In an attempt to rip-off brianjedi’s NewsRadio thread, I’ve decided to open a Yes, Minister thread.
Same questions as before.
1. What’s your favorite episode?
2. Who did you like more: Dave, Jimmy, or Bill?
3. Favorite quote?
:smack:
Oh damn, I was in such a hurry to rip-off brianjedi that I forgot to change #2 to read:
2. Who was your favorite: Jim Hacker, Sir Humphrey or Bernard?
I am filled with shame.
Don’t worry, someone will respond. After due consideration, in the fullness of time…
I’m surprised to find someone else who has seen this show and, I’m sure, its sequal, Yes, Prime Minister!
It’s been a while since I’ve seen them despite having them all on tape. I am contemplating buying both shows on R2 DVDs.
I can’t recall specific favorites, though. I did enjoy Paul Eddington’s performances (may he rest in peace). It was good to see that beauracracy is pretty much the same in England as it is here.
I’ll have to dig up my tapes and look through them.
3. Favorite quote
Years since I’ve seen it, but a conversation about defense policy between Hacker and Sir H sticks in my mind. Sir H refers to “the enemy”
H: You mean the Soviets?
Sir H: (laughing condescendingly) No, no, not the Soviets
H: Well, who can you mean - the Chinese?
Sir H: (more laughing) No, minister, of course not
H: Well… you can’t mean the Germans?
Sir H: Certainly not, minister
H: (perplexed) Well, I really don’t know - who is the “enemy”?
Sir H: (explaining something obvious to a child) Well obviously, minister - the *French[i/]
Something like that. Cracked me up.
I think, for the sake of soundness, I should answer my own questions.
1. What’s your favorite episode?
Probably “The Skeleton in the Closet” (The one about the Scottish island being given away because of a poorly-worded contract.) It was the first episode I saw. I was trapped over Greenland on an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to LAX with insomnia and a large, thick-armed neighbour.
I was down to a choice between “Yes, Minister” or a repeat viewing of The Importance of Being Earnest.
2. Who was your favorite: Jim Hacker, Sir Humphrey or Bernard?
Probably Bernard, because of the way he kept correcting people’s mixed metaphors. (“You don’t put boats in bags.”, etc.)
3. Favorite quote?
From the scene where Sir Humphrey, Bernard and the Minister are discussing the implementation of a proposed European Identity Card:
BERNARD: “You might get away with calling it EuroClub Express.”
I’m touched, I tell you, that I have done something rip-off worthy. This is a watershed moment in my posting history. I’m actually kind of sorry that I can’t contribute to this thread.
-brianjedi
Brian, you just did.
Very clever 
And at the appropriate juncture…
I’d forgotten how much I adored these books (and shows)! Thanks to the OPer for reminding me. I can’t remember the episode names, and don’t have a favourite character. Fave quotes :
My favourite visual moment was in Yes Prime Minister, when Hacker is worried about the imminent publication of his predecessor’s embarrassing memoirs, which are none too complimentary about one Rt. Hon. James Hacker. Then Bernard takes the telephone call informing them of the predecessor’s unexpected death… the way Hacker’s face goes from instant delight to a sombre death-of-a-statesman expression (“Tragic”) is Oscar-worthy.
Also, remember “The bodgers have dwelt in it for generators”? And from the same episode, when Hacker is worried about his daughter’s nude protest and asks Bernard what sort of angle the press will take. “Wide angle” replies Bernard, before he realises what was meant.
Does anyone else use the acronym CGSM in real-life?
Here’s an episode guide.
Favorite episodes:
The Official Visit (new African leader plays the extortion game)
Big Brother (Privacy safeguards and the offical database)
The Moral Dimension (The Qmran vase episode)
The Bed of Nails (The Transport Supremo episode)
The Middle Class Rip Off (football club/ opera)
A Victory For Democracy (St. George’s Island )
Character: Hacker, particularly once he began to fight back.
Quotes:
Sir Humphrey: “Bernard, Ministers should never know more than they need to know. Then they can’t tell anyone. Like secret agents, they could be captured and tortured.”
Bernard: “You mean by terrorists?”
Sir Humphrey: “By the BBC, Bernard.”
Bernard: “God moves in a mysterious way.”
Hacker: “Let me make one thing perfectly clear: Humphrey is not God, okay.”
Bernard: “Will you tell him or shall I?”
Hacker: “And after all, we do need a Transport Policy.”
Sir Humphrey: “If by ‘we’ you mean Britain that is perfectly true, but if by ‘we’ you mean me and you and this department, we need a Transport Policy like an aperture in the cranial cavity.”
