Yes Minister (1980)
- Genre
- political satire, comedy television series
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Length
- 5 seasons, 37 episodes
- Rated
- TV-PG
- Rating
- 8.3 of 10 from 169 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
A newly appointed government minister tries to make policy changes but is constantly outmaneuvered by his clever and obstructive senior civil servant. The show follows their battles of wit and bureaucracy in a British government department.
wittydryfast-pacedcleversatiricalintelligentlightheartedsharp
What happens
Yes Minister is a British political satire sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. It comprises three series of seven episodes each, first transmitted on BBC2 from 1980 to 1984. A sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran for 16 episodes from 1986 to 1988. All but one of the episodes lasted half an hour, and almost all ended with a variation of the title of the series spoken as the answer to a question posed by Minister (later, Prime Minister) Jim Hacker. Several episodes were adapted for BBC Radio; the series also spawned a 2010 stage play that led to a new television series on Gold in 2013. Set principally in the private office of a British cabinet minister in the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs in Whitehall, Yes Minister follows the ministerial career of Jim Hacker, played by Paul Eddington. His various struggles to formulate and enact policy or effect departmental changes are opposed by the British Civil Service, in particular his Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, played by Nigel Hawthorne. His Principal Private Secretary Bernard Woolley, played by Derek Fowlds, is usually caught between the two. The sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, continued with the same cast and followed Hacker after his unexpected elevation to prime ministerial office. There were 21 half-hour episodes in three series, a two-minute Christmas sketch in The Funny Side of Christmas, and a one-hour Christmas special of Yes Minister. There were 16 episodes in two series of Yes, Prime Minister, bringing the combined number of full episodes to 38. The series received several BAFTAs, and in 2004, was voted sixth in the Britain's Best Sitcom poll. It was the favourite television programme of Margaret Thatcher, the then-British prime minister. The series was also a big hit on Public Broadcasting System (PBS) stations throughout the United States. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
Yes, Prime Minister (1986)
The Thick of It (2005)
Power Monkeys (2016)
The Other 'Arf (1980)
The Gravy Train (1990)
The Whitehall Worrier (1967)
The IT Crowd (2006)
W1A (2014)- More like this series, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.