The sign of extraordinary art is how timeless it is. Yes Prime Minister could have been written yesterday (or tomorrow for that matter) and would still be current, intelligent and hillarious
@@barryfoster453 and also be pandering to gay and trans issues. And mocking whiteness. And there would be a female PM who knew all the answears and didn’t need no man to mansplaining to her. Also every other episode would be apology for the conduct of the British Empire
The tall chap playing the general, in the Guards’ tie, was a genuine WWII Royal Navy veteran who’d lied about his age, to sign up, as a young man, and was one of only a handful to survive his vessel’s sinking during _Operation Pedestal_ - a calamitous supply convoy attempt to break the Siege of Malta.
Neither calamitous nor an attempt to break the siege. It was actually a resupply operation, and an important strategic victory. By re-fuelling the island, Pedestal allowed Malta to fight on and so maintain supply routes to North Africa until the Siege of Malta could actually be broken after the Second Battle of El Alamein and the re-conquest of Egypt and Libya.
@@SpeckleKen The losses incurred during Pedestal most definitely were calamitous (thirteen vessels sunk including an aircraft carrier), one can witness newsreel of the surviving craft limping into Valletta cut into the movie The Malta Story; yes, though, obviously it was only one of multiple convoys taking the islands as their focus, that critique over choice of words is valid - and it did successfully resupply Malta for many crucial weeks going forward.
@@CynicalOldDwarf Not really "Phyrrhic - (of a victory) won at too great a cost to have been worthwhile for the victor." Pedestal was won at a price that was worthwhile for the allies, it made supplying north africa largely untenable for the axis and did so at a time when the US production was ramping up, so the losses could be covered. It was an expensive victory no doubt, but well worth it.
They were once asked if the episode about the hospital with 500 busy staff and no patients was a true story. They said, "Partially true. In real life, it was actually six hospitals." Apparently, every episode was based on true stories.
I love how true the cut quote is. Bernard says that the RN would rather use WWII torpedoes because they're more reliable and tested, and I believe that's exactly what happened during the Falklands.
Yes, although Mk 24s were available, a Mk 8 21in was used to sink Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, a most iconic WWII torpedo sinking a WWII era cruiser.
Conventional forces is there to make sure smaller countries do your bidding, nuclear weapon is there to discourage the actual big fish. That's why China, USA and Russia all have large conventional forces in addition to their nuclear arsenal. UK and France, though not as big as the first three, still kept a large (by other countries' standard) conventional force as well.
@@Hun_Uinaq By current reports, the 'Poor Ukraine' part fit the bill, but they evidently had quite effective conventional forces. Catastrophic Russian incompetence can only account for some of the disasters: genuine skill and valor among the heroic Ukrainians is evident, which is something positive. Better to be a bombed out free country than a bombed out conquered one, I suppose
"What if I changed my mind?" "Well that's alright. No one would ever know, would they?" For some inexplicable reason, I have never been able to laugh at that one line.
"The red phone" never existed. It was a common American myth about the increased efforts to extend Soviet-Western relations. In reality, there was a Teletype machine installed that created a direct link between the Pentagon (Headquarters of the Department of Defence) and the Kremlin. If the President wanted to speak to the Kremlin, he just phoned them, it wasn't as if it was difficult... As for the teletype, well it continued to operate just fine until it was replaced by a fax machine and so on. The Pentagon and Kremlin tested the line every day at noon in Arlington and receive instantaneous reply at 10pm in Moscow. Americans would send quotations from Shakespeare, and the Russians would reply with lines from Chekov.
The 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council are parties to the innocuously named "Accidents Measures Agreement, 1972" which, aside from giving advance warning of ICBM tests provides an always available means of contact with adversaries. The red phone has been around for over 50 years and still exists.
You cut off a great line by Bernard right at the end. "If it works?" "If there's a nuclear war, Prime Minister, it won't last long enough for the weapons to be tested."
