My wife was in a Westminster Ministry. She couldnt watch this " it's too like being at work, and I have to keep a straight face when taking notes from the fools". She was firmly of the " if voting changed anything, they wouldn't let us do it" her utter contempt for the Ruling Families of the Westminster Cartel as she terms them is real and hatred of them ingrained .
The genius of this show is they never tell us which party Hacker is from. That's the point of the show, it doesn't matter which party is in power because it's the Civil Service who really hold the power.
He has a white rosette in this episode so it’s meant to be neither main party, and presumably a centrist one to enable them to satirise both. Don’t recall him ever having a blue rosette, that’s very much a New Statesman thing
As Margaret Thatcher pointed out in an interview: "It was closer to reality than anyone in Parliament would care to admit". It was her favourite show. When she was in No 10, the Chief Mouser was a hefty black and white cat named Humphrey ( named after Sir Humphrey Appleton). The policeman stationed outside had instructions to ring the doorbell if Humphrey wanted back inside No 10.
What I love is she petitioned to be on the show multiple times, but was always rejected. During a charity event with the show's cast, she was invited to take part in a skit. She's a terrible actress and I don't much care for her, but I respect her fangirling of the show.
Watched this on 21 April 2023 (that’s 20 April to Americans). This morning I had a good chuckle when I heard Space X call the explosion of their rocket a rapid unscheduled disassembly,” which I thought was worthy of Sir Humphrey.
One other thing to bear on mind is that Sir Arnold, the Cabinet Secretary, is the overall head of the entire Civil Service and is Sir Humphrey's immediate boss so Sir Humphrey is continually needing to impress him, in exactly the same way as Bernard's boss is Sir Humphrey ( *not* the Minister). Sir Humphrey is the Permanent Secretary of the fictional Ministry of Administrative Affairs. High level civil servants are (or were) always called "secretaries" of some sort. There were Under Secretaries and, beneath them, Assistant Secretaries, usually managing sub-departments of the Ministry. In the follow-up series, "Yes, Prime Minister", Sir Arnold chooses Sir Humphrey as his successor in the role of Cabinet Secretary. Top level civil servants were almost always graduates from either Oxford or Cambridge universities and often, like Sir Humphrey, read for degrees in the Humanities such as classics (hence his ability to quote classical writers in latin), rarely in physical or social sciences and definitely nothing vocational. Hence, they regarded themselves as generalists of high intellectual calibre, the creme de la creme, capable of objective thought, unclouded by everyday minutiae, and able to move easily from one government department to another without the need for detailed knowledge relevant to any specific subject area of government. Politicians on the other hand came from a mixture of backgrounds. Jim Hacker was a graduate of the London School of Economics, regarded by Sir Humphrey as a lesser institution (along with all other universities and colleges apart from Oxford and Cambridge) where he will have studied politics and economics, areas of study derided by Sir Humphrey.
It was relatively easy to film outside of 10 Downing Street for many years. I walked up there with my dad in the early 1980s and we took photos. It wasn’t until the IRA bombing increase in the UK that the street was cordoned off
Sadly, it was probably the right decision because, when an IRA bomb did explode round the corner at the far end of the street in Whitehall in John Major's time as PM, the windows of the Cabinet Room were blown in. One can hardly imagine what would have happened had it exploded within the confines of a narrow thoroughfare like Downing Street itself: the blast would have ricocheted across from the other side of the street and demolished the walls and roof of nos. 10-12.
That was something I had always wondered about; why the US president had such strict security but the PM doesn't / didn't; it was never really an issue till the Troubles... 😅 Even after that jogger ran into Cameron, he was pinned by 2 people and the PM was just ushered into the car. There was no full-on lockdown of the area.
@@safebox36 Only one prime minister has ever been assassinated (1812) and the assassin wasn't too fussy about which government figure his target was: anyone important would have done! There was an unsuccessful attempt to murder Sir Robert Peel in 1843. His personal secretary Edward Drummond was inadvertently killed instead. Was he Peel's Bernard? Two of our prime ministers have fought duels, however: George Canning (against Viscount Castlereagh at Putney Heath in 1807) and the Duke of Wellington (against the Earl of Winchilsea at Battersea Fields in 1829). Castlereagh was saved by a button on his coat which deflected Canning's shot but Canning was wounded in the thigh. The Duke of Wellington missed and Winchilsea fired into the air.
