Yes minister

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Yes Minister , later also Yes, Prime Minister (German title: Yes Prime Minister ; book: Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn ), is a British political sitcom that was broadcast by the BBC between 1980 and 1988 . The series consists of 38 episodes, all but one of which are 30 minutes long.

It has received numerous awards, including several BAFTAs , and was voted sixth in the BBC's 2004 audience poll, Britain's Best Sitcom . The then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher valued the series so much that she insisted on giving the laudation on the occasion of the award of a television award for the series in the form of a scene she wrote in the context of Yes Minister with Paul Eddington and Sir Nigel Hawthorne play.

In 2012 new episodes of Yes, Prime Minister were produced in England and aired in early 2013.

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10 Downing Street , UK Prime Minister's Office

The series follows the efforts of the British Minister and later Prime Minister James Hacker ( Paul Eddington ) to govern democratically, transparently, fairly and with awareness of spending. Not least, he is interested in his popularity with the electorate. Hacker's often poorly developed plans are repeatedly thwarted by Sir Humphrey Appleby ( Nigel Hawthorne ). As a permanent state secretary , Appleby embodies the traditional British civil servant caste , who protect their own power and privileges and are well networked with the other elites of the country.

The third main character is Bernard Woolley ( Derek Fowlds ), the minister's personal assistant . He also belongs to the civil service caste, but at the same time tries to be loyal to the minister, whose views he mostly shares. Bernard is known for his play on words and adds to the comical note. Other more common people include some civil servants, Hacker's wife, and his scientific advisor.

Each episode focuses on a specific topic, such as reducing bureaucracy , strikes , mass media . Other cabinet members appear less often or only in one episode. Almost every episode ends with a Yes Minister from Sir Humphrey; The tone of voice confirms whether the episode ended with a victory for Sir Humphrey or for the Minister. Sometimes both pull together against a common enemy like the press.

Usually hackers discover that a political or administrative act does not serve the common good, but rather individual interests. If he wants to break the habit, Sir Humphrey draws his attention to the consequences; sometimes it is directly about Sir Humphrey's personal privileges or those of his friends. Sir Humphrey is far more technically competent than the Minister and is more familiar with the bureaucratic system. Sometimes the minister, more often Bernard Woolley, his personal assistant, is introduced to the tricks of the civil service by Sir Humphrey.

The Ministry for Administrative Affairs , headed by Sir Humphrey, does not really exist. The audience does not find out which party Minister Hacker belongs to.

After the third season, the one-hour Christmas special program Party Games was broadcast in 1984 . This shows that Hacker has meanwhile become so susceptible to “professional leadership” by the civil servants (in the English version: “ house trained ”) that Sir Humphrey is initiating his election as Prime Minister. Hacker then holds this office in Yes, Prime Minister , Sir Humphrey and Bernard Woolley are promoted accordingly. As Prime Minister, Hacker is more mature and better able to defy Sir Humphrey. However, hackers are not immune to the lure of privileges either.

Cast and characters

  • Paul Eddington as Minister and later Prime Minister James Hacker (German dubbing voice: Jürgen Thormann ). In the new edition 2013 embodied by David Haig .
  • Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey Appleby , GCB , KBE , MVO . He is State Secretary of the (fictitious) Ministry of Administrative Affairs (German dubbing voice: Peter Aust ) and a graduate of the (fictional) Baillie College (based on the real Balliol College ) at the University of Oxford . In the last episode of Yes Minister (party games), he became government secretary . He also has this role in the subsequent television series Yes Prime Minister . Nigel Hawthorne received the BAFTA award in the Best Light Entertainment Performance category four times (in 1981, 1982, 1986 and 1987) for his portrayal of Humphrey Appleby . In the 2013 remake, Henry Goodman took on the role.
  • Derek Fowlds as Bernard Woolley , the personal assistant to Minister James Hacker (German dubbing voice: Friedhelm Ptok ). In the 2013 remake, Chris Larkin took on the role.