Bernard (re the National Threatre): “Actually it does look like a carpet warehouse.”
Sir Humphrey: “We gave the architect a knighthood so that no-one would ever say that.”
Hacker: “I thought these planning inspectors were supposed to be impartial?”
Bernard: “Oh really, Minister. So they are, railway trains are impartial too, but if you lay down the lines for them that’s the way they go.”
Sir Humphrey: “The purpose of minutes is not to record events, it is to protect people.”
Cartwright: “I shall rise no further.”
Hacker: “Why?”
Cartwright; “Alas, I’m an expert.”
I know you only wanted one each, but I’ll have to form an interdepartmental committee to decide.
Oh, my all-time favorite TV comedy…
I can’t remember all the papers, but…
“The Times is read by the people who run the country.
The Mirror is read by the wives of the people who run the country.
The Post is read by the people who think the country should be run by another country.
The Financial Times is read by the people who own the country.
The Sun’s readers don’t care who runs the country, as long as she has big tits.”
I usually just use “Round Objects.”
(Who is Round, and to what does he object?)
Love it!
SIR HUMPHREY: It must be hard for a political advisor to understand this, but I’m merely a civil servant. I simply do as I am instructed by my master.
JIM HACKER: What happens when a Minister is a woman, what’ll you call her?
SIR HUMPHREY: Yes, that is rather interesting. We sought an answer to that point when I was Principal Private Secretary and Dr. Edith Summerskill - as she then was - was appointed Minister in 1947. I didn’t quite like to refer to her as my mistress.
JIM HACKER: What was the answer?
SIR HUMPHREY: Oh, we’re still waiting for it.
BERNARD: Well it is understood if Ministers want to know anything it will be brought to their notice. If they go out looking for information they might…oh well, they might…
JIM HACKER: …find it?
Reruns of the radio version of “Yes, Minister” are currently being broadcast on BBC7 on Wednesdays:
Favorite Episode: A Diplomatic Incident; while the British and French are negotiating details of the Channel Tunnel (sovreignty, languages, etc.), Hacker’s predecessor dies and the French President plans to give a puppy to the Queen so he can be seen to be insulted when the puppy is quarantined. So many of the quotes are classic.
As Hacker is anticipating the television coverage of his appearance at the funeral, and the placement of the cameras:
HACKER: “There will be plenty of room, won’t there? We want them outside Number Ten, along the route, outside the Abbey, inside the Abbey, and one looking straight at my pew.”
HUMPHREY: “That would mean putting the camera in the pulpit.”
HACKER: “Will that be alright?”
HUMPHREY: “It won’t leave a lot of room for the Archbishop.”
HAKCER: “So where will he preach from?”
HUMPHREY: “I think he will need the pulpit.”
HACKER: “So where will my camera be?”
HUMPHREY: “Well, there’s always the High Altar, but the Archbishop may need that too.”
Later, Bernard is in rare form as he’s making the arrangements for the funeral (I may not have this part verbatim):
BERNARD (into the phone): “No, we can’t have alphabetical seating at the Abbey, that would put Iran and Iraq next to each other. Along with Israel and Jordan, all in the same pew; it would be like World War III. No, Ireland wouldn’t make things better for us, Ireland never makes things better for us.”
(He hangs up and the phone rings again instantly.)
BERNARD: “No, the correct form of address for a Cypriot Archbishop is not Your Ecstasy, it’s Your Beatitude. And if the Papal Envoy says ‘We desire to wash our hands,’ it means he’s been caught short. Yes, that’s the royal ‘we’. Followed by the royal flush.”
And when they find out the French President is planning to enter the country secretly and drive to the embassy:
HAKCER: “That sounds like a good idea.”
HUMPHREY: “It’s a brilliant idea! He can bring the bloody puppy in the car! Are you prepared, Prime Minister, to give instructions for the French President’s car to be stopped and searched as he comes here as your invited guest to the funeral? Are you prepared to violate their diplomatic immunity and search the diplomatic bag?”
HAKCER: “You can’t put a puppy in a bag.”
BERNARD: “It would be a doggy bag.”
HAKCER: “Suppose we did search, and found it? That would really set the cat among the pigeons.”
BERNARD: “And let the dog out of the bag.”
Brilliant!
From “Big Brother” Sir Humphrey clears things up:
“If there had been investigations, which there haven’t, or not necessarily, or I’m not at liberty to say whether there have, there would have been a project team which, had it existed, on which I cannot comment, which would now have been disbanded, if it had existed, and the members returned to their original departments, if indeed there had been any such members.”
Votes for best episode, favourite character and favourite quotes are at this fine site .