I was the woman sitting at the terminal and in my experience it was the Dutch who had long hair and a laissez-faire attitude to uniforms, saluting, etc. 1980s
I love the British accents to me they are some of the most intriguing accents in the world! I don't know how many there are but I know there's a lot! And it makes me wonder If all British accents can understand each other? For instance here in Boston I can understand some of the Bostonian accents, but I can't decipher all of them! 😀🙏😬
@@ritchievernon8099bear in mind Britain has many, many accents (ignoring some completely distinct ancient languages like Cornish and welsh). You can drive for an hour in Britain and hit very different dialects. Suggest looking up broad Scouse, Geordie and brummy dialects in England alone!
@ritchievernon8099 in the whole of the UK they've assumed something like 240 differing accents. They can even vary over a 10 mile distance I,e, Paisley is a suburb of Glasgow, but it has its own distortion of the same version of English. And that in itself is a corruption of the Kings English 😂 I once listened to a conversation between a gent from Aberdeen discussing a game of football with a chap from Liverpool at St Pancras railway station in London. Never have I been so fully entertained.😅
@@feliscorax They had to remain polite in the show, but real politicians back then were probably just as polite. - So it's not unrealistic, that they said this, while everyone knew what it was code for.
@@lukemarshall1701 Though it wasn't the drinking and partygate that caused his downfall, it was the appointing of someone accused of sexual misconduct to a ministerial position.
@@adamcummings20 that was my main criticism of Prime Minister Rushi Sunak, he was teetotal. I think the non teetotal Prime Ministers tend to do a lot better at the ballot box. Sir Winston Churchill liked his Brandy, Margaret Thatcher her gin and tonic, Harry Wilson beer and sandwiches at Number 10 and Sir Kier Starmer a pint of Guinness.
On the bright side at least the Canadian NATO forces take the week off but we are right and ready if anything happens on the weekend! Just as long as it's not before 2 p.m. in the afternoon that's usually about the time that we enjoy our brunch
In fact, it's about a quarter of that. 1 submarine is on patrol at any one time, so those are the missiles ready for use. If the SHTF, the others would be used before the inbound Russian nukes took them out.
Every little reform Hacker tries he has to argue with Humphry, his cabinet, the civil service, parliament, intrerest groups and the press and rarely gets his way. But for ending the world, he is obeyed without question. No wonder that disturbs him.
One of the most remarkable times in human history, the Cold War. The great powers of the world stared each other down for 45 years, and never once did they actually launch. For the first time in history, humanity had created a weapon that was truly too terrifying to use. Whether or not one believes Mutually Assured Destruction to be insane, it *worked*.
When they said “WE could only hold off the Russians only for 72 hours”, they didn’t actually realise that the PM and Sir Humphrey ALONE could probably have held them off for that long. Judging by what a Ukrainian army trained by Brits has already done to them, then if the British army had been able to have a go back then, they probably could have finished them off in 72 minutes.
@@georgemorley1029 i like how you think that the soviet army is seen in the same way as the russian army. You know the west at the time was afraid of the russians tanks, good thing that soviet union collapse in 1991 and their army went to shit.
I wonder now, if the telex room was the real one at the time, and if so, then whether Thatcher gave permission for the crew and actors to use it as a set piece. • According to the wall calendar in 0:26, the month of the filming is October 1985, as the date positions match the layout of that month. I used HD quality in full screen on a PC to take a closer look, but couldn't tell the exact date, because at least three days in that month were highlighted. The episode "The Grand Design" first aired on 9 January 1986.
this show still holds true, even for newly developed dictatorships, with slight adjustments of the dialogue between the minions...imagine making a series for the Chinese, it would run for centuries...;-)
I love the expression on the military personnels face on the left of Hacker, it flickers a laugh but he's trying to squash it, and looks to the left when it gets a bit much! This clip is eerily prescient is it not with the issue in Russia and Ukraine, perhaps Yes Minister is the Simpsons of political satires!
Frederick Treves (the general) knew a thing about odds in war. He survived the sinking of his ship in the vital Pedestal Convoy to Malta. Awared the BEM for saving some of his shipmates.
during the 1980s the Dutch army had rifle ammunition amounting to 48 rounds per soldier... They didn't think they'd need more than that before they'd be overrun so never bothered ordering any more. Now they have less, half the soldiers don't even have rifles, let alone combat fatigues or helmets.