"If people don't know what you are doing, people don't know what you are doing wrong" I'm in my 50's, and without realising it till now, I have lived my whole life by these words!
I mean, that works great for first dates and parties, but if your therapist and doctor doesn't know what you are doing wrong, that's on you. Instead of treating the common people as a confidant that might be a bit slow but has their heart in the right place, Humphrey treats the common person as a huckster, willing to screw over anybody at a moments notice. But then again, that's how they treat themselves, so if course they would think that of others. It's all a game of smoke and mirrors, in a world were smoking is banned and were running out of sand. How it's still here is a testament to people's reluctance to upset the people with big sticks, regardless of that stick actually being necessary!
Yes!! Definitely watch the entire series, and the follow up " Yes Prine Minister". One of the best sitcoms ever written. As you've noticed, the genius of it is how close to reality it is, and how ridiculous our Government procedures and Political mationations really are. Sir Humphrey is possibly the greatest character in any sitcom. His long, confusing to others speeches are pure genius and Nigel Hawthorne was an incredibly great actor to be able to deliver them so perfectly. Finally, I loved your reaction to the final line in the show, "Yes Minister", you'll see as you work through these episodes that EVERY one ends with that line.
FINALLY someone is reacting to this yay! Don't worry about occasionally pausing.. unlike your reactions to clips, there are many more good spots to pause and comment. Also, beware in investigating too many terms Humphrey refers to.. he'll send you down the rabbit hole, as intended lol!!!
Yes!!! We were so hoping you'd do full episodes! The first one sets the scene and introduces the main characters. From now on it's more 'Yes Minister' as we know it. 🙂 Accurate and funny at the same time! Grabs popcorn, sits back, enjoys Connor enjoying it! 😄
They were allowed to film in front of Number 10 because one of the show's political consultants was Bernard Donaghue, who was a senior figure in the government at the time. It only came out that he was involved years later!
I love this programme - it's hilarious. Every episode a gem. Similarly, "Yes Prime Minister". But, Connor, watching you watch - and correctly interpret the scheming of Humphrey, et.al. is equally entertaining. Well done to you. And thanks.
Lol. In the UK, "Bernard" rhymes with the two-syllable pronunciation of the word "learned", meaning someone who knows a lot: learn-ed. "As a biblical scholar, he appears to be very learned".
@@MrBulky992 I know, Connor has been told this on every one of the many, many videos he’s done reacting to Yes, (Prime) Minister but insists on calling him Burnit
It's good to share watching this programme with someone else on UA-cam, as I hardly watch telly now and I haven't seen these episodes since they first appeared. This trend of watching people 'react', can be quite entertaining. It's like watching a good film with someone who also appreciates it. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it, I can remember watching the series when it first aired, it is so brilliantly written, every episode is a gem, I never tire of seeing it. Looking forward to sharing more with you, no problem with the screen.
Loving the full episode reactions Connor, keep it up. Yes (+Prime) Minister are just genius TV. I have the scripts and they are amazingly funny in printed form as well :)
Great video 👍love the look of bewilderment when sir Humphrey explains the secretaries etc 😊The civil service is separate from the elected government. Margrate thatcher said this was close to the truth.
Definately carry on with this great show. It's really odd to see this pilot, there were several changes in style when it want to series, not least the theme music and titles. I hope you will be carrying on with Blackadder series 1 though.
Margareth Thatcher loved this series, she thought it gave a good satire over the continuing battle between politicians and the civil service. She helped BBC with all kind of stuff. Together with one of her speech writers she even wrote one episode (never aired, mind you). She made a comical stint with the cast if I remember correctly. This is for sure the only functional political sitcom ever produced.
One of the writers was a Conservative supporter and loved the idea of the actual Prime Minister being involved, the other writer and the cast hated the idea but the BBC had the final say and it was made. It might be on UA-cam somewhere but it is as expected completely awful.
@@Lones555 It was a total cringefest and did not even follow the canon of the series: the script made Sir Humphrey a graduate in economics when we know he had nothing but disdain for the subject and read classics, a much more prestigious field of knowledge, at Oxbridge.
