INTRODUCTION
In 2010 Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn reunited after 24 years to write the stage play Yes, Prime Minister, transposing in a 21st-Century setting their BAFTA award-winning TV comedy series Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, aired on BBC Two between 1980 and 1988. It starred the late Paul Eddington as the bumbling MP (later Prime Minister) Jim Hacker and Nigel Hawthorne as his permanent secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby. The original TV series, now available on DVD, has been seen in 84 countries worldwide and is hugely popular in Australia.
 The stage version of Yes, Prime Minister originally opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre, UK in May 2010, starring Henry Goodman & David Haig. In September the same year it transferred to London and subsequently went on tour across the UK. After a second recent UK tour, the show is about to open in the West End again for a new summer season (from June 6) at the Trafalgar Studios theatre, starring Michael Simkin and Robert Dows.
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THE STORY
It’s 2011. There’s the Global Financial Crisis, rising oil prices, minority governments, illegal immigrants and asylum seekers and global warming. Heading the coalition government, the Prime Minister Jim Hacker remains shakily in power with his close advisors, including Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby and Principal Private Secretary Bernard Woolley. The country is on the brink of financial meltdown and there is just one grain of hope – a morally dubious deal with the Foreign Minister of Kumranistan… In the oak-paneled drawing room of his country residence, the PM and his advisors face their greatest challenge yet.
The script of the play is published in paperback by Faber & Faber.
[Sir Humphrey] is quite a mouthful. I find it difficult to go from singing to acting, as you develop bad habits in a musical. The difficulty I had at first was you are dealing with a certain expectation of Nigel Hawthorne, who is a tough act to follow. When you watch him to those big, long, convoluted speeches, you don't realise how hard they are to do.
Philip Quast |
SIR HUMPHREY'S REPLY (excerpt from Act One, Scene One):
"All right, Prime Minister, you’ve asked a straight question and I’ll give you a straight answer which, however, clearly has to be considered in its proper context. In the course of all financial negotiations, certain provisos have to
be preconditioned, various caveats have to be postulated, designated, investigated and specified and a number of considerations have to be determined, acknowledged and indeed sometimes conceded so that we are able to facilitate the finalization of preliminary plans to create an epistemological basis for all parties to
proceed towards a mutually beneficial consummation which will acknowledge and safeguard the vital interests of all the participants without jeopardizing in any material way the underlying collective benefit ultimately accruing
to the signatories or leaving unresolved such anomalies and irregularities that might precipitate operational uncertainties down the line, so that there will be a presumed modicum of ironclad reciprocity which in the great scheme of things will be to everybody’s advantage."
Sir Humphrey contains every virtue and vice which I observed in the Whitehall civil service of that time: incredibly intelligent, efficient, purposeful, industrious, effortlessly managing the mighty machine; yet also arrogant, devious, deceitful, and never missing an opportunity to advance the welfare of his profession. His dedication to his country's interest - and especially seeking to protect it against political party interest - is unquestioned, as also is his skill at combining that national interest with the self-interest of himself and Whitehall.
Bernard Donoughue, former Senior Policy Advisor to the British Prime Minister (1974-1979) |
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Antony Jay has enjoyed a distinguished career as writer, broadcaster and producer. He was the creator and editor of several BBC programmes and documentaries.
Jonathan Lynn's prolific career spans more than four decades as a director, screenwriter, producer and actor in films, television and theatre, as well as best-selling author and novelist. His latest memoir, Comedy Rules, is an insider's look at how comedy works. |
Our area of operation is the underlying conflicts and rivalries between elected representatives and permanent officials. The people wo have the permanence have the power, but the ones with the elected office have the theoretical authority. It's exactly the same as when we started at a profound level.
Antony Jay |
The play, like the TV show, isn't about politics. It's about government. The processes of government never change, short of a revolution. The civil service absorbs whatever a new government throws at it, but it's still there when that government goes.
Having a fight with the civil service is still like having a fight with a bowl of jelly. It just bounces back from a different angle.
Jonathan Lynn |
Yes, Prime Minister is an absorbing, very contemporary comedy that forces us at the same time to confront real moral issues, but never preaches. We leave laughing - and we've got enough material for water cooler conversations to last for weeks.
Andrew Guild, co-producer of the Australian Tour |
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YES, PRIME MINISTER
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