Puts the inaction of the Afghan forces into a whole new philosophical perspective: Can't possibly win? Then don't fight. Yep, works for me. Saves a lot of senseless bloodshed.
@@jamesward6460 I had a quick check and the numbers are : Soviet 1986: Soldiers: 10M+ Aircraft : 11400 Russia 2014 Soldiers: 1M Aircraft: 1571 Tanks are a fraction as before too, but they aren’t that useful for landing on U.K., so you do stand a chance to hold them off until the Americans arrive
@@comradeofthebalance3147 You don't need 10000 nukes. Carpet nuking a country is just the fantasy of overachievers ie americans and russians. Just a dozen nuclear strikes would destroy a nation like the UK. The US goes under at 35.
@@florinivan6907 Well, not all of the nukes you fire will actually make it to the target. The US has some anti-missile technology which could, in theory, shoot down some of the nukes fired on it. But yes, probably only a small number of nuclear missiles are needed.
Each Prime Minster writes a hand written letter which is locked in a safe sealed and burned when they leave office. The letter details the instructions to the Captain of the nuclear missile submarine, with order on what to do in the event a nuclear war has broken out and communications have been lost. There are two options 1: Launch nuclear weapons at x pre assigned targets 2: Make contact with a NATO ally and follow their Commanders orders Anyone want to take a guess which PM's chose option 1 and who chose 2. I would say Boris 1 May 2 Cameron 2 Brown 2 Blair 1 Major 1 Thatcher 1
In theory there would be option 3. Do whatever you feel is right. The UK is gone and by extension your allegiance to the Crown is no more. So do what you feel is right the country is gone anyway. No point in demanding your continued loyalty to something that is gone. Not entirely sure if any PM has stopped to think of it in those terms though.
The joke about the Russians they should invade on weekdays is a bit cheap and we said it as well when I served in 1981. But in reality, an invasion would not happen over night out of the blue. It needs a lot of preparation which would be detected by satellites as well, political tensions would happen before. In all these events, all armies in the NATO would make sure no soldier leaves for weekends or holidays, to the contrary they would ask the reserve to get ready and increase readyness on all levels. That was the case when I was serving in Germany 1981. Best example is Hitlers attack on Soviet Union in 1941. Stalin has been informed about all the massvie troops coming together in the border and it was clear to every Russian military that an attack was imminent, only Stalin denied to believe it and that has nearly ended in a catastrophee.
This didn’t age well considered how the Ukrainians (a second world country) managed to hold off the Russians for close to 3 years. Granted the Soviet was a lot stronger in 1980, still the UK or France would have been able to fare a lot better than 72 hours
Because conquering 603,548 km² inhabited by 40 million people with only 150.000 soldiers is supposed to be done in under 72 hours or otherwise why even bother right?
zmaajov. The Americans pulled if of in 50 days, twice. Whe are on day 200 and something and the Russians are burning down recruiting stations to avoid being drafted.
Ukraine and many now NATO countries were in the Soviet union making stuff for them and being exploited so they had competent people on their side at this time.
I love the General's humor 😂
"Well, no one would ever know, would they?"
”HA HA HA HA!”
Hacker: (nervously) haha ha... ha...
The best part is that he is literally a real war hero who fought in WW2. Glad he can appreciate the humour
@@zurielsssCould you be sport and share who's this absolute madlad is?
@@Big_J_Enjoyer Frederick Treves
The sign of extraordinary art is how timeless it is. Yes Prime Minister could have been written yesterday (or tomorrow for that matter) and would still be current, intelligent and hillarious
Shakespeare also indeed described in your comment.
Quite.................
Sorry, but if it were made today, it wouldn't be one tenth as funny, it would make continual jabs at Brexit, and most of the staff wouldn't be white.
@@barryfoster453 and also be pandering to gay and trans issues. And mocking whiteness. And there would be a female PM who knew all the answears and didn’t need no man to mansplaining to her. Also every other episode would be apology for the conduct of the British Empire
Although that makes for a good show, it's kinda damning of our political systems that nobody seems to have learned anything
The tall chap playing the general, in the Guards’ tie, was a genuine WWII Royal Navy veteran who’d lied about his age, to sign up, as a young man, and was one of only a handful to survive his vessel’s sinking during _Operation Pedestal_ - a calamitous supply convoy attempt to break the Siege of Malta.