@McJibbin Walthamstow is 20 miles away from the centre of London! Special advisers can often be sidelined as their influence can be corrosive to the civil servant - minister relationship.
'Civil servants' are government employees - employed on behalf of the country - they do the jobs they are told to do by their ministers, as employees they are expected to be politically neutral
Things have changed a lot recently. The senior government advisors are more likely to be privately contracted (like Weisel) than career civil servants like Humphrey.
@@InaMacallan Yes indeed. He was a "special advisor". These days, the spads virtually run departments - Dominic Cummings was Johnson's special advisor, and after he broke the lockdown rules with his infamous trip to Barnard's Castle, he ended up giving a public speech in the Rose Garden at number ten (I have my suspicions about why Johnson couldn't sack him). Spads are political appointments and are therefore allowed to be appointed by parties or individual MPs.
Pure genius isn't it? Really gets all government workings, the world over, the exposure they need. So ahead of it's time and yet true time it's time. What brilliant performances!
It was a useful political tool, even back then. Given the inside sources used for stories weren't just civil servants, but some were MPs from both benches.
Loving this - always been one of my favourite comedies - keep it up and I'm so glad they canged the theme in future eps - something a bit more ministerial ;)
This is the first ever episode. I haven't seen this since it was shown. A good few years ago now. I actually met Paul Eddington in Ireland once. He was really, really posh. I had never met anyone like that before. Nice chap. I remember his daughter was nice
Somewhere, there's a picture of me as a kid at around the time this was filmed standing outside the door of 10 Downing Street. There was an (unarmed) policeman but that was it. It was after Thatcher decided that the age of government by consent was over that they militarised the entire street.
Thank you for doing this show. It’s one of my absolute favorites! I find the pilot a wee slow as they have to set up the infrastructure of the show. If my memory serves me correctly, this Intro credits only lasted for the pilot. The rest of the shows have the traditional opening and theme, which is variations upon the Big Ben chime.
Interesting that you noted the final line "Yes Minister" is the name of the show. If you watch any more full episodes, you will see that they all end with that line.
Almost all, there were one or two exceptions when there was another closing line that worked better. 'Big Brother', for example, ends on, 'Humphrey, my lips are sealed.'
Hi Connor! Walthamstow is an area of NE London, quite a distance from Westminster and Whitehall where the government department buildings and offices are.
7:02 I think this sequence has been skilfully filmed in similar locations. You don’t actually see Jim in front of No. 10. Funny bit for me is the drive he takes from Downing Street to where he meets Bernard on Whitehall is about 100 yards if that. (Google it. The horsey monument in the background is Field Marshall Haig.)The time taken for the journey in the clip isn't massively shorter than the time it would actually take in real life. Governments perpetually crying poverty whilst maintaining cars and paying chauffeurs for pointless journeys. I do like this subtle dig.
Another thing has occurred to me about Connor’s description of our unelected Civil Service. It rather resembles my saying ‘So the United States Marine Corps is unelected and just waits around until there is a war?’
"We have some space in Walthamstow." That's a none too salubrious place in outer London. It's like saying someone can have an office East of the Anacostia River, Washington D.C. You do well and completely grasp the basis of the whole series. The odd arcane reference will always crop up here and there.
As was said below about filming outside of No.10, but Granada Studios in Manchester have a replica set of the outside of No.10 that was also used for filming such scenes.
The Civil Service is essentially the machinery of government, while the Cabinet Ministers sit in the driver's seats. They dictate where their particular bit of the machine goes and what it does, and the machine does the rest - subject to all the other bits of the machine (especially the Treasury, which decides where government money goes).
Im no american but I think that there was in the 1990s an american sitcom that was a satire on the american politics , a sort of Yes Minister of USA. The tv series was called "The Powers that be" staring John Forsythe. It was about the exploits of a clueless American senator and the eccentric, morally corrupt people who are closest to him.
Great sitcom. My mum was friends with Paul Eddington (Jim Hacker)'s wife Patricia - it was wonderful when he got a starring role in such a plum part. And very show ended with the line "Yes Minister".
Your question about how did they film it outside number 10 - very interesting answer. It seems only to have been possible because the BBC were very much permanent civil servants themselves at the time! I'm pretty sure it would have required the personal blessing of the actual prime minister, when you consider that, at the time of broadcasting, there were only 3 different TV channels on air and the scene would be shown at prime time to more than half the people in the country who had their television on.
