Yes, Prime Minister: Re-elected Page #6

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And my first thought was, "What the

hell is she doing writing sketches

"when she ought to be

running the country

"somewhat better than

she's running it at the moment?"

Thankfully, Mrs Thatcher did have

better things to do

than try her hand

at comedy script writing.

That job was left to her trusted

Chief of Press, Bernard Ingham.

I wrote it.

Robin Butler, the Principal Private

Secretary, titivated it.

We rehearsed this.

I remember counting 23 rehearsals

in which she played herself.

Robin Butler, her Principal Private

Secretary, played Jim Hacker.

And I, with monumental miscasting,

played Sir Humphrey.

What were they all doing?

What about the country?

I mean, that is

the most grotesque scene.

That's truly horrifying!

No, it shows they're

serious about rehearsal.

HE LAUGHS:

With Thatcher ready to perform

the sketch, all she needed was

Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne

to agree to take part.

Paul and Nigel phoned me

in a great state,

they were both well to

the left of centre.

And said, "How terrible, we don't

want to act with Mrs Thatcher,

"and anyway,

she obviously can't act."

So I said, "Well, it's up to you,

if you don't want to do it,

"you can say no."

I don't think anybody said

to her directly,

"We don't want to take part."

And I don't think that Mrs Thatcher

was ever the sort of

cuddly kind of person that you

rang with bad news.

So, in the face of great power,

Paul and Nigel crumbled

and took to the stage.

I want you to abolish economists.

CROWD LAUGH:

Abolish economists, Prime Minister?

Yes, abolish economists,

and quickly.

All of them, Prime Minister?

Yes, all of them.

I look forward to receiving

your plan for abolition soon.

Er, tomorrow, shall we say?

CROWD LAUGH:

I'd like you to announce it

before it all leaks.

Yes, yes, tomorrow.

It was as frightful as I had feared.

And what was really embarrassing was

that thereafter everyone said,

"Oh, didn't Mrs Thatcher appear

in your show?"

And that was just, you know,

the unkindest cut of all, I thought.

Capital, my dear Sir Humphrey.

Capital.

You'll know exactly where to start.

Yes, Prime Minister.

Politicians are generally less

well regarded now.

Obviously, in the '80s, what everyone

thought about the policies,

Mrs T was a strong Prime Minister,

loved by some, loathed by others.

But there was a respectful view

of her power and strength.

I also think actually Yes, Prime

Minister, although it was satire

and sent them all up, there was

a kind of affection in there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

..For people who

went into public service,

be they politicians or

civil servants.

And I actually hate all this

kind of anti politics stuff

and I don't think politicians do

nearly enough to push back on it.

I completely agree with that.

I mean, the issue for me

is participation in politics,

and in turn-outs at elections,

people getting involved in things.

I think we're starting to see that

people really do have a civic spirit,

just look at volunteering

in the Olympics, you know.

So I think anything

which actually elevates people

talking about politics,

thinking about it,

and actually with a bit of humour,

and saying,

"Actually these guys are trying to do

tough things in a tough world."

And they're real people.

And they're

real people and, you know,

they play their games but actually

they're trying to do the right thing.

Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey were now

the darlings of the establishment,

but after penning three series

on the minutiae of ministerial life,

the writers decided to bring

Yes, Minister to an end.

We'd done 21 episodes.

And that's fine.

We'll be repeating ourselves,

you know, we've taken nearly all the

situations that are likely to crop

up in a minister's life, and, um...

We felt that was enough.

Yeah.

But in Hacker, the writers had

created a national icon

and the public pleaded for more.

It would take two years of begging

by the BBC's Director of Television,

before Jonathan

and Tony brought Jim back.

When Bill Cotton phoned us

we said,

"Well, we don't want to do any

more Yes, Minister,

"but we could promote

Jim to Number Ten."

And, because as

Minister of Administrative Affairs,

he couldn't have anything to do

with foreign policy.

Espionage, the atom bomb.

Defence.

Or H-bomb.

There was a whole range of subjects

that he just wouldn't

have been allowed to have

anything to do with.

The appointment of bishops.

So the only answer was to make him

Prime Minister

so he could tackle all the other

policy areas that interested us.

Finally, on the 9th of January

1986, Jim Hacker was propelled

to the top job and Yes, Minister

became Yes, Prime Minister.

I-i-i-is, is...

Is it me?

Yes, Prime Minister.

The biggest shock, for me,

was turning Yes, Minister into

Yes, Prime Minister.

Because I thought it's all very well

to have a crazy minister who

can barely cross a road and still

be in charge of a department,

but a Prime Minister?

Isn't that going a bit far?

But in fact, they triumphantly

succeeded in making sure that

Jim Hacker became Prime Minister

and I think it got funnier.

You always suspected, you always

hoped through the Yes, Minister

series that maybe one day, one day

he might become Prime Minister.

And it always felt that was the next

logical chapter of the programme.

So to see him there with the top

job, very satisfying indeed.

This is awful, we're another three

points down in the opinion polls.

Not the Government,

only your personal rating.

People watching at home will

think, you know,

is the Prime Minister

really like this?

Is any Prime Minister such

a hopeless case?

And the answer's no.

But did I see Tony Blair or Gordon

Brown ever in a Jim Hacker moment?

Well, the answer is yes.

But that was a tiny part of their

sort of command, control,

sense of purpose and

Prime Ministerial quality.

Forget policy and political

strategies, top of Jim's agenda were

appearance, popularity, ratings,

and, most importantly, re-election.

So let's see what our panel

of government experts think.

Well, Hacker was right to be obsessed

with every passing headline

because Hacker didn't have the

necessary skill set to do the job,

and if you haven't got

the necessary skill set,

you're going to be obsessed

with your image.

He didn't have a real sense of what

he wanted to do with power.

And so, therefore, I think, what,

all you could do was advise him

actually to find that kind of

basic, core political and economic

strategy, he never had that.

It wasn't there, Alistair.

And it wasn't there.

That was part of the joke.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah.

This guy floundering out there,

you know?

I think the nearest Prime Minister

that he has resembled is Tony Blair.

Do you?

Oh, no.

I can't see it.

In characteristics, like...

Oh, I couldn't,

I couldn't ever see that.

He doesn't resemble the others.

He's not a John Major or...

I thought you were going to

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