacker’s most treasured victory, and I laugh every time I think of the look on Humphreys face.
Telling the opposite to the truth is an untruth, which is not exactly the same as a lie. All lies are untruths, but not all untruths are lies. If someone says something that is untrue but believes it to be true and with no intention to deceive then I would not call it a lie.
I think the implication is that he "lied" to Parliament, which is an offence requiring resignation under Westminster conventions. A parliamentarian who provided an untrue answer (even in good faith) would be, of course, attacked by the opposition for telling a deliberate lie, regardless of the reality of the situation.
In this perticular case, Hacker is in the position off the one "who should have known the truth". But noone in the civil service actually told him the truth. The civil service keeps secrets from Hacker about stuff Hacker is supposed to know about.Hacker told the untruth, but not out off intent, but because the CS hid the truth from him.Humphrey off course twisted it, shaving all responsiblity from himself and claims that Hacker actually lied, because Hacker is in the position off the one "who should have known".
Sir Humphrey knew the unknown, but he kept it unknown that he knew how serious the unknown actually was. It was very serious, because it was an unknown quantity.
@@matthew8153 The fear is definitely caused by not knowing what it is that we don't know, minister. We simply do not know what the consequences might be, and that is frightening.
@@matthew8153 I can assure you that I strongly suspect that there are a lot of things that I do not know. But the worrying thing is that my unknowns might be different from your unknowns. There are bound to be overlaps, such that we are equally ignorant in certain unspecified areas.
@@clemstevenson Precisely the point of this perplexing piece. Pointing and prodding will presumably persist until all present parties propose the position of proliferating public perception.
Watching this you might want to try the Australian series Utopia (not to be confused with the British or American TV series with the same name). It has the pseudo-serious style of The Office (no background laughs for example) combined with the more 'serious' situations like the ones you find in Yes Minister. It's quite hilarious. I would especially recommend it to people who have worked in government themselves.
One of the best programs they ever did on the BBC... and one that every would be politician and civil servant should be required to watch so that they avoid making rush judgements and playing hasty games..... they could have avoided the whole Brexit debacle if they had seen and understand why it is better not to make snap judgements or follow the appeals of the fringes of the society but play towards a calm sober middle path.
"appeals of the fringes of society", directly relating to Brexit. Where is only the fringes, surely a referendum was nothing to "fear". In fact a heart felt belief it was only the fringes is likely the only reason 52% who voted leave ever got heard.
@@wireguided9572 52 of the voters, not the whole voting public. So it could have been quite diffrent if more people took this seriously. And also a vote given, with false information helping make the decision, might be a vote given in good faith, but if the true costs come out, the people might want to reconsider. Politicans get to turn round from good intended but horrible policy.
@@mjfan653 Perhaps everyone else should have got off their arses and gone and voted then. Please, you're actually saying that the leave campaign lied. The remain campaign didn't though, did they? The Governor of the Bank of England, The head of the CBI, head of the IMF to name a few all said that the British economy would come crashing down the day after a NO vote. Granted, it dipped a few points but after a week or so was back on track and has kept on going. To listen to all of them Armageddon would be visited upon us if we voted to leave. The Governor of The Bank, is supposed to be apolitical. The same as the Speaker of The House of Commons, John Bercow. Neither of them seem able to stay within their brief. Bercow is leaving after Nov. 1st and I think that Mark Carney may be looking for another job once this is all done and dusted.
I have often used this one, in identifying the person who has done something, as "The identity of the person in question, can be made by the use of the Perpendicular Pronoun." Or some similar wording to get to the Perpendicular Pronoun.
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.
Wedding vegetable LOL What a great expression! Yeah Barnaby Joyce 'struggling' on $215K per year while I manage on $15K per year. I don't know how he does it.
We know...Rumpole is on a lot too and the courts ARE/WERE the same..and his wife expecting Rumpole to get the higher position as her daddy did keeping interrupting the speech...YES RUNMPOLE...then realising it wasnt him/./its over the top but priceless first time round...you feel like saying...shaddap you silly...