Neither calamitous nor an attempt to break the siege.
It was actually a resupply operation, and an important strategic victory. By re-fuelling the island, Pedestal allowed Malta to fight on and so maintain supply routes to North Africa until the Siege of Malta could actually be broken after the Second Battle of El Alamein and the re-conquest of Egypt and Libya.
@@SpeckleKen The losses incurred during Pedestal most definitely were calamitous (thirteen vessels sunk including an aircraft carrier), one can witness newsreel of the surviving craft limping into Valletta cut into the movie The Malta Story; yes, though, obviously it was only one of multiple convoys taking the islands as their focus, that critique over choice of words is valid - and it did successfully resupply Malta for many crucial weeks going forward.
@@michaeljames4904 not calamitous. just the cost of doing business and a major contribution to winning the war.
How about a pyrrhic success, does that suit everybody?
@@CynicalOldDwarf Not really "Phyrrhic - (of a victory) won at too great a cost to have been worthwhile for the victor." Pedestal was won at a price that was worthwhile for the allies, it made supplying north africa largely untenable for the axis and did so at a time when the US production was ramping up, so the losses could be covered.
It was an expensive victory no doubt, but well worth it.
When you have politicians and civil servants secretly helping with the script. You get this. Timeless comedy.
They were once asked if the episode about the hospital with 500 busy staff and no patients was a true story. They said, "Partially true. In real life, it was actually six hospitals." Apparently, every episode was based on true stories.
"... picnicked in the woods with lady soldiers" is the most underrated line across the entire show.
The part about them being on a lot of drugs turned out to be true. Although I can’t say I blame them given their close proximity to France.
I think you mean, the most underrated euphemism!
I love the fact that Hacker has even more bright ideas than Eric and Dunken when he became the PM, which caught Humphrey entirely off guard.
Not necessarily bright ideas, just big ideas. And Hacker was keen on certain things mostly because he thought they were vote-winners.
One of the finest productions ever. The acting is superb. Never tire of it.
It's been nearly four decades but this still remains, in my book, the greatest TV show ever made. Never fails to crack me up 🤣
More of a documentary but priceless comedy too
So true.
Very Very True.
" Well, it's your job and you wanted it, Prime Minister".
I love how true the cut quote is.
Bernard says that the RN would rather use WWII torpedoes because they're more reliable and tested, and I believe that's exactly what happened during the Falklands.
Yes, although Mk 24s were available, a Mk 8 21in was used to sink Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, a most iconic WWII torpedo sinking a WWII era cruiser.
Testing done by HMS Conqueror on the way back proved that her Tigerfish couldn't hit a stationary hulk they were using as a target.
To be fair, the British performance in the falklands needs to be discounted by the fact that they had the Americans wiretapping the Argentines.
*"Conventional forces are expensive. It's much cheaper to press the button."*
I don't know if I should laugh or be genuinely concerned.
*Genuinely concerned laugh*
Conventional forces is there to make sure smaller countries do your bidding, nuclear weapon is there to discourage the actual big fish. That's why China, USA and Russia all have large conventional forces in addition to their nuclear arsenal. UK and France, though not as big as the first three, still kept a large (by other countries' standard) conventional force as well.
Well, I will say that it’s not as funny anymore. We’re two weeks into the Ukraine unpleasantness. It’s become rather possible, don’t you know?
@@qichen85 poor Ukraine. They have neither. Look where it got them.
@@Hun_Uinaq By current reports, the 'Poor Ukraine' part fit the bill, but they evidently had quite effective conventional forces. Catastrophic Russian incompetence can only account for some of the disasters: genuine skill and valor among the heroic Ukrainians is evident, which is something positive. Better to be a bombed out free country than a bombed out conquered one, I suppose
"What if I changed my mind?"
"Well that's alright. No one would ever know, would they?"
For some inexplicable reason, I have never been able to laugh at that one line.
