Yes, Prime Minister: Re-elected Page #2

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back to our screens.

It's as good a time as any

to revive Yes, Prime Minister.

Nothing has changed,

except cosmetically,

since it was first on in 1980.

Our very limited ambition

was to write six funny shows

about what

happens in Whitehall.

But we stumbled across a rich

vein of humour and public interest.

And it was extraordinarily

fortunate, but the result of it

is that...there's never

a shortage of things to write about.

Collapse of conference,

collapse of backbench support,

collapse of coalition, collapse

of cabinet, collapse of my career!

This is the biggest disaster

since Dunkirk!

It is very much

a continuation of the original.

And we've got two absolutely

marvellous characters,

er, playing Jim and Humphrey,

which I think will be

an eye-opener to people,

not that they're better than Paul

and Nigel, but they're different,

but they're really very,

very well observed and very funny.

'It's obviously

extraordinarily gratifying

'to have created characters

'that seem to have become

part of the vocabulary.

'It didn't occur to us, I think,

that we were doing that.'

We didn't set out to change

the world, we just set out to...

To amuse an audience.

..to amuse an audience.

Stepping into the Prime Ministerial

role of Jim Hacker

is acting legend David Haig,

whilst his calculating

Cabinet Secretary, Sir Humphrey,

is played by renowned stage

and screen actor, Henry Goodman.

HENRY GOODMAN:
I'm genuinely excited

that these scripts have embraced

new and edgy stuff.

Some of the things that happen

in these episodes

would not have been in previous

episodes

some years ago.

Why didn't you know?

Well, everybody thought that

everybody else understood

what was going on.

Nobody wanted to admit that

they couldn't make sense of it.

Why couldn't they?

Because it didn't make sense!

The balance between Sir Humphrey

and Jim Hacker

has evolved through

the two of us playing the two roles,

and that necessarily has some

differences from our predecessors.

But I think they're exciting

differences, and I'm not scared

of Nigel and Paul's performances,

which were absolutely phenomenal.

And also, Henry and I have known

each other for so long, it's fun

to investigate our own histories,

in a way, subliminally, I feel.

Yes, yeah, absolutely.

Within the characters.

Yeah.

How happy is the Prime Minister

about his future?

He's as happy as a rat-catcher

on a rubbish dump.

The Prime Minister is as happy

as an Environmental Health Officer

on a Civic Amenity Site.

I was absolutely terrified when

they offered me Bernard originally,

simply because

I watched the original TV series,

back in the 1980s.

I was doing my A-level politics

and I was really rather...in awe.

What about Bernard?

Now, he is the kind of character

I'm really sympathetic to,

and of all of them the three

of them, I've seen Bernards.

Absolutely.

Over and over again.

Indeed, and they are, you know,

I think people underestimate

the power of every Minister's

Private Secretary.

It's not the reality of the

Civil Service now, you know,

you'd be much more likely to have

a Bernadette

than a...than a Bernard.

Quiet, please...

Although Bernard

is still very much a bloke,

there is a welcome addition

of a female SPAD - Claire Sutton,

Special Political Advisor to Jim.

'She's kind of like his right-hand

man, really.

'And she's very good at kind

of thinking straight'

in stressful situations

and, you know, just...being cogent.

He's not doing that.

If I could

mention the Kumranistan loan!

You can't!

Not until Kumranistan has definitely

signed on the dotted line

and not until this euro business

with the European Central bank

is sorted out.

Phone them back.

Pretend to be helpful.

It'd be very nice to see

a woman SPAD.

And Zoe Telford is a fantastic

actress, she's really good

and she's just got a great

kind of energy about her

and a real intelligence as well.

I think she'll be great.

Yeah, I

think she'll run rings around them.

We're all agreed it's the perfect

moment for the return

of Yes, Prime Minister.

But I wonder what former Prime

Minister Tony Blair makes of it...

Well, it's a very important

question,

and I'm glad that you've asked it,

and what I think we've got

to address is a very serious issue,

and it's absolutely right

that you said it, and what we're

doing, and what we said,

to address is a very serious issue,

and it's absolutely right

that you said it, and what we're

doing, and what we said,

and what we intend to say,

and what we intend to act upon,

is that very thing.

So in answer to that question,

is that very thing.

So in answer to that question,

I think we've got

to look at it very carefully.

Thanks, Tony.

Coming up, we'll reveal

which of these faces

was a secret source for the writers.

And relive the moment

Mrs Thatcher got in on the act.

Capital, my dear Sir Humphrey,

capital.

You'll know exactly where to start.

Britain's best-loved

governmental sitcom is back.

Award-winning writers Antony Jay

and Jonathan Lynn have brought back

Jim Hacker, Sir Humphrey

and Bernard for a brand-new series.

I really do admire your courage,

Prime Minister.

Oh, God!

Have I been courageous?

But back in the '70s, when

Antony first thought of the idea

for a governmental sitcom,

Jonathan was less than impressed,

and Yes, Minister

nearly became No, Minister!

It was Tony's idea.

I thought it was a terrible idea

and declined his suggestion

that we do this together.

And after three years, I was

looking for something new to write

and I couldn't think of anything,

so I phoned Tony who...

I said, "Have you done anything

with that idea yet?"

He said,

"No, are you interested now?"

And I said, "I don't know,

but it doesn't really have anything

"that would normally make people

watch a television series.

"It's three middle-aged

to elderly men,

"sitting around

and talking about government."

You know?

There are no women

or almost no women.

There's no action.

There's no sex.

There's no violence.

That's why we took such trouble

to make it interesting

and authentic and well researched,

so that even if they didn't

really get the jokes,

or laugh very much,

it might be interesting enough

for them to say, "Oh, I didn't know

that, that was quite interesting."

You know.

"Maybe

we'd better watch next week."

But we didn't expect it

to be a long-running series.

No.

We thought the BBC was

really quite brave to...

to put on a comedy about government.

The pilot of Yes, Minister

was made in 1979.

But the BBC backed

out of launching it

until after the general election,

for fear of affecting the outcome.

So as the country went to the polls

to choose between

Callaghan and Thatcher,

Jim Hacker was consigned

to his constituency until 1980.

Hello and welcome.

Thank you, Sir Humphrey.

I believe you know each other.

Yes, we did cross swords

when the Minister gave me

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