This was intelligent , clever, well written , and probably true entertainment , before this sort of programme was deemed to clever for Mr Average, and we started getting dumbed down, infantile , childish, pap .
Richard Colbeck In the Government of Australia, the minister is responsible for national health and medical research policy, providing direction and oversight of the Department of Health.
I am bemused to say that I understood almost every word. [Civil Servant(resigned) from a former British Colony] Edit: Even though our civil service has a high percentage of women in the upper ranks and different cultures form its make-up I am not aware that this has had any demonstrable effects in either improvement or deterioration of the civil service as it now stands. Indeed, after the perusal of submissions from commenters self-identifying from different countries (mostly ex-British), I have come to the conclusion that irrespective of gender, race, nationality or culture, that the British Civil Service wherever it is implemented is able to eventually subsume all these variables to generate a monstrosity in inaction, ineptitude and apathy wherever it is established. Given that this is indubitably better than unending wars - All Hail the British Civil Service against which all our Civil Services are modelled! 😎
I suppose you know but for anyone unaware-sadly both Nigel and Paul Eddington died some time ago with Paul dying first in the 1990's. Derek Fowlds (Bernard.) is the only one still alive now out of the three. He recently released an autobiography that is also available in audio format. Both Nigel and Paul each have a respective autobiography as well and both can be picked up online at reasonable prices.
Not quite so. The original writers, Anthony Jay and Jonathan Lynn did write for the revival, the revival which was basically an evolution of the stage production started some time before with more or less the same actors. That was their vital mistake, as I saw it. They brought back the original characters and their jokes struggled to shine through. Nigel, Paul, Derek and company were nowhere to be seen and none of the original cast can be replaced. The original writers should have ignored the BBC and instead argued for creating a similar but different enough show that takes on democracy and politics from a different angle but no- same characters, same idea just set in contemporary times. They set themselves up by begging us to compare with the original.
This show needs to be remastered and released again. It’s a pure gem, writers and actors alike. I am at awe with the prouesse of the actors, especially Sir Nigel Hawthorne. Memorizing those triads and the the way he acts and mimics them is a pure joy to watch.
It's truly amazing that every word is still relevant 35 years later. Timeless and priceless.
If we ever have a British Prime Minister that has the same command of the English language as Sir Humphrey I will definitely move to Britain and work so hard to become his own civil servant.
A masterful actor
We have an MP of this calibre.....Jacob Rees-Mogg. Unfortunately he won't stand a a candidate because he has a young family of several children, and doesn't want to disrupt their family life. Perhaps he might be persuaded when they're grown,,,I hope so. He has a brilliant mind, a great dress sense, is articulate, studies everything carefully, and always gets the best of any argument. Check him out on You-Tube.
@@annemariefleminglol Mogg couldn't lace up Sir Humphries shoes
@@annemariefleming Rees-Mogg is an idiot who disguises his stupidity with flowery language and obscure facts which on inspection turn out to be wrong. He is a total waste of space.
@@annemariefleming 🤣🤣🤣
if the BBC wanted to redeem themselves they should rerun all episodes of this
The ability of Sir Nigel Hawthorne to memorize such long and difficult speeches is something that never fails to amaze me
Couldnt agree more
Nigel
@@ZER0ZER0SE7EN AH I didnt notice...quite right..
@@ZER0ZER0SE7EN My goodness! Why didn't I verify what I'd written?! Thankyou
Check out the American comedian Cid Caesar. From the fifties. He was the best at talking nonsense....in various languages...sort of!!! Search for German general scene! You'll be glad you did.
And people today think we’ve ‘progressed’! I wish they could name just one comedy series that has passed the superlative heights that this one achieved over 30 years ago! Surely, when compared to today’s mundane offerings it’s undeniable that we’ve actually been regressing instead!
👏
I used to work in the civil service back in the early eighties and Yes Minister was a true reflection of it down to a tee.