Black humor isn't for everyone. But it hits home particularly for those of us who grew up during the Cold War.
@@danieldickson8591I love this line as I do black humour generally. But then I was born the year the Berlin Wall came down.
The more the details change, the more the situation stays the same. 😆❤️
I don't think we're particularly worried about holding back Chinese conventional forces. Is there a nuclear hotline to China?
@@jrd33 Top US General Mark Milley did call China last October and January to reassure the Chinese military. One only panic to relevant opponents.
"The red phone" never existed. It was a common American myth about the increased efforts to extend Soviet-Western relations. In reality, there was a Teletype machine installed that created a direct link between the Pentagon (Headquarters of the Department of Defence) and the Kremlin. If the President wanted to speak to the Kremlin, he just phoned them, it wasn't as if it was difficult...
As for the teletype, well it continued to operate just fine until it was replaced by a fax machine and so on. The Pentagon and Kremlin tested the line every day at noon in Arlington and receive instantaneous reply at 10pm in Moscow. Americans would send quotations from Shakespeare, and the Russians would reply with lines from Chekov.
For the unaware, the hotline is currently an email server. Amusingly, the DC-Beijing hotline actually is a phone line.
@@PhoenixT70 US 2 Ruzzia: Do U want 2 cyber?
The 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council are parties to the innocuously named "Accidents Measures Agreement, 1972" which, aside from giving advance warning of ICBM tests provides an always available means of contact with adversaries. The red phone has been around for over 50 years and still exists.
“U up?”
Chekov: "Excuse me, sir! Can you direct us to the naval base in Alameda? It's where they keep the nuclear wessels."
(Star Trek IV reference :)
You cut off a great line by Bernard right at the end.
"If it works?"
"If there's a nuclear war, Prime Minister, it won't last long enough for the weapons to be tested."
I was on these NATO exercises and this is absolutely true.
So was i, on the danish side, and no, it is not. We do not get "weekends off".
@@narfle Dude, I was there. You left Friday evening, came back Sunday evening. And you all had long hair.
@@stepbackandthink Well, i actually HAD long hair, but that was before the service. Then my hair was cut short.
I was the woman sitting at the terminal and in my experience it was the Dutch who had long hair and a laissez-faire attitude to uniforms, saluting, etc.
1980s
Good for you! Did you picnick in the woods with lady soldiers?😀
After watching this clip, I am completely reassured by Britain’s defence policy.
"What if I got drunk?". Poor Jim considered in an instance that he might have to cut back on his drinkie
Yes, Prime Minster never gets old great clip
The general has such a great sinister laugh.
Yes, 0:15 is a great one
Not really most nco's have a much more sinister ones
A real boy sailor from Operation Pedestal, watched as hundreds of men died to supply Malta with vital war materiel.
"MAD! Mutually Assured Destruction. A perfect acronym if ever there was one."
Did they create the term or the acronym first? Lol
Worst part is, it worked.
I think British comedies are some of the funniest in the entire world! 😬😹
I love the British accents to me they are some of the most intriguing accents in the world! I don't know how many there are but I know there's a lot! And it makes me wonder If all British accents can understand each other? For instance here in Boston I can understand some of the Bostonian accents, but I can't decipher all of them! 😀🙏😬
@@ritchievernon8099bear in mind Britain has many, many accents (ignoring some completely distinct ancient languages like Cornish and welsh). You can drive for an hour in Britain and hit very different dialects. Suggest looking up broad Scouse, Geordie and brummy dialects in England alone!
@ritchievernon8099 in the whole of the UK they've assumed something like 240 differing accents. They can even vary over a 10 mile distance I,e, Paisley is a suburb of Glasgow, but it has its own distortion of the same version of English. And that in itself is a corruption of the Kings English 😂
I once listened to a conversation between a gent from Aberdeen discussing a game of football with a chap from Liverpool at St Pancras railway station in London.
Never have I been so fully entertained.😅
'Picnic in the woods with lady soldiers' Brilliant.
...true story.
Those troops had been deemed 'killed' by the Soviet first strike...so, to pass the time...they picniced.
