WHAT’S THE STORY?

IT was 40 years ago tomorrow that the first episode of Yes Minister was broadcast on BBC 2.

Written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, it was the first comedy series on television that was set inside politics and the Government and satirised both. It set the tone, and a very high bar, for 1980s television comedy.

An important point is that it did not set out to satirise the Tories or Labour, and proving that she did indeed have a sense of humour, it was said to be then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s favourite comedy.

The first episode introduced the viewing public to Jim Hacker MP being made the Minister of Administrative Affairs before he meets his Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby and his Principal Private Secretary Bernard Woolley. The sitcom was set mainly in private offices and clubs, and only ventures into the House of Commons on three occasions because, as was made clear many times in many episodes, Government doesn’t “do” the Commons. When the writers began to run out of departmental subjects for Hacker and Appleby to squabble over, they simply brought out a sequel, Yes Prime Minister. It, too, was a huge success.

WHO WERE ITS STARS?

PAUL Eddington played Hacker, Nigel Hawthorne played Appleby and Derek Fowlds played Bernard – he was never addressed as Woolley. The main thrust of the comedy was that Appleby was always trying to frustrate Hacker’s plans, usually delivering at least one speech of blistering obfuscation yet masterfully delivered.

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Eddington was already a star thanks to his role as Jerry Leadbetter in The Good Life, and he was nominated four times for the BAFTA award for the Best Light Entertainment Performance only to lose out each time to his co-star Hawthorne.

Eddington died in 1995 after a courageous battle against skin cancer. Hawthorne went on to win an Oscar for The Madness of King George and was knighted in 1999, two years before his death from a heart attack. Derek Fowlds died just last month at the age of 82. He was known to a generation of children as Mr Derek in The Basil Brush Show and he played Oscar Blaketon for the entire 18 years of Heartbeat.

WHAT WAS ITS IMPACT?

AN original concept in situation comedy, Yes Minister and its sequel were critical successes from the outset, winning BAFTA awards galore and being seen as transformational in its comedic style and its willingness to satirise politics which spawned imitators but, most fans would argue, no true successor.

ITV kept looking for a similar politics-based comedy and eventually came up with Spitting Image which used puppets to satirises politics and politicians, comedy, sport, and television itself. They followed that with the brilliant The New Statesman starring Rik Mayall as Alan B’Stard which satirised the Tory Government, and then the underrated sitcom No Job for a Lady with Penelope Keith as Jean Price MP. The BBC had a mild success with Absolute Power with Stephen Fry and John Bird before Armando Iannucci’s The Thick of It which started on BBC 4 became the 21st century equivalent of Yes Minister, albeit with somewhat more profanity.

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HACKER: I don’t want the truth. I want something I can tell Parliament!

Sir Humphrey: The three articles of Civil Service faith: it takes longer to do things quickly, it’s more expensive to do them cheaply and it’s more democratic to do them in secret.

Hacker: Are you saying that winking at corruption is government policy?

Sir Humphrey: No, no, Minister! It could never be government policy. That is unthinkable! Only government practice.

Bernard (explaining honours system): Of course, in the Service, CMG stands for “Call Me God,” and KCMG for “Kindly Call Me God.”

Hacker: [chuckles] What does GCMG stand for?

Bernard: “God Calls Me God.”

Hacker: Humphrey, do you see it as part of your job to help ministers make fools of themselves?

Sir Humphrey: Well, I never met one that needed any help.

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FROM YES PRIME MINISTER:

Sir Humphrey: Bernard, what is the purpose of our defence policy?

Bernard: To defend Britain.

Sir Humphrey: No, Bernard. It is to make people believe Britain is defended.

Bernard: The Russians?

Sir Humphrey: Not the Russians, the British! The Russians know it’s not.

Sir Humphrey: You’re speaking in riddles, Bernard.

Bernard: Oh, thank you, Sir Humphrey.

Sir Humphrey: That was not a compliment, Bernard!

Hacker: Don’t we ever get our own way with the French?

Sir Humphrey: Well, sometimes.

Hacker: When was the last time?

Sir Humphrey: Battle of Waterloo, 1815.

COULD WE HAVE A SIMILAR SATIRE NOW ABOUT BORIS JOHNSON AND DOMINIC CUMMINGS?

Some say No.10 is now a sitcom itself, but others say that some things these days are beyond satire.