The BBC will never make another excellent series like this ever again, when you look at the tv programmes of the seventies and eighties you see quality not the rubbish you see today.
Did you know a Humphrey or a Bernard?
Oh Yes!! That’s why this programme was so popular 😎
What do you mean? I loved Troy: Fall of a City. Especially when I, after 7 episodes, figured out the black bald guy was supposed to be Zeus.
Jajalaatmaar, the BBC has never made another programme like this since the eighties regarding the civil service.
But I do remember the original House of Cards Which was about the politics at that time.
Another series was the famous Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy starring Alec Guinness which is a 5* spy production written by John Le Carre.
If you get the time watch these 2 series, you won’t be disappointed by the quality of acting.
@@captscarlet17
Any particularly interesting things that can be released under the thirty year rule?
“How are things at the campaign for the freedom of information by the way?”
“I’m sorry, I can’t talk about that”
😂
Miles Jolly One of my favourite jokes from any show!
😂🤣😅
That was a good one 😂
I so miss this show . Magnificent actors and sublime english humour .
Their timing is impeccable, one of the greatest shows there is.
This was an absolutely genius script, played by great actors. I'm from Portugal, and I bow myself to the British Comedy and Culture and all what it gaved to the world. Thank you!
Superb writing and superb comedic acting. These guys nailed it.
this show was sheer genius , absolutely timeless wisdom - BRILLIANT !
and so frighteningly realistic.
It is one of the best shows ever!!! I keep watching it again and again from time to time, and I just started couple of days ago. Too bad they only made 5 seasons altogether and one movie. They should have done more, also other great show is Allo Allo!!!! these never get old or a person gets bored from them.
It amazes me this was filmed in front of a live audience!
Which adds new dimensions on all the actors, especially Nigel Hawthorne's, speeches
I watched this series on Turkish television back in the late 80's. Although the Turkish dubbing was quite good and I absolutely loved this series, the original version, especially Sir Humphrey's speeches, are tremendous.
When the office first appeared, l thought, now here's a show with the insight, dialogue and performance to rival Yes Minister. But, as much as I did enjoy The Office, l recently borrowed a Yes Minister CD from my local library and I was as just as captivated by the brilliance of this show as I was when it first appeared all those years ago. It seems that it just doesn't get any better than Yes Minister and particularly the performance of Nigel Hawthorne - superb.
They were all wonderful. Jim's actor does amazing things with his face. "Your predecessor is dead". Cue a silent monologue worthy of BAFTA.
Epistemological, I try to squeeze it in at least once a day. I still miss Humpy and the PM, RIP guys.
I try to squeeze it in at least once a day too.
Genius.. Sir Humphrey, the best actor of his generation.
Thank heavens for CZcams and Box sets that we can still see work of this quality.. for sure the BBC no longer makes ANYTHING like it.!!
WF
The Thick of It was almost as good
Billbothebear14 This is still the best ever!
Quality comedies such as this are sadly long gone from Mainstream TV, replaced by vulgar, infantile, right-on, insipid and childish garbage.
😢
That is the result of free market thinking gone to far.!
Compare this with "Mrs Brown's Boys..." or don't; you might feel like severing an artery!
Hear Hear !!!
Sadly it will never be the same, the whole country has gone to the dogs, either that, or i am getting too old! -- Nothing really like those programs i reckon, replaced by Mrs Browns Boys. 🤬🤯
I enjoyed Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister and my family got it for me on disk. Trouble was I started to understand what Sir Humphrey was saying
Now apply it to Brexit...Brexit is a whole lot funnier
If this show was still going, they'd have had a field day with Brexit. The biggest problem would be separating the comedy from the news
@@jumbodoug they did one on europe, maybe two or three.
2020 and I can't believe we don't have any decent political satire like this any more.
Satire died when the last episode of The Thick of It aired way back in the autumn of 2012. That is a fact.
Too close to the truth, so no longer permitted.
The thing is the situations are still the same and the comedy is just as fresh. Must agree that political satire is not the same as today.