@@dclark142002 I’m sure that’s not all they did.
@@feliscorax They had to remain polite in the show, but real politicians back then were probably just as polite. - So it's not unrealistic, that they said this, while everyone knew what it was code for.
Its only the new Zealand high commissioner. Hahahahaha !!
What if I got drunk?
We'd prefer it if you didn't.
Seems like a natural thing that civil servants would say.
Sadly recent partygate scandal suggests drunkenness would be of less concern now.
@@lukemarshall1701 Though it wasn't the drinking and partygate that caused his downfall, it was the appointing of someone accused of sexual misconduct to a ministerial position.
In the Czech version, this quote is even better, it goes like this: "What if I got drunk?" ... "In that case, we do not recommend to come here."
"What if I were to get drunk" I can vividly see Boris Johnson saying that in that exact cadence
@@adamcummings20 that was my main criticism of Prime Minister Rushi Sunak, he was teetotal. I think the non teetotal Prime Ministers tend to do a lot better at the ballot box. Sir Winston Churchill liked his Brandy, Margaret Thatcher her gin and tonic, Harry Wilson beer and sandwiches at Number 10 and Sir Kier Starmer a pint of Guinness.
On the bright side at least the Canadian NATO forces take the week off but we are right and ready if anything happens on the weekend! Just as long as it's not before 2 p.m. in the afternoon that's usually about the time that we enjoy our brunch
The more I watch this programme the more clever and funny I realise it was. It is unfortunate such situation comedy cannot be made today.
What an era this one was made. Love it as always!
This very much sums up how it was, and in some ways still is.
I like the fact that I can empathize with both Jim and Sir Humphrey. THAT's good writing.
I have just read the script for this whole scene, and I still laughed watching it!
'I know what you are thinking not very many.' Typical way of guiding the nature of the conversation in the direction you want.
In fact, it's about a quarter of that. 1 submarine is on patrol at any one time, so those are the missiles ready for use. If the SHTF, the others would be used before the inbound Russian nukes took them out.
Only the genius British creative minds have been able to produce this timeless masterpiece of TV SERIES 🇬🇧🥰🤗🎬
"...picnick'd in the woods with lady soldiers.." - not heard that as a euphemism before.
Absolutely timeless classic
Very interesting for the current moment of the world.
Every little reform Hacker tries he has to argue with Humphry, his cabinet, the civil service, parliament, intrerest groups and the press and rarely gets his way. But for ending the world, he is obeyed without question. No wonder that disturbs him.
Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. Documentaries masquerading as comedies.
Jim Hacker could be a bit absent minded but at least he could be thoughtful.
One of the most remarkable times in human history, the Cold War. The great powers of the world stared each other down for 45 years, and never once did they actually launch. For the first time in history, humanity had created a weapon that was truly too terrifying to use. Whether or not one believes Mutually Assured Destruction to be insane, it *worked*.
"When it comes... If it works..." :-))).
72 hours. The Russians definitely dropped the ball sometime between 1992 and 2022 😂
When they said “WE could only hold off the Russians only for 72 hours”, they didn’t actually realise that the PM and Sir Humphrey ALONE could probably have held them off for that long. Judging by what a Ukrainian army trained by Brits has already done to them, then if the British army had been able to have a go back then, they probably could have finished them off in 72 minutes.
@@georgemorley1029 I thought they meant they can hold them off while the nukes are flying.
@@SiXiam Whose?
@@georgemorley1029 The conventional military of the UK. Meaning as the nukes start to fly you can still order a tank attack.
@@georgemorley1029 i like how you think that the soviet army is seen in the same way as the russian army. You know the west at the time was afraid of the russians tanks, good thing that soviet union collapse in 1991 and their army went to shit.
Can’t stop watching 😂
Does any one remember the part where Sir Humphery tells Jim our weapons are aimed at the French??
1:27 He categorically denied wanting the job in Party Games
COME ON!! Cut Jay & Lynn a bit of slack - an outstanding series
@@robinwilson1433 But he got the job BECAUSE he denied wanting it. That was Humpy's idea.
Only the way politicians always deny wanting to be PM when they actually do 'I have no ambitions in that direction etc'.