There's a street round the corner with a similar façade to the old 10 Downing Street, most productions are filmed there. The only real difference to the real 10 Downing Street is the door is a different shape than it used to be after it was made explosion-proof. The building used is called RSA House, it's a venue hall.
this episode was a pilot so the theme tune wasnt the one they settled on for the rest of the series. they filmed at 10 Downing st the same way top gear did decades later - they are the BBC. and things were different in those days, before the IRA mortared 10 Downing Street and PM Thatcher had to have iron security gates put up to guard the area. EDIT: i also have the books Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister which capture the series perfectly without being fully identical.
It is because of the Civil Service that after a General Election, the old Prime Minister can have their stuff moved out of Downing Street the day after, and the new Prime Minister moves in the same day, and government continues. With the US, you have your Election in November, but the new Government is not in place until the following January with the Inauguration. There is a transition period because most of the people behind the scenes have to be replaced.
Nigel Hawthorne (Sir Humphrey) had a prominent role in one of my favorite action movie, Demolition Man (1993) starring Silvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes.
I believe that the character of Hacker’s advisor was dropped quite early on because he could well be interpreted as quite left-wing, and it was important that Hacker was not identified with either side of the political divide. BBC impartiality and all that.
My wife was in a Westminster Ministry. She couldnt watch this " it's too like being at work, and I have to keep a straight face when taking notes from the fools". She was firmly of the " if voting changed anything, they wouldn't let us do it" her utter contempt for the Ruling Families of the Westminster Cartel as she terms them is real and hatred of them ingrained .
Wow -love this comment
The genius of this show is they never tell us which party Hacker is from. That's the point of the show, it doesn't matter which party is in power because it's the Civil Service who really hold the power.
I always just assumed Conservative. Not sure why.
@@Steve-gc5nt there are other episodes where he comes across as more Labour.
@@Steve-gc5nt It was the Conservative at the time, they have moved rightwards since
@@Steve-gc5nt He has a blue rosette on in one episode
He has a white rosette in this episode so it’s meant to be neither main party, and presumably a centrist one to enable them to satirise both. Don’t recall him ever having a blue rosette, that’s very much a New Statesman thing
As Margaret Thatcher pointed out in an interview: "It was closer to reality than anyone in Parliament would care to admit".
It was her favourite show.
When she was in No 10, the Chief Mouser was a hefty black and white cat named Humphrey ( named after Sir Humphrey Appleton).
The policeman stationed outside had instructions to ring the doorbell if Humphrey wanted back inside No 10.
The present cat is 'Larry'....
...one of the gestures that civilization is built on. (Does the Czar have a cat? Winston did.)
I just wrote the same thing, sort of! Your wording was better than mine, though!
@@FSMDog Larry wasn't alive when Maggy and her Tories were in.
What I love is she petitioned to be on the show multiple times, but was always rejected.
During a charity event with the show's cast, she was invited to take part in a skit.
She's a terrible actress and I don't much care for her, but I respect her fangirling of the show.
Please...do continue watching this entire series..It is just too good..
Lovely sitcom 🤣 I served as a "Bernard" in a regional government during some years in the 2010's. I can truly say that this is a documentary 😉
@@bmofano Probably. At least about how it worked in West Sweden back in the 2010's 🌞
@@Tejiknasten 😂 👍
Yes! Legendary show. The dialogue lasts for ages and all brilliantly delivered by amazing actors
Watched this on 21 April 2023 (that’s 20 April to Americans). This morning I had a good chuckle when I heard Space X call the explosion of their rocket a rapid unscheduled disassembly,” which I thought was worthy of Sir Humphrey.
but they took from KSP
One other thing to bear on mind is that Sir Arnold, the Cabinet Secretary, is the overall head of the entire Civil Service and is Sir Humphrey's immediate boss so Sir Humphrey is continually needing to impress him, in exactly the same way as Bernard's boss is Sir Humphrey ( *not* the Minister).
Sir Humphrey is the Permanent Secretary of the fictional Ministry of Administrative Affairs. High level civil servants are (or were) always called "secretaries" of some sort. There were Under Secretaries and, beneath them, Assistant Secretaries, usually managing sub-departments of the Ministry.