In addition to these three main characters, a few other characters also appear on a recurring basis, including:

Broadcasts in Germany

Of Yes Minister all three squadrons were in the Federal Republic in 1987 in the former regional early evening ARD in bilingual / English broadcast German. Yes, Prime Minister also followed on ARD in 1988, but only the first of a total of two seasons. There is therefore no German synchronization and no German episode titles for the second season. Yes (Prime) Minister was and will be repeated later in various third-party programs , currently (April 2019) on ARD-alpha in the unsynchronized original version and without subtitles.

media

All seasons of the TV series have appeared in the UK on VHS and later on a total of five DVDs. The seasons Yes, Minister (The Complete Series) and Yes, Prime Minister (Season 1) were released in German in a box in December 2013. Since each episode was shortened by around five minutes when it was originally broadcast, there is no German synchro sound for the cut scenes. On the German DVD edition, the original English sound with German subtitles was used at these points.

Sixteen of the episodes were produced as radio plays with the same actors for the BBC in 1983/84. The complete series of radio plays is also available on cassette and CD.

On the basis of the series, the books The Complete Yes Minister ( ISBN 0-563-20665-9 ) and The Complete Yes, Prime Minister ( ISBN 0-563-20773-6 ) were published, which are based on the well-known television episodes and themselves present as a fictitious collection of documents and interviews from those involved. German book titles: Yes Minister ( ISBN 3-442-08636-1 ) and Yes Prime Minister ( ISBN 3-442-08892-5 ).

Yes, Prime Minister was implemented as a computer game for various home computers by Mosaic Publishing .

Trivia

The tomcat Humphrey , Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office from 1989 to 1997, was named after Sir Humphrey Appleby by then Prime Minister Thatcher.

Episodes

Yes Minister, Season 1

  1. Open Government ( politics close to the people )
  2. The Official Visit ( official visit )
  3. The Economy Drive ( austerity measures )
  4. Big Brother ( Big Brother )
  5. The Writing on the Wall ( The writing on the wall )
  6. The Right to Know ( The right of access )
  7. Jobs for the Boys ( nepotism )

Yes Minister, Season 2

  1. The Compassionate Society ( The Compassionate Society )
  2. Doing the honors ( honor Half )
  3. The Death List ( The Death List )
  4. The Greasy Pole ( Through the Eye of the Needle )
  5. The Devil You Know ( The Lesser Evil )
  6. The Quality of Life ( quality of life )
  7. A Question of Loyalty ( loyalty issues )

Yes Minister, Season 3

  1. Equal Opportunities ( Equal Opportunities )
  2. The Challenge ( The Challenge )
  3. The Skeleton in the Cupboard ( The skeleton in the closet )
  4. The Moral Dimension ( The dimension of morality )
  5. The Bed of Nails ( The Trojan Horse )
  6. The Whiskey Priest ( The Whiskey Priest )
  7. The Middle-Class Rip-Off ( Tricks )
  8. Special: Party Games ( party games )

Yes, Prime Minister, Season 1

  1. The Grand Design ( The Great Plan )
  2. The Ministerial Broadcast ( The televised address )
  3. The Smoke Screen ( blue haze )
  4. The Key ( Key )
  5. A Real Partnership ( True partnership )
  6. A Victory for Democracy ( A victory for democracy )
  7. The Bishop's Gambit ( My Bishop, Your Bishop )
  8. One of Us ( One of us )

Yes, Prime Minister, Season 2

  1. Man overboard
  2. Official Secrets
  3. A Diplomatic Incident
  4. A Conflict of Interest
  5. Power to the people
  6. The Patron of the Arts
  7. The National Education Service
  8. The Tangled Web

Yes, Prime Minister, new season 2013

  1. Crisis at the Summit
  2. The Poisoned Chalice
  3. Gentlemen's Agreement
  4. A Diplomatic Dilemma
  5. Scot Free
  6. A Tsar Is Born

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ BBC: Britain's Best Sitcom
  2. ↑ New version of Yes Prime Minister at fernsehserien.de
  3. ↑ Yes, Prime Minister Game information for the C64 version on Lemon