I wonder now, if the telex room was the real one at the time, and if so, then whether Thatcher gave permission for the crew and actors to use it as a set piece. • According to the wall calendar in 0:26, the month of the filming is October 1985, as the date positions match the layout of that month.
I used HD quality in full screen on a PC to take a closer look, but couldn't tell the exact date, because at least three days in that month were highlighted. The episode "The Grand Design" first aired on 9 January 1986.
'The Red Hot Line' is such an underestimated line.
3:10🎉🎉🎉❤❤
"So he knows it's from you, you see."
Like he's telling him how to sign into Teams! 😅
this show still holds true, even for newly developed dictatorships, with slight adjustments of the dialogue between the minions...imagine making a series for the Chinese, it would run for centuries...;-)
I love the expression on the military personnels face on the left of Hacker, it flickers a laugh but he's trying to squash it, and looks to the left when it gets a bit much!
This clip is eerily prescient is it not with the issue in Russia and Ukraine, perhaps Yes Minister is the Simpsons of political satires!
That look😂😂😂😂1:23
History sadly repeats itself too often
It has to, nobody listens.
3:30 "Asterix in Britain" made this joke about the British!
So chuffed someone else knows too
Frederick Treves (the general) knew a thing about odds in war. He survived the sinking of his ship in the vital Pedestal Convoy to Malta. Awared the BEM for saving some of his shipmates.
nice! sadly you left out the joke with "sandwich golf course"
Mmm. Gallows Humour. Relatable.
Great stuff!
Now days PM: "tell me general, where's the hot line to Moskow?" General: "It will go thru the operators in US, but they don't speak much Russian."
man I know its played for laughs but the amount of nuclear missiles in the 1980s was insane
Now we probably don't have the forces to hold them 24 hours!!
during the 1980s the Dutch army had rifle ammunition amounting to 48 rounds per soldier...
They didn't think they'd need more than that before they'd be overrun so never bothered ordering any more.
Now they have less, half the soldiers don't even have rifles, let alone combat fatigues or helmets.
Puts the inaction of the Afghan forces into a whole new philosophical perspective: Can't possibly win? Then don't fight. Yep, works for me. Saves a lot of senseless bloodshed.
Russian army is also much smaller than the old days, so maybe 48hrs?
@@hkchan1339 The British Army is also considerably smaller so I fear this is wishful thinking...
@@jamesward6460 I had a quick check and the numbers are :
Soviet 1986:
Soldiers: 10M+
Aircraft : 11400
Russia 2014
Soldiers: 1M
Aircraft: 1571
Tanks are a fraction as before too, but they aren’t that useful for landing on U.K., so you do stand a chance to hold them off until the Americans arrive
At 1:23 the PM says something about getting drunk. And then a female NCO or CO walks pass looking at him.
@ 1:22!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
3:09 new Zealand
3:25 USA soldiers Germany
3:40 NATO
3:51 Kremlin
3:59 trident
01:38
Quite a good summary of the essential uselessness of strategic nuclear deterrence, if you have to use them, they haven’t worked.
original and having read the news pretty acurate
Change "Russia" with "China" and this fits perfect with the 2020's
And the Russians got rid of their nuclear arsenal did they ?
And I don't think the chinese could get here within 72 hours.
And they don’t have the nuclear capacity yet.
@@comradeofthebalance3147 You don't need 10000 nukes. Carpet nuking a country is just the fantasy of overachievers ie americans and russians. Just a dozen nuclear strikes would destroy a nation like the UK. The US goes under at 35.
@@florinivan6907 Well, not all of the nukes you fire will actually make it to the target. The US has some anti-missile technology which could, in theory, shoot down some of the nukes fired on it. But yes, probably only a small number of nuclear missiles are needed.
Timeless gem
My favourite when I was a student.
It would be great if he cancelled trident because he wants to get drunk
It all seems very relevant at this point in time with crazy button pressing Liz Truss in charge.
"Sandwich golf course?"
Each Prime Minster writes a hand written letter which is locked in a safe sealed and burned when they leave office. The letter details the instructions to the Captain of the nuclear missile submarine, with order on what to do in the event a nuclear war has broken out and communications have been lost.