In the follow-up series, "Yes, Prime Minister", Sir Arnold chooses Sir Humphrey as his successor in the role of Cabinet Secretary.
Top level civil servants were almost always graduates from either Oxford or Cambridge universities and often, like Sir Humphrey, read for degrees in the Humanities such as classics (hence his ability to quote classical writers in latin), rarely in physical or social sciences and definitely nothing vocational. Hence, they regarded themselves as generalists of high intellectual calibre, the creme de la creme, capable of objective thought, unclouded by everyday minutiae, and able to move easily from one government department to another without the need for detailed knowledge relevant to any specific subject area of government.
Politicians on the other hand came from a mixture of backgrounds. Jim Hacker was a graduate of the London School of Economics, regarded by Sir Humphrey as a lesser institution (along with all other universities and colleges apart from Oxford and Cambridge) where he will have studied politics and economics, areas of study derided by Sir Humphrey.
Ah yes, remember Humphrey's line from a later episode: "The universities... both of them" 😃
So glad you are watching full episodes. I watch these often and consider them some of the best TV shows made.
It was relatively easy to film outside of 10 Downing Street for many years. I walked up there with my dad in the early 1980s and we took photos. It wasn’t until the IRA bombing increase in the UK that the street was cordoned off
Sadly, it was probably the right decision because, when an IRA bomb did explode round the corner at the far end of the street in Whitehall in John Major's time as PM, the windows of the Cabinet Room were blown in. One can hardly imagine what would have happened had it exploded within the confines of a narrow thoroughfare like Downing Street itself: the blast would have ricocheted across from the other side of the street and demolished the walls and roof of nos. 10-12.
I went to have a look in 2007. And both ends of the Street were behind security gates
There are two other London houses virtually identical to 10 Downing Street which are now used for filming external shots for drama shows.
That was something I had always wondered about; why the US president had such strict security but the PM doesn't / didn't; it was never really an issue till the Troubles... 😅
Even after that jogger ran into Cameron, he was pinned by 2 people and the PM was just ushered into the car. There was no full-on lockdown of the area.
@@safebox36 Only one prime minister has ever been assassinated (1812) and the assassin wasn't too fussy about which government figure his target was: anyone important would have done!
There was an unsuccessful attempt to murder Sir Robert Peel in 1843. His personal secretary Edward Drummond was inadvertently killed instead. Was he Peel's Bernard?
Two of our prime ministers have fought duels, however: George Canning (against Viscount Castlereagh at Putney Heath in 1807) and the Duke of Wellington (against the Earl of Winchilsea at Battersea Fields in 1829). Castlereagh was saved by a button on his coat which deflected Canning's shot but Canning was wounded in the thigh. The Duke of Wellington missed and Winchilsea fired into the air.
"If people don't know what you are doing, people don't know what you are doing wrong"
I'm in my 50's, and without realising it till now, I have lived my whole life by these words!
I mean, that works great for first dates and parties, but if your therapist and doctor doesn't know what you are doing wrong, that's on you. Instead of treating the common people as a confidant that might be a bit slow but has their heart in the right place, Humphrey treats the common person as a huckster, willing to screw over anybody at a moments notice. But then again, that's how they treat themselves, so if course they would think that of others.
It's all a game of smoke and mirrors, in a world were smoking is banned and were running out of sand.
How it's still here is a testament to people's reluctance to upset the people with big sticks, regardless of that stick actually being necessary!
Yes!! Definitely watch the entire series, and the follow up " Yes Prine Minister". One of the best sitcoms ever written. As you've noticed, the genius of it is how close to reality it is, and how ridiculous our Government procedures and Political mationations really are. Sir Humphrey is possibly the greatest character in any sitcom. His long, confusing to others speeches are pure genius and Nigel Hawthorne was an incredibly great actor to be able to deliver them so perfectly. Finally, I loved your reaction to the final line in the show, "Yes Minister", you'll see as you work through these episodes that EVERY one ends with that line.
You've worked out the characters and the government set up really quickly. Looking forward to more episodes.
Glad you're watching full episodes. This should give you context on a lot of the clips you've seen
Hope you continue and do all the episodes. This is one of the best series ever made.