The greatest demonstration of our language in modern times.
I have the entire DVD & watch the whole thing once a year. And laugh all the way.
My favorite character is Sir Arnold who is smoother than silk but more treacherous than Attila the Hun.
Best scenes are when Sir Humphrey tells the Minister or Prime Minister, this is the most courageous thing that you have done. Right there Hacker gets a panic attack.
I watched this program for the best part of a year before I found out it wasn’t a documentary!
... Hourargh !!
@Schaden Freud Tory or.Tories
Yes Minister and yes Prime Minister were good because of excellent script writing
Something sadly lacking in many of today's sitcoms. .
The script writers on this show were truly brilliant.
Some of it came straight from people in the civil service.
"by means of the perpendicular pronoun." No one does English better than..the British, obviously.
That's what Al Murray, the publican comedian, said in one of his shows. He actually argued that the human brain is designed to think in English and so therefore the Brits have an inmate advantage in this area. If so, It certainly hasn't been on display throughout the brexit drama
hahahahaha ;) can cause confusions and conflicts with ...
He says he refers to himself "by means of the perpendicular prounoun", which is fine. But then he says "it was I". In THAT context, he should say "it was me".
David Stevenson Not so. It is he who is correct in the usage. The difference between a transitive and intransitive verb is consistent.
You mean . . . the English, obviously. :-)
The episode "The key" is possibly my favorite episode
In the late 1980s I completed a Grad Dip in Public Sector Management; clips of the show were used to illustrate points. Can't remember if they were used to train us students in what to do or what not to do. They were great fun to watch. Ceased to be a public servant within 2 years of graduating.
A loss to the nation...
I used it in an anthropology class as an example of coded language.
Paul Eddington was so brilliant!
I love how Humphrey can always summerize his parargraph of verbiage in a sentence.
I knew doing a law degree would come in handy....at least I can understand "Yes, Minister" haha
Funny thing about law and science ... Always trying to make the previous versions obsolete
A real cross section of the nation (6:52); this show was really ahead of its time.
"We wanted the best, but it turned like always." - Victor Chernomyrdin, prime minister of Russia.
It is the same everywhere...
It is very sad that most of the comedians and crewmembers of this show are dead.
It is uncomfortably spot on regarding politics. Pure genius. 👍🏼😊
Excellent show as relevant then as is now I worked for 14yrs in nsw public service
I've seen this in action. It is the reason the public service moves at snail pace. Every person is intimately engaged in arse protection. The most important thing is the Process, outcomes don't matter. And it is absolutely true. You never tell a minister anything they don't need to know. So they can have plausible deniability.
He that would keep a secret must keep it secret that he hath a secret to keep. Lol.
👍
True, but its much better to let others find out you have a secret, and then reveal it, just not the secret you actually want to keep, but a secret you want to tell... Preferably someone elses secret.... 😉
“Two people can keep a secret, as long as one of them is dead.”
If Machiavelli could reincarnate , he could surely do so as Sir Humphrey. Doubtless
I believe Sir Humphrey could teach a thing or two to machiavelli ;)
Surely you are referring to Sir Arnold.
He seems more of a Baltasar Gracián type. Spends most of his time string enough words together to seem more important/useful than he actually is.
he did, as Theresa May, Emanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Mark Rutte, and the entirety of the European Council, all at once.
I recently saw "History Makers: Machiavelli" by Overly Sarcastic Productions. I can't do their video justice but I will state a bit of Machiavelli's life that may show "The Prince" was supposed to be taken ironically. "The Prince" was a job application dedicated to a man in the Medici family. The Medici family tortured and banished Machiavelli some time before this book was made.
Overly Sarcastic Productions has more information that conflicts with what people imagine him to be but I would rather have people see their video.
RIP Derek Fowlds
What a fantastic program.! Very relevant in todays political situation. brilliant.
Brilliant series, wonderful acting from the main 3, however what brilliant supporting actors week after week.