There are two options
1: Launch nuclear weapons at x pre assigned targets
2: Make contact with a NATO ally and follow their Commanders orders
Anyone want to take a guess which PM's chose option 1 and who chose 2.
I would say
Boris 1
May 2
Cameron 2
Brown 2
Blair 1
Major 1
Thatcher 1
In theory there would be option 3. Do whatever you feel is right. The UK is gone and by extension your allegiance to the Crown is no more. So do what you feel is right the country is gone anyway. No point in demanding your continued loyalty to something that is gone. Not entirely sure if any PM has stopped to think of it in those terms though.
I am not surprised Mrs.Thatcher Chose option 1.
She is capable of doing that.
@@florinivan6907 I am 95% sure that is an option, but I was too lazy to fact check it.
My bad, but yes, option 3 what you said, I agree with it.
You forgot about the fourth option. *Launch em at the French and the Germans. Once more for old times sake*
I live in Denmark and really want to watch this amazing show.
Is there a way without using VPN?
Prime video may work but you'll still probably have to pay...
@@jamesward6460 as far as I understand you can only watch it on Prime video if you're in UK
@@vicmtor I see...
@@jamesward6460 nevertheless I will look deeper into the option. Thanks for the help!
I think daily motion has full epidodes
Watch "Yes Minister, UK defence policy". As true today as it was then.
To think Liz Truss has this power now.
had
*Had LOL 😄😄
2:50
You should never have more than slightly less than two drinks Prime Minister.
This was the best in this series. The PM had no idea the red hot line was in his flat.
The joke about the Russians they should invade on weekdays is a bit cheap and we said it as well when I served in 1981.
But in reality, an invasion would not happen over night out of the blue. It needs a lot of preparation which would be detected by satellites as well, political tensions would happen before.
In all these events, all armies in the NATO would make sure no soldier leaves for weekends or holidays, to the contrary they would ask the reserve to get ready and increase readyness on all levels.
That was the case when I was serving in Germany 1981.
Best example is Hitlers attack on Soviet Union in 1941. Stalin has been informed about all the massvie troops coming together in the border and it was clear to every Russian military that an attack was imminent, only Stalin denied to believe it and that has nearly ended in a catastrophee.
1:23 lovely piece of direction :)
Love and peace from Sherpa 💖🐕🇬🇧
This is purge GOLD!
If you dont want anyone argue with you, you may consider being UK PM.
Please tell me Boris doesn't know where "da buttun" is.......
That doofus is gonna press it. You just know he’s going to do it
As well as this show ages in most respects.. it is hilarious now to postulate the Russians would reach the Channel in 72 hours!
This didn’t age well considered how the Ukrainians (a second world country) managed to hold off the Russians for close to 3 years. Granted the Soviet was a lot stronger in 1980, still the UK or France would have been able to fare a lot better than 72 hours
Well, Ukraine seem to have beaten that 72 hour window, maybe the competency of the Russian forces have been grossly exaggerated all these years
Because conquering 603,548 km² inhabited by 40 million people with only 150.000 soldiers is supposed to be done in under 72 hours or otherwise why even bother right?
I reckon we could clean the Russian army’s clock for them in 72 minutes.
Especially when Ukraine is constantly being supplied with weapons and armour from the west.
zmaajov.
The Americans pulled if of in 50 days, twice.
Whe are on day 200 and something and the Russians are burning down recruiting stations to avoid being drafted.
It just goes to show how long we have overestimated the Russians.
Ukraine and many now NATO countries were in the Soviet union making stuff for them and being exploited so they had competent people on their side at this time.
72 hours eh?
Hawthorne breaks @1:44, and no wonder.
Much cheaper to just push a button!!!
You should have at least finish the scene.
PM is right. We need a decentralised vote of the nation.
How much did we pay US for Polaris and Trident over the years ?
the is gaining relevance by the week! :(
I keep saying this, watch this show without the laugh track. See how you feel.
It's a studio audience, not a laugh track.
This is why Britain should take over America. Once and for all!