FINALLY someone is reacting to this yay! Don't worry about occasionally pausing.. unlike your reactions to clips, there are many more good spots to pause and comment. Also, beware in investigating too many terms Humphrey refers to.. he'll send you down the rabbit hole, as intended lol!!!
Fantastic - loved this - hilarious but scarily real!
Yes!!! We were so hoping you'd do full episodes! The first one sets the scene and introduces the main characters. From now on it's more 'Yes Minister' as we know it. 🙂 Accurate and funny at the same time! Grabs popcorn, sits back, enjoys Connor enjoying it! 😄
They were allowed to film in front of Number 10 because one of the show's political consultants was Bernard Donaghue, who was a senior figure in the government at the time. It only came out that he was involved years later!
This program is brilliant :) thank you for the full episode. All peps should watch this to understand how politics works.
I love this programme - it's hilarious. Every episode a gem. Similarly, "Yes Prime Minister". But, Connor, watching you watch - and correctly interpret the scheming of Humphrey, et.al. is equally entertaining. Well done to you. And thanks.
Yes yes continue to react to more full episodes, you love the show and it’s great to watch
The credits change after this episode to the more familiar Scarfe ones
4:53 Miss - George Gershwin
"I got rhythm
I got music
I got my man
Who could ask for anything more?"...
Watching a whole episode, Sir Humphrey would be proud of you!!!
The best satire because it was so true.
Hahahaaa😁 Your sheer delight in this programme is wonderful to see🤗✨ thanks for sharing it with us 👍
You definitely should watch the rest of the show, it was comedy gold all the way through the show and its followup, yes prime minister
The smartest comedy ever. Just a brutal insight into the mechanics of what goes on behind the scenes....
Do you just call him Burnit now to wind us up 😂
😅😅
Lol.
In the UK, "Bernard" rhymes with the two-syllable pronunciation of the word "learned", meaning someone who knows a lot: learn-ed. "As a biblical scholar, he appears to be very learned".
@@MrBulky992 I know, Connor has been told this on every one of the many, many videos he’s done reacting to Yes, (Prime) Minister but insists on calling him Burnit
Fawlty towers, black adder and this as series to watch, can't do much better mate. Please carry on.
Delighted to see you do the full episodes. I can assure you this is just a warm up. It gets better!
It's good to share watching this programme with someone else on UA-cam, as I hardly watch telly now and I haven't seen these episodes since they first appeared. This trend of watching people 'react', can be quite entertaining. It's like watching a good film with someone who also appreciates it. Thank you.
Faulty towers, blackadder and this! You’re in the masterclass!
Glad you enjoyed it, I can remember watching the series when it first aired, it is so brilliantly written, every episode is a gem, I never tire of seeing it. Looking forward to sharing more with you, no problem with the screen.
So glad you have decided to start watching the whole series. Will be happy to tag along for a brilliant ride. One of the best BBC series ever.
One of the best comedy shows ever.
I stand by the position that this is not a comedy show but rather a documentary
Loving the full episode reactions Connor, keep it up. Yes (+Prime) Minister are just genius TV. I have the scripts and they are amazingly funny in printed form as well :)
Ripping Yarns is worth a watch.The First episode is "Tomkinson's Schooldays ."Watch out for the School Bully.
Loved it! Thanks for the full episode, Conor.
Glad you found and enjoyed this, it is wonderful. Good show old boy.
Great video 👍love the look of bewilderment when sir Humphrey explains the secretaries etc 😊The civil service is separate from the elected government. Margrate thatcher said this was close to the truth.
Definately carry on with this great show. It's really odd to see this pilot, there were several changes in style when it want to series, not least the theme music and titles. I hope you will be carrying on with Blackadder series 1 though.
Walthamstow is an area of London but a 20 minute underground train journey away so miles away from his workplace
Yeessssss! This is the stuff!
The best comedy in the U.K.
Margareth Thatcher loved this series, she thought it gave a good satire over the continuing battle between politicians and the civil service. She helped BBC with all kind of stuff. Together with one of her speech writers she even wrote one episode (never aired, mind you). She made a comical stint with the cast if I remember correctly. This is for sure the only functional political sitcom ever produced.
One of the writers was a Conservative supporter and loved the idea of the actual Prime Minister being involved, the other writer and the cast hated the idea but the BBC had the final say and it was made. It might be on UA-cam somewhere but it is as expected completely awful.