Nigel Hawthorne at his very best! Superb timing, poilshed delivery and flawless, sophisticated, poise - one of the greatest products of the English film and theatre industries!! IMO he should've been knighted - but perhaps his greatest legacy now lies within the English language and the Civil Sevice: the phrase "Doing an Appleby!!" R I P Nigel - and thank you! 👍
He was Knighted, in 1999
@@spongebobsquaretits As a Knight Bachelor yes, but I my meaning was that he should have been promoted from CBE to KBE. Why knight someone as a "Bachelor" - a knight not belonging to any Order - when they already hold the rank (in this case CBE) immediately below a knight in an Order? Seems absurd to me!
when I watch this show again and again ..it seems that the same problems are still here today. ..
Sir Humphrey, what a brilliant understanding of the English language. I did hear that he used beta blockers so that he could continue without stumbling. Even so, his intellect was brilliant !
Other point maybe not too many know it, Sir Nigel Hawthorne was in Firefox movie! great move too.... it has Clint Eastwood.
Makes Monty Python appear simply
Those who can laugh at the same humour have a lot in common.
And they are intelligence and intellect.
6:54 A real cross section of the nation - man, this show was really ahead of its time.
Pure class from the first to the last episode
This is one of the better YM/YPM clips comp.
Thank you
The smoking minister of health reminds me of the Belgian health minister Maggie Celine Louise De Block.
It was a take-off of Kenneth Clarke, who has now retired but somehow is still alive.
@@anonUK I think Clarke is still alive because the whiskey deactivated the nicotine that was in his system. It's just science.
Today we have Benny Hill as prime minister......my good fellows...lol
The double speak on this show was pure brilliance.
You can say that again.
In my opinion, Yes Minister was better because the victories between Humphrey and Hacker were evenly divided. There was even one episode where they work together - regarding the transportation policy.
In Yes Prime Minister, Hacker won only twice and defeats were more pronounced.
I dunno, his defeat in The Whisky Priest (at the end of this video) was probably his most dire one. Poor bugger.
That's telling though, isn't it?
saikat93ify “,Dear Jim’...JIM.? Look! It’s in her own hand… And it’s signed! Do you know how much this is worth?” “I believe the going price is 30 pieces of silver.” Oh that was Hacker’s most treasured victory, and I laugh every time I think of the look on Humphreys face.
The fully integrated transport policy I seem to remember
@@PTCello Which episode? I can't find that dialogue.
Sir Humphrey Appleby - prevaricator-in-chief!! And an expert in the use of the English language!! 😊
"A lie" implies that you know that what you say is wrong. To give the wrong information is not "a lie".
"Well, what would you call the opposite of telling the truth?"
@@baardkopperud I would call that a "lie".
Telling the opposite to the truth is an untruth, which is not exactly the same as a lie. All lies are untruths, but not all untruths are lies. If someone says something that is untrue but believes it to be true and with no intention to deceive then I would not call it a lie.
I think the implication is that he "lied" to Parliament, which is an offence requiring resignation under Westminster conventions. A parliamentarian who provided an untrue answer (even in good faith) would be, of course, attacked by the opposition for telling a deliberate lie, regardless of the reality of the situation.
In this perticular case, Hacker is in the position off the one "who should have known the truth". But noone in the civil service actually told him the truth. The civil service keeps secrets from Hacker about stuff Hacker is supposed to know about.Hacker told the untruth, but not out off intent, but because the CS hid the truth from him.Humphrey off course twisted it, shaving all responsiblity from himself and claims that Hacker actually lied, because Hacker is in the position off the one "who should have known".
Sir Humphrey knew the unknown, but he kept it unknown that he knew how serious the unknown actually was. It was very serious, because it was an unknown quantity.
Quite serious indeed.
@@matthew8153 The fear is definitely caused by not knowing what it is that we don't know, minister. We simply do not know what the consequences might be, and that is frightening.
@@clemstevenson
I wouldn’t know for I don’t know what you don’t know.
