Yes, Minister

1 9 8 0 - 1 9 8 2 (UK)
21 x 30 minute episodes
1 x 60 minute episode
1 x short special

Yes Minister ran from 1980 until 1982, with a total of 21 episodes. Paul Eddington starred as Jim Hacker, PC, MP, BDc (Econ). Hacker represented an unspecified political party but was clearly a moderate, either centre-right (most likely) or centre-left.  

He entered office as Minister of Administrative Affairs with enthusiasm and ambition, determined to make his mark upon public life, but soon came to realize that his hands were tied by complex bureaucratic regulations that seemed both indecipherable and insurmountable.  

His Private Secretary, the pedantic Bernard Woolley, did his best to steer Hacker through the minefield, but whatever progress the two of them made was usually revealed as a  dead-end. This was because, keeping one or more steps ahead of Hacker, was his Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby KCB, MVO, MA (Oxon), a silky-smooth senior civil servant with a treasure trove of baffling phrases, paradoxical reasoning and enigmatic explanations. In Sir Humphrey's hands, Hacker was merely the ball in a Machiavellian game of political ping-pong.

This classic sitcom exposed the machinations of senior politicians and civil servants in Great Britain, and such was the standard of scripts and performance ( and the accuracy of the satire) that the program became required viewing for politicians, journalists, and the general public alike.

Sir Humphrey Appleby was committed to seeing that his ministerial charge never meddled too much  in the business of the department, and that the real  power remained securely in the hands of the civil service. Every time Hacker contrived to reform the ministry, Sir Humphrey Appleby and Private Secretary Bernard Woolley were there to thwart him via various ingenious means. If  Hacker inquired too closely as to why he was not going to get his way about something, Sir Humphrey Appleby was more than able to throw up a smokescreen of obfuscation and technical jargon, which usually discouraged further questioning.  

The idea for the series was developed by writer Antony Jay and former Doctor in the House star Jonathan Lynn while both were on the payroll of the video production company set up by John Cleese in the mid-1970s. The BBC bought the rights to the pilot episode and work on a full series finally got under way in 1979.  From 1986, there was a 16-episode sequel, Yes Prime Minister, with Hacker promoted to PM and Sir Humphrey elevated to Cabinet Secretary.

TRIVIA NOTE
Harold Wilson's one-time secretary, Lady Marcia Falkender, was involved with the show, providing behind-the-scenes insight into the operations of Whitehall. Amongst the show's many devotees was one Margaret Hilda Thatcher, who named it as her favourite program.

Sixteen episodes of Yes Minister were re-recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 4, with all the principal cast reprising their roles. There were two series of eight episodes apiece, airing 18 October to 7 December 1983 and 8 October to 27 November 1984. In 1997, Derek Fowlds stepped back into the role of Bernard Woolley to read Antony Jay's How To Beat Sir Humphrey: Every Citizen's Guide To Fighting Officialdom, broadcast in three daily parts by Radio 4 from 29 September to 1 October.