Yes Minister Scenario
In the aftermath of a general election, in which the incumbents have been defeated by the party to which Jim Hacker MP belongs (the party affiliation is never stated), the Prime Minister offers Hacker the position of Minister of Administrative Affairs, a position he accepts.
Jim Hacker: “I'd like a new chair. I
hate swivel chairs.
Bernard Woolley: It used to be said
there were two kinds of chairs to go with two kinds of Minister: one sort folds
up instantly, the other sort goes round and round in circles.”
Once into his department he meets his
Permanent Secretary, the outwardly obsequious Sir Humphrey Appleby, and his Principal Private Secretary, Bernard Woolley, who is sympathetic towards Hacker but as Appleby
always reminds him, his civil servant superiors will have much to say about the
course of his future career and the minister may be gone at any time.
As the series revolves around the inner
workings of the central government, most of the scenes take place in private
locations, such as offices and exclusive members' club lounges. One of the two
main writers, Jonathan Lynn says "there was not a single scene set in the House of Commons, because
government does not take place there. Some politics and much theatre takes
place there though. Government happens in private. As in all public
performances, the real work is done in rehearsal, behind closed doors, then the
public and the House are shown what the government wishes them to see."[1]
Many of the sketches develop around the
different ideals and self-interested motives of the characters and, whilst
Hacker occasionally approaches an issue from a sense of idealism, he ultimately
sees his re-election and elevation to higher office as the only measures of his
success. Accordingly, he must appear to the voters to be effective and
responsive to the public will, and to his party he must act as a loyal and
effective member. Sir Humphrey, on the other hand, genuinely believes that it
is the Civil Service that knows what is best for the country, a belief shared
by his bureaucratic colleagues. Obviously it usually turns out that what is
best for the country is best for the Civil Service.
Most of Sir Humphrey's actions are
motivated by his wish to maintain prestige, power, and the influence he enjoys
inside a large, bureaucratic organization, and to also preserve the numerous
perks of his position: automatic honors, a substantial income, a fixed
retirement age, a large pension, and the practical impossibility of being
sacked. In fact, a good deal of the tension in their relationship comes from
Hacker's awareness that it is the politicians who are liable to lose their jobs if civil service ineptitude comes
to public attention.
“In private industry if you screw things
up you get the boot; in the civil service if you screw things up I get
the boot.”
Hacker sees his task as the initiation of
departmental reforms and economies, a reduction of the level of bureaucracy and staff
numbers in the Civil Service, and governing the country according to his
party's policies. To do so, or at least look as if he has, would make him a
vote-winner. Conversely, Sir Humphrey sees his role as ensuring that politics
is kept out of government as much as possible and that the status quo is upheld as
a matter of principle. He will block any move that seeks either to prevent the
further expansion of the civil service or to reduce the complexity of its
bureaucracy.
Another big chunk of the show's humor
derives from the antagonism between Cabinet ministers, who believe they are in charge, and the members of the British
Civil Service who really run the country.
Jim Hacker: “Humphrey, do you see
it as part of your job to help ministers make fools of themselves?”
Sir Humphrey Appleby: “Well, I never
met one that needed any help.”
A typical episode centers on Jim Hacker's
suggesting and pursuing a reform, and Sir Humphrey's ingenious blocking of all
Hacker's lines of approach: usually Sir Humphrey prevents him from achieving
his goal while mollifying Hacker with some positive publicity or at least
something to cover up his failure.
As for
Woolley, he naively sees his job as the disinterested implementation of
the Minister's policies, but gradually finds that this conflicts with his
institutional duty to the department and sometimes his own potential career
development.
The first series featured another important
character, Hacker's political adviser Frank Weisel, a character that gave the
writers the freedom to create a perfect pun: while his name is pronounced
W-eye-sel, Sir Humphrey and Bernard persistently call him Weasel.
After the third series, following Sir
Humphrey's promotion to Cabinet
Secretary, Hacker becomes Prime Minister and requests that Bernard Woolley
continue as his Principal Private Secretary. This leads us to the first series
of Yes, Prime Minister where another character
gets introduced: Dorothy Wainwright, a
highly experienced special political adviser to the Prime Minister. Her
abilities and insight, as well as her experience, ensure a lasting mutual
distrust between her and Sir Humphrey and an invaluable second opinion for
Hacker.
In order to expose the human side of
politicians, occasionally, Hacker's home life is shown throughout the series.
His clearly frustrated wife Annie is constantly struggling with her husband’s
political life and his sociology student daughter, Lucy Hacker, becomes an
environmental activist in one episode, campaigning against the Department's
intention to remove protected status from a wooded area believed to be
inhabited by badgers.
Sir Humphrey's personal characteristics,
and sources of laughers, include his complicated sentences, his ineffable
snobbery, his cynical views on government, and his disdain attitude. Almost Sir
Humphrey’s contrary, Hacker's is an occasionally hesitant person and has a
tendency to launch into Sir Humphrey’s Churchill-style speeches.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: “The identity of the official whose alleged responsibility for
this hypothetical oversight has been the subject of recent discussion is not shrouded
in quite such impenetrable obscurity as certain previous disclosures may have
led you to assume; but not to put too fine a point on it, the individual in
question is, it may surprise you to learn, one whom your present interlocutor is in
the habit of defining by means of the perpendicular
pronoun.”
Hacker: “I
beg your pardon?”
Sir Humphrey Appleby: “It was... I.”
But politics and the life of government
members was not the only target of satire.
The Yes, Prime Minister episode The
Bishop's Gambit parodied Liberal
Christianity and politics in the Church of England: Hacker has always been thinking that the church is a
Christian institution but Sir Humphrey gleefully informs him that most of the bishops do not believe in God and a theologian's job is partly to explain why an agnostic or atheist can be a church leader.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: “The Queen
is inseparable from the Church of
England.”
Jim Hacker: “And
what about God?”
Sir Humphrey Appleby: “I
think He is what is called an optional extra.”
Almost all the episodes end with one of the
characters, usually Sir Humphrey, uttering "Yes, Minister" or
"Yes, Prime Minister".
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