1. Open Government
Open Government is our first glimpse into the inner workings of the Department of Administrative Affairs. The Right Honorable James (Jim) Hacker MP (Minister of Parliament) has just been given the department after his party has swept to power in Britain. He is a politician’s politician and he is soon to meet a civil servant’s civil servant. From here the ride will get a little bumpy as political agendas and bureaucratic red tape collide head on.
2. The Official Visit
When the leader of an African country is killed in a coup, his successor, who is an old friend of Jim's, comes in his place. They negotiate a £50 million deal to help buy oil exploration equipment.
3. The Economy Drive
im Hacker is determined to reduce the Civil Service, but he is frustrated by Sir Humphrey, and the only numbers he can alter are the numbers of tea ladies.
4. Big Brother
When the Government is planning to introduce a national database, Jim wants to bring in safe guards, but Sir Humphrey stalls until with some help from the opposition, Jim gets his way.
5. The Writing on the Wall
A rumor starts that Jim's department is about to be axed. So with help from Sir Humphrey, they try and defeat the Prime Minister's plans.
6. The Right to Know
Jim faces rebellion at home and in the office over the removal of protected status from a badger habitat, while he tries to circumvent Sir Humphrey's efforts to keep him ignorant of things.
7. Jobs for the Boys
Jim goes on radio to support the ‘Solihull project' a Government,union,and private enterprise building scheme, that he has inherited from the last administration, but unknown to him the project is close to bankruptcy, Sir Humphrey hopes to save the deal by offering a ‘Quango' to the director of the bank involved.
Yes Minister 1
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Yes Minister 2
8. The Compassionate Society9. Doing the Honours
When Jim learns that he can block civil servant's honours, he blackmails them into cutting their budgets, but when he hears that he might be in line for an honorary degree, he has to back down.
10. The Death List
When Jim learns that when in opposition he was bugged by the Secret Service, he decides to bring in legislation to curb the bugging. However, he finds out that he is on the death list of a group of terrorists, and the best way to find them, is by bugging phone lines.
11. The Greasy Pole
Jim has the chance of creating jobs,and saving a chemical company, when they are offered the chance to manufacture a highly dangerous chemical, but when the news gets out that it might be too dangerous, he has to back down.
12. The Devil You KnowWhen Jim is betrayed by a Cabinet colleague over his plans to bring in jobs for British workers, he thinks about leaving Westminster and becoming a European Commissioner, But when Sir Humphrey learns who his replacement will be, he tries to change Jim's mind.
13. The Quality of Life
Sir Humphrey uses Jim's promise to keep a popular city farm project open to get special permission for an additional nine floors on a proposed skyscraper.
14. A Question of Loyalty
Jim and Sir Humphrey pass the buck to protect each other when they appear before a select committee investigating charges of waste in Hacker's ministry, until Jim's higher loyalties are called upon.
Yes Minister 3
15. Equal Opportunities
Jim decides to promote more women to high civil service positions despite Sir Humphrey's opposition.
16. The Challenge
When Jim tackles local council administration and civil defense, he runs afoul of a BBC interviewer.
17. The Skeleton in the Closet
Jim uses a costly mistake from Sir Humphrey's past to escape chastising an efficient local council for being late with their paperwork. This once again cause another dispute between the two.
18. The Moral Dimension
Jim is forced to back down about exposing bribery used to obtain a lucrative foreign contract when Bernard allows a valuable vase from a foreign government to be undervalued so that Mrs. Hacker can keep it.
19. The Bed Of Nails
Jim accepts an unpopular position pushing a national transportation bill desired by Number 10, but opposed by everyone else, especially Sir Humprhey.
20. The Whiskey Priest
Jim faces opposition from all sides when he learns that British munitions have been sold to terrorist groups and he decides to start an inquiry into how it happened.
21. The Middle Class Rip Off
Jim and Sir Humphrey collide when Jim acts as an MP to sell an art gallery and museum in his district to support a popular local soccer club.
22. Special. Short Episode
Margaret Thatcher stars as the Prime Minister in this special episode co-written by Thatcher herself.
Writer: Margaret Thatcher, Bernard Ingham
Guest star: Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister)
23. Party Games
Sir Humphrey leaves the dept of Administrative Affairs, and becomes Cabinet Secretary. During the Christmas break the Home Secretary is arrested for drink driving and has to resign. then the Prime Minister also resigns so the party have to look for a compromise candidate.
Trivia-Yes Minister
Screenwriters Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn avoided all references that could indicate Hacker's political party, though Lynn later admitted they had always imagined him as a centre minded Conservative.
The role of James Hacker was written with Paul Eddington in mind.
The British Film Institute (BFI) named this as one of the top ten television programmes of all time.
A great fan of the series, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (as she then was) wrote a sketch for the show with press secretary Bernard Ingham which was recorded and aired as part of the 1984 National Viewers and Listeners Awards. The sketch featured Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne, both of whom are talking to the Prime Minister (played by Thatcher herself) about her notion to abolish economists.
The writers had advisors who had worked within the government and many of the stories were based on real situations. For example, in episode #3.4 ('The Moral Dimension') they go to an arab state where alcohol is not allowed and so they set up a "communications room" in the embassy where they keep a stash of booze so they could slip out and have a drink. This really happened.
Quotes-Yes Minister
[Discussing property owned by the Department of Administrative Affairs]
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Ladysmith House is top secret.
James Hacker: How can a seven storey building in Walthamstow be top secret?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Where there's a will, there's a way.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Politicians like to panic. They need activity; it's their substitute for achievement!
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Minister, Britain has had the same foreign policy objective for at least the last 500 years: to create a disunited Europe. In that cause we have fought with the Dutch against the Spanish, with the Germans against the French, with the French and Italians against the Germans, and with the French against the Germans and Italians. Divide and rule, you see. Why should we change now when it's worked so well?
James Hacker: That's all ancient history, surely.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes, and current policy. We had to break the whole thing up, so we had to get inside. We tried to break it up from the outside, but that wouldn't work. Now that we're inside we can make a complete pig's breakfast of the whole thing: set the Germans against the French, the French against the Italians, the Italians against the Dutch. The Foreign Office is terribly pleased, it's just like old times.
James Hacker: But if that's true, why is the foreign office pushing for higher membership?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: I'd have thought that was obvious. The more members an organization has, the more arguments it can stir up. The more futile and impotent it becomes.
James Hacker: What appalling cynicism.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: We call it diplomacy, Minister.
James Hacker: So when this next comes up at Question Time, you want me to tell Parliament that it's their fault that the Civil Service is too big?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: But it is the truth, Minister.
James Hacker: I don't want the truth. I want something I can tell Parliament!
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Minister, I have something to say to you which you may not like to hear.
James Hacker: Why should today be any different?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Minister, the traditional allocation of executive responsibilities has always been so determined as to liberate the ministerial incumbent from the administrative minutiae by devolving the managerial functions to those whose experience and qualifications have better formed them for the performance of such humble offices, thereby releasing their political overlords for the more onerous duties and profound deliberations which are the inevitable concomitant of their exalted position.
James Hacker: I wonder what made you think I didn't want to hear that?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: It is necessary to get behind someone in order to stab them in the back?
[there has arisen the possibility of James Hacker becoming Prime Minister]
Sir Humphrey Appleby: How would you feel about your present master as the next Prime Minister?
[Bernard looks at his watch]
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Are you in a hurry?
Bernard Woolley: No, I was just checking my watch to see it wasn't April 1st!
[the Home Secretary has been forced to resign after a drink-driving incident]
James Hacker: What will happen to him?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Well, I gather he was as drunk as a lord. So, after a discreet interval, they'll probably make him one.
[talking on the phone about the arrangements for an international conference]
Bernard Woolley: Have the countries in alphabetical order? Oh no, we can't do that, we'd put Iraq next to Iran.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Bernard, Ministers should never know more than they need to know. Then they can't tell anyone. Like secret agents, they could be captured and tortured.
Bernard Woolley: You mean by terrorists?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: By the BBC, Bernard.
James Hacker: But we can't betray government colleagues! Stab them in the back and spit in their eye!
Bernard Woolley: You can't actually stab anyone in the back while you spit in their eye, minister.
Bernard Woolley: [Bernard looks embarrassed] Sorry.
Bernard Woolley: That's one of those irregular verbs, isn't it? I give confidential security briefings. You leak. He has been charged under section 2a of the Official Secrets Act.