@@Lones555 It was a total cringefest and did not even follow the canon of the series: the script made Sir Humphrey a graduate in economics when we know he had nothing but disdain for the subject and read classics, a much more prestigious field of knowledge, at Oxbridge.
keep watching Connor, love your enthusiasm for the show as it's always been one of favourite comedies
@McJibbin Walthamstow is 20 miles away from the centre of London! Special advisers can often be sidelined as their influence can be corrosive to the civil servant - minister relationship.
'Civil servants' are government employees - employed on behalf of the country - they do the jobs they are told to do by their ministers, as employees they are expected to be politically neutral
"Expected"!
@@johnlocke6506 As individuals they are bound to have their own views, but should not behave according to them
Things have changed a lot recently. The senior government advisors are more likely to be privately contracted (like Weisel) than career civil servants like Humphrey.
@@InaMacallan Yes indeed. He was a "special advisor". These days, the spads virtually run departments - Dominic Cummings was Johnson's special advisor, and after he broke the lockdown rules with his infamous trip to Barnard's Castle, he ended up giving a public speech in the Rose Garden at number ten (I have my suspicions about why Johnson couldn't sack him). Spads are political appointments and are therefore allowed to be appointed by parties or individual MPs.
Pure genius isn't it? Really gets all government workings, the world over, the exposure they need.
So ahead of it's time and yet true time it's time. What brilliant performances!
It was a useful political tool, even back then.
Given the inside sources used for stories weren't just civil servants, but some were MPs from both benches.
Loving this - always been one of my favourite comedies - keep it up and I'm so glad they canged the theme in future eps - something a bit more ministerial ;)
This is the first ever episode. I haven't seen this since it was shown. A good few years ago now. I actually met Paul Eddington in Ireland once. He was really, really posh. I had never met anyone like that before. Nice chap. I remember his daughter was nice
Somewhere, there's a picture of me as a kid at around the time this was filmed standing outside the door of 10 Downing Street. There was an (unarmed) policeman but that was it. It was after Thatcher decided that the age of government by consent was over that they militarised the entire street.
My favourite all time sitcom. Utterly brilliant.
It’s so long ago I’d forgotten you’d watched this, you need to do more
Thank you for doing this show. It’s one of my absolute favorites! I find the pilot a wee slow as they have to set up the infrastructure of the show. If my memory serves me correctly, this Intro credits only lasted for the pilot. The rest of the shows have the traditional opening and theme, which is variations upon the Big Ben chime.
Interesting that you noted the final line "Yes Minister" is the name of the show. If you watch any more full episodes, you will see that they all end with that line.
Almost all, there were one or two exceptions when there was another closing line that worked better. 'Big Brother', for example, ends on, 'Humphrey, my lips are sealed.'
@@alexrogan6563 And of course the Christmas Special, where it changes to "Yes *Prime* Minister".
Hi Connor! Walthamstow is an area of NE London, quite a distance from Westminster and Whitehall where the government department buildings and offices are.
Excellent Connor. And it gets better. Might even have to re-open my Yes Minister/Prime Minister box set for the 'umpteenth' time?
My grandmother absolutely loved this show (and the Two Ronnie's)! 😄
Got to love this, I remember watching it as a child and not really understanding it, but now it hits so hard, the truth is out there.
One Sunday in 1979, 4 of us decided to drive to London from Swansea, we drove right up to No.10, there wasn't even a copper outside the door.
This is a pilot episode which you will notice from episode 2 onwards, it also shows how different life was without mobile phones and internet.
Finally! Cant wait for the rest of the next episodes and season!
7:02 I think this sequence has been skilfully filmed in similar locations. You don’t actually see Jim in front of No. 10. Funny bit for me is the drive he takes from Downing Street to where he meets Bernard on Whitehall is about 100 yards if that. (Google it. The horsey monument in the background is Field Marshall Haig.)The time taken for the journey in the clip isn't massively shorter than the time it would actually take in real life. Governments perpetually crying poverty whilst maintaining cars and paying chauffeurs for pointless journeys. I do like this subtle dig.
👏👏👏 more!
And that is some goddawful music they put over the opening credits. Which are completely different from what we saw in Australia.
