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Yes Minister (1980-1984)

3 seasons
3,53 20 votes

State: Ended

Genre: Comedy

Origin: United Kingdom

Developed by: Peter Whitmore, Sydney Lotterby and Stuart Allen

Stars: Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds

IMDb score: 8,6 (18.646)

Releasedate: Monday 25 February 1980

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UK

This TV Show is not available on US streaming services.

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Yes Minister plot

James Hacker is the British Secretary of State for Government Affairs. He tries to bring about change and curb the wastes of the government, but he is constantly thwarted by the clever and cunning Secretary-General of the Ministry, Sir Humphrey Appleby. Hacker's personal secretary, Bernard Woolley, is always caught between two fires. He is torn by his personal loyalty to Hacker and his working relationship with Sir Humphrey, who is his supreme boss.

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The reviews and comments below are selected at random from our extensive user contributions. If you want to write a review or post a comment yourself, you can do so on a specific season page.

avatar of Dievegge

Dievegge

  • 224 comments
  • 935 votes
Friday 14 January 2022
Yes Minister season 1

This is a textbook example of British humor and political satire. Visually it is not much; they are talking men in a TV studio. That is compensated by the brilliant dialogues. The writers were aware of the ins and outs of British politics. They paraphrased Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and Winston Churchill.

Jim Hacker is the Civil Service Secretary, a Kafkaian bastion of bureaucracy. He entered politics with idealistic intentions, but when it comes to votes in his constituency, they give way to opportunism. Sometimes he prepares an eloquent speech in the style of a great statesman, to cover up the scheming behind the scenes. His promises about open governance are reminiscent of Guy Verhofstadt's open debate culture. Sometimes reality imitates fiction.

The antagonist is Sir Humphrey, played with an impeccable British accent by Nigel Hawthorne. He is permanent secretary, what they call a head of cabinet in Belgium, or a secretary-general in the Netherlands. He sees the civil service (civil service) as an end in itself, and ministers as puppets or billboards.

In each episode, Sir Humphrey utters one sentence at breakneck speed which, to put it succinctly, is characterized by the frequent use of what a language purist would refer to as superfluous words and cumbersome formulations, invariably and without exception resulting in an unnecessarily long phrase. which leads to a state of confusion in the audience in general and in Jim Hacker in particular, which means that, as a result of the opaque glossary, the minister no longer has a clue as to what the core of the matter is and what is being discussed actually goes.

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