@@matthew8153 I can assure you that I strongly suspect that there are a lot of things that I do not know. But the worrying thing is that my unknowns might be different from your unknowns. There are bound to be overlaps, such that we are equally ignorant in certain unspecified areas.
@@clemstevenson
Precisely the point of this perplexing piece. Pointing and prodding will presumably persist until all present parties propose the position of proliferating public perception.
Some day, when I'm ready to resign from my job, I shall use Sir Humphrey's speech from Party games.
Loved the minister of HEALTH sitting there coughing his guts up typical government jobs for the boys
Wonderful stuff, how Humphrey can say such things and keep a straight face !
Watching this you might want to try the Australian series Utopia (not to be confused with the British or American TV series with the same name). It has the pseudo-serious style of The Office (no background laughs for example) combined with the more 'serious' situations like the ones you find in Yes Minister. It's quite hilarious. I would especially recommend it to people who have worked in government themselves.
For the first time in my life, I heard the full definition of I.
One of the best programs they ever did on the BBC... and one that every would be politician and civil servant should be required to watch so that they avoid making rush judgements and playing hasty games..... they could have avoided the whole Brexit debacle if they had seen and understand why it is better not to make snap judgements or follow the appeals of the fringes of the society but play towards a calm sober middle path.
"appeals of the fringes of society", directly relating to Brexit.
Where is only the fringes, surely a referendum was nothing to "fear". In fact a heart felt belief it was only the fringes is likely the only reason 52% who voted leave ever got heard.
Well, if 52% is on the fringes, then pretty much everything else is irrelevant. You rarely get a 52% vote for anything.
@@wireguided9572 52 of the voters, not the whole voting public. So it could have been quite diffrent if more people took this seriously. And also a vote given, with false information helping make the decision, might be a vote given in good faith, but if the true costs come out, the people might want to reconsider. Politicans get to turn round from good intended but horrible policy.
@@mjfan653 Perhaps everyone else should have got off their arses and gone and voted then. Please, you're actually saying that the leave campaign lied. The remain campaign didn't though, did they? The Governor of the Bank of England, The head of the CBI, head of the IMF to name a few all said that the British economy would come crashing down the day after a NO vote. Granted, it dipped a few points but after a week or so was back on track and has kept on going. To listen to all of them Armageddon would be visited upon us if we voted to leave. The Governor of The Bank, is supposed to be apolitical. The same as the Speaker of The House of Commons, John Bercow. Neither of them seem able to stay within their brief. Bercow is leaving after Nov. 1st and I think that Mark Carney may be looking for another job once this is all done and dusted.
Part of the problem in Scotland is the SNP use it as a training manual.
6:51 'A real cross-section of the nation!' [All nod.]
Easter egg: they all wear Oxford ties, signaling their dormitory.
This is both Beautiful and a scare at the same time.
The Perpendicular Pronoun - genius!!!
I have often used this one, in identifying the person who has done something, as "The identity of the person in question, can be made by the use of the Perpendicular Pronoun." Or some similar wording to get to the Perpendicular Pronoun.
“You mean you’ve lost your key!”
I always felt honored to have such an assortment complex and intelligent banter presented to me as entertainment.
"By means of the perpendicular pronoun" - LOL
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.
Thank you. I was about to type it out myself. You saved me an hour! :)
Wedding vegetable LOL What a great expression! Yeah Barnaby Joyce 'struggling' on $215K per year while I manage on $15K per year. I don't know how he does it.
@Aussie Pom "Wedding vegetable" is a good one, but I think even better is George MacDonald Fraser's, "courting tackle".
Dear lord, I think you just gave me an aneurysm. 😁
@Aussie Pom yes and in recent years you Aussies have had more PMs than days of the week! 😂
I'd love to know how Sir nigel learned those monologues! brilliant.
This is the UK that I respect. Not the swamp of today.
I can only suppose you weren't alive or were very young during the original run of either series.
To be a fly in the writers room when they came up with these speeches for Nigel Hawthorne. lol
This is brilliant...thanks for the uploading!
I am from India, & yes minister used to be beamed on Indian television called Doordarsan , it was a most enthralling comedy.
Can you tell me which year? I have vague memory but can't recollect the year.
I would very much like to see this type of dialogue performed in Standard Indian English.
I agree with Antoine, it was and still is a joh to watch and listen to.👍👍👍👍
Just remember how old this is, the word play, the realism..the writers were in the know..nothing changes.
We know...Rumpole is on a lot too and the courts ARE/WERE the same..and his wife expecting Rumpole to get the higher position as her daddy did keeping interrupting the speech...YES RUNMPOLE...then realising it wasnt him/./its over the top but priceless first time round...you feel like saying...shaddap you silly...
He that would keep a secret must keep secret that he hath a secret.
The super-injunction before it came into existence, I believe.
Democracy is at its healthiest when you can make the funniest parody of it.
What we need is someone with the intellectual calibre NOT to understand our case.
One of the top three television series … in history.
The perpendicular pronoun.
I remember that from decades ago. Just beautiful.
You mean you've lost your key!
I thought exactly the same, such an incredible speech to remember.
Great! Thank you for upload.
Good God!What sharp mind wrote this brilliant script and dialogues!
This was intelligent , clever, well written , and probably true entertainment , before this sort of programme was deemed to clever for Mr Average, and we started getting dumbed down, infantile , childish, pap .
Richard Colbeck
In the Government of Australia, the minister is responsible for national health and medical research policy, providing direction and oversight of the Department of Health.
It was simply wonderful.
It was indeed...could a production like that be a success nowadays...any views??
I am bemused to say that I understood almost every word. [Civil Servant(resigned) from a former British Colony]
Edit: Even though our civil service has a high percentage of women in the upper ranks and different cultures form its make-up I am not aware that this has had any demonstrable effects in either improvement or deterioration of the civil service as it now stands. Indeed, after the perusal of submissions from commenters self-identifying from different countries (mostly ex-British), I have come to the conclusion that irrespective of gender, race, nationality or culture, that the British Civil Service wherever it is implemented is able to eventually subsume all these variables to generate a monstrosity in inaction, ineptitude and apathy wherever it is established. Given that this is indubitably better than unending wars - All Hail the British Civil Service against which all our Civil Services are modelled! 😎
Ehm.. what ?? First line somehow ,then i get lost...
You can either have homogeneously inbred retardation, or you can have frankensteins monster 😂
Ohh, I see what you did there... LOL!
Beautifully said.
Sir Humphrey makes me proud to be British....and am not even British.
Hilarious! For average Joes like myself it even gets funnier when skipping back and then actually understanding the joke. :)
Best ever " Humphrey", " Yes" , I have been thinking"
" Goood "
This IS a serious show.
oooh I miss this guy. BBC has to bring it back.
They made another season in 2013. Sadly without the late Sir Nigel Hawthorne
They did and it was atrocious , without the original cast an writers
I suppose you know but for anyone unaware-sadly both Nigel and Paul Eddington died some time ago with Paul dying first in the 1990's. Derek Fowlds (Bernard.) is the only one still alive now out of the three. He recently released an autobiography that is also available in audio format. Both Nigel and Paul each have a respective autobiography as well and both can be picked up online at reasonable prices.
Not quite so. The original writers, Anthony Jay and Jonathan Lynn did write for the revival, the revival which was basically an evolution of the stage production started some time before with more or less the same actors. That was their vital mistake, as I saw it. They brought back the original characters and their jokes struggled to shine through. Nigel, Paul, Derek and company were nowhere to be seen and none of the original cast can be replaced. The original writers should have ignored the BBC and instead argued for creating a similar but different enough show that takes on democracy and politics from a different angle but no- same characters, same idea just set in contemporary times. They set themselves up by begging us to compare with the original.
this is so accurate, it hurts
The current Johnson adminstration is so incompetent and ridiculous it can't be parodied.