Yes, Minister

Yes, Minister and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister are British sitcoms that were transmitted by the BBC between 1980 and 1988. The setting was, at first, the private office of a government minister and, in the sequel, 10 Downing Street. All 38 episodes were written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn and all but one are 30 minutes in length.

Inspirations

In a tribute programme to the series, screened by the BBC in early 2004, it was revealed that Jay and Lynn had drawn on information provided by two insiders from the governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, namely Marcia Williams and Bernard Donohue. The name of Hacker's ministry was partly derived from the Department for Economic Affairs, which had existed in the 1960s, created and abolished by Wilson. The fundamental plot of a minister being frustrated by the Civil Service was inspired by the published diaries of Richard Crossman after 1964, which are dominated by Crossman's constant struggle with Dame Evelyn Sharp, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. The title was probably suggested by Crossman's entry for October 22, 1964, less than a week after he had been appointed:

Related Topics:
Harold Wilson - James Callaghan - Department for Economic Affairs - 1960s - Richard Crossman - 1964 - Evelyn Sharp - October 22

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:.. already I realize the tremendous effort it requires not to be taken over by the Civil Service. My Minister's room is like a padded cell, and in certain ways I am like a person who is suddenly certified a lunatic and put safely into this great, vast room, cut off from real life and surrounded by male and female trained nurses and attendants. When I am in a good mood they occasionally allow an ordinary human being to come and visit me; but they make sure that I behave right, and that the other person behaves right; and they know how to handle me. Of course, they don't behave quite like nurses because the Civil Service is profoundly deferential – 'Yes, Minister! No, Minister! If you wish it, Minister!'

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Some of the material for the episodes is clearly derived from or based on material in Anthony Sampson's book Anatomy of Britain (Hodder and Stoughton, 1962).

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The episode entitled The Moral Dimension, in which Hacker and his staff engaged in the scheme of secretly consuming alcohol on a trade mission to an Islamic state, was revealed to have been based on a real incident that took place in Pakistan.

Related Topics:
Alcohol - Islam - Pakistan

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