Yes, Prime Minister: Re-elected Page #7

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say Ted Heath.

I couldn't ever see Jim Hacker

become Prime Minister.

No.

I agree with that.

He's simply not real.

He can't make up his mind,

he's blowing in very direction,

he's short term gimmickry,

he grabs any headline.

No, no he's complete...

Cameron is the nearest.

Do you think Cameron is the nearest?

No, of course not.

Cameron's the nearest to what

Michael's just said.

Absolute rubbish.

No, no.

No, no, look, this is a good joke.

And he is a very good joke

but he's not a Prime Minister.

Nobody is exactly that,

a Hacker-like figure but...

But some of his, I mean

he's like a kind of politician with

the bonnet up,

you see the, you know, he's,

he does things out loud that other

ministers would just think.

And part of its success is that

he says these things.

I mean, you know,

if a Permanent Secretary came

and explained some policy that

you didn't understand,

you'd think, "Well, I'll wait

till he's gone,

"and then I'll talk to my

special advisor."

Hacker says, "I don't know what

you're talking about."

It's like somehow he's become

Prime Minister by accident.

He's become Prime Minister cos

he makes a good programme,

that's why he's there, you know?

Yeah, but he's also quite

a sympathetic character, isn't he?

Yes!

Yes.

He's nice.

Yeah.

And would feel he looks more human,

whereas Sir Humphrey is kind of

something off a conveyer belt that's

polished and sophisticated,

but not the kind

of person you'd meet down the pub.

To lose one cabinet minister may be

regarded as a misfortune,

to lose both looks like

carelessness.

By 1988 Yes, Prime Minister

and its predecessor Yes, Minister

were firm favourites with viewers.

In all, they bagged seven BAFTAs,

with Nigel Hawthorne winning

best comedy performer four

times in a row.

Forgive me, Minister.

But after just two series,

Hacker, Sir Humphrey and Bernard

bowed out on the

28th of January 1988.

We felt we'd done what

there was to do, really,

in that we'd be just sort of

repeating ourselves if we went on.

That was one of the reasons,

the other reason was that Paul

was becoming quite fragile,

it was clear that his, there was,

he had some serious illness,

it wasn't known what it was.

And he felt quite unwell.

And most of the Yes, Prime Minister

series, Paul is sitting in a chair.

And it's not just because that's

the way it was blocked,

it was because of what he needed to

do for most of the time.

We weren't sure that by the time

we'd written another series,

because we took our time writing

them, um, at what stage of health

Paul would be in,

or whether he would want to go on.

Paul Eddington lost his battle with

cancer in 1995 at the age of 68.

His death was followed six years

later by the passing

of his 72-year-old co-star,

Nigel Hawthorne.

Even though the last episode

aired in 1989,

Yes, Prime Minister lives on and is

now shown in 84 countries worldwide.

In 2010 it became a hit stage show.

And now it's back on TV.

I'm absolutely beside myself with

excitement for a new

series of Yes, Prime Minister.

I'm sort of slightly over

excited, actually.

I'm getting the popcorn

in the microwave as we speak.

The appetite is there,

and the series will be, therefore,

one can predict, a great success.

Now pour a large sherry and make

yourself comfortable

as we go behind

the scenes on the new series

to meet its devilishly handsome

guest stars.

PARPS AND GURGLES

And we discover why 2013

is right for Hacker's return.

What I'll be really interested to

see is whether, whether he tweets.

And whether, and whether

the Permanent Secretary tweets.

Prime Minister...

Oh, cheer up, Bernard, have a

drinkie!

Oh, don't look so worried!

After a quarter of century

in TV retirement,

Britain's best loved

Prime Minister, Jim Hacker, is back.

The brand new series requires

a brand new set.

It's taken six weeks of planning,

ten hours of construction,

34 highly skilled technicians,

approximately 13 gallons of tea,

and untold tins of biscuits.

The result is a studio version

of the Prime Minister's

country residence, Chequers.

Well, now.

I haven't prepared anything

to say in welcome,

but I very much want to welcome

our very welcome guest.

Welcome!

Holed up in Chequers

for the weekend,

Jim Hacker faces

the challenge of a lifetime.

A shaky oil pipeline deal

could save Europe

and solve the British

financial crisis.

But it comes with

some unfortunate conditions.

For me, what's great is that

whoever's in office,

they are all dealing with

these problems.

Yeah.

And in this absolutely on the money

series, we're dealing with,

on the money, Euro crisis.

Yeah.

It's a central spine of these six

episodes, is the Euro crisis.

They are offered a massive loan.

Yes.

To get Europe

out of the Eurozone crisis.

Quite frankly,

I am now profoundly suspicious

about this whole Kumranistan loan.

I mean, I don't know what

else I don't know.

Do you know?

There are one or two things

attached to the loan

we don't want to give away.

But it's a loan with conditions,

and the conditions cause major

ructions and problