IMDb > "Yes Minister" (1980)
"Yes Minister"
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"Yes Minister" (1980) More at IMDbPro »TV series 1980-1984


Overview

User Rating:
9.0/10   1,209 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 4% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Contact:
View company contact information for Yes Minister on IMDbPro.
Seasons:
Release Date:
25 February 1980 (UK) more
Genre:
Plot:
James Hacker is the British Minister for Administrative Affairs. He tries to do something and cut government waste... more
Awards:
6 wins & 3 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(3 articles)
Ludovic Kennedy dies, aged 89
 (From digitalspy. 20 October 2009, 12:26 AM, PDT)

BFI Lff Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats
 (From HeyUGuys. 15 October 2009, 12:44 PM, PDT)

User Comments:
Should be requirement for any political science degree more (22 total)

Cast

 (Series Cast Summary - 4 of 22)
Paul Eddington ... James Hacker (22 episodes, 1980-1984)
Nigel Hawthorne ... Sir Humphrey Appleby (22 episodes, 1980-1984)
Derek Fowlds ... Bernard Woolley (22 episodes, 1980-1984)
Diana Hoddinott ... Annie Hacker (10 episodes, 1980-1984)
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Additional Details

Runtime:
30 min (21 episodes) | 60 min (1 episode)
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
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. more
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: During the train sequence in "The Official Visit", a close-up shows that the warning notice on the wall is written in gibberish. more
Quotes:
Sir Humphrey Appleby: [Talking about Government reports] it could be argued that the Sermon on the Mount, where it a government report would never have been published.
[pause]
Sir Humphrey Appleby: All that nonsense about the meek inheriting the earth.
[pause]
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Could do illrepairble damage to the defence budget
more
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FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
16 out of 17 people found the following comment useful.
Should be requirement for any political science degree, 7 September 2001
Author: Sanatan Rai (sanatan@gmail.com) from Stanford, California, the USA

Yes Minister is Britain after three hundred years of Democracy.

As an assessment of Democracy it is hard to surpass, and so I believe that every one studying for a degree in political science should watch this serial, or better still, read the books.

I watched this programme with my parents who are civil servants (in India), and they tell me that every bit is true.

If one had to nitpick, then I should observe that the initial episodes had more of a serious strain than the later ones. They are better because they concentrate on the politics, rather than on the comedy as is the case in the later episodes. Yes Minister became massively popular very quickly, and so the authors naturally tried to enhance its comic appeal. The last few episodes are a bit feeble in comparison to the initial ones, though they are, of course, still much, much better than any other television comedy.

Crossman's diaries are the real antecedents of this programme, and some of the incidents, such as moving the contents of the in tray to the out tray come directly from Crossman.

This is the best programme on television that I have seen, and the the standard by which one should judge all others.

Was the above comment useful to you?
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