Finally! Great stuff Connor
Delightful!! Britain at her absolute finest!!!
Another thing has occurred to me about Connor’s description of our unelected Civil Service. It rather resembles my saying ‘So the United States Marine Corps is unelected and just waits around until there is a war?’
"We have some space in Walthamstow." That's a none too salubrious place in outer London. It's like saying someone can have an office East of the Anacostia River, Washington D.C.
You do well and completely grasp the basis of the whole series. The odd arcane reference will always crop up here and there.
26:35
Like the bloody principal's office. 😂
I think it helps explain how a lot of large organisations work, I often describe my job as a sort of cross between yes minister and the IT crowd.
Every episode ends with the line “yes, minister” (or “yes, prime minister” when Jim gets the top job).
As was said below about filming outside of No.10, but Granada Studios in Manchester have a replica set of the outside of No.10 that was also used for filming such scenes.
The Civil Service is essentially the machinery of government, while the Cabinet Ministers sit in the driver's seats. They dictate where their particular bit of the machine goes and what it does, and the machine does the rest - subject to all the other bits of the machine (especially the Treasury, which decides where government money goes).
Hiya Connor.
I have just finished watching the complete box set of this.
Yes Minister, and Yes Prime Minister.
Creator/writer Jonathan Lynn also directed Oscar winning "My Cousin Vinny".
There are several big changes after this pilot episode.
Im no american but I think that there was in the 1990s an american sitcom that was a satire on the american politics , a sort of Yes Minister of USA. The tv series was called "The Powers that be" staring John Forsythe. It was about the exploits of a clueless American senator and the eccentric, morally corrupt people who are closest to him.
Great sitcom. My mum was friends with Paul Eddington (Jim Hacker)'s wife Patricia - it was wonderful when he got a starring role in such a plum part. And very show ended with the line "Yes Minister".
Awesome show! Enjoy man, enjoy. 😗
Walthamstow town is about 13 miles from Downing St, and it takes about an hour to drive there.
Your question about how did they film it outside number 10 - very interesting answer. It seems only to have been possible because the BBC were very much permanent civil servants themselves at the time! I'm pretty sure it would have required the personal blessing of the actual prime minister, when you consider that, at the time of broadcasting, there were only 3 different TV channels on air and the scene would be shown at prime time to more than half the people in the country who had their television on.
Your synopsis of the civil service was 100% accurate.
There's a street round the corner with a similar façade to the old 10 Downing Street, most productions are filmed there. The only real difference to the real 10 Downing Street is the door is a different shape than it used to be after it was made explosion-proof.
The building used is called RSA House, it's a venue hall.
this episode was a pilot so the theme tune wasnt the one they settled on for the rest of the series. they filmed at 10 Downing st the same way top gear did decades later - they are the BBC. and things were different in those days, before the IRA mortared 10 Downing Street and PM Thatcher had to have iron security gates put up to guard the area.
EDIT: i also have the books Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister which capture the series perfectly without being fully identical.
Every episode ends with "Yes, Minister"
...until Hacker is promoted....
A couple don't... and it's really weird when that happens!
Classic gentleman's lounge
You: "is he dead?" 😂
It is because of the Civil Service that after a General Election, the old Prime Minister can have their stuff moved out of Downing Street the day after, and the new Prime Minister moves in the same day, and government continues. With the US, you have your Election in November, but the new Government is not in place until the following January with the Inauguration. There is a transition period because most of the people behind the scenes have to be replaced.
Connor, I think you've finally got the hang of the civil service 🙂
They do have a No 10 exterior set as well.
Sir Arnold is Sir Humphrey's boss. Cabinet Secretary. It's the job Humphrey will eventually get in Yes Prime Minister.
Nigel Hawthorne (Sir Humphrey) had a prominent role in one of my favorite action movie, Demolition Man (1993) starring Silvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes.
That is why people should watch every series.
As you rightly say. Not satire but a documentary.
Walthamstow - East 17 - is to the north east of London in the borough of Waltham Forest. About 8 miles from Whitehall
I believe that the character of Hacker’s advisor was dropped quite early on because he could well be interpreted as quite left-wing, and it was important that Hacker was not identified with either side of the political divide. BBC impartiality and all that.
I am pleased to see you appreciate this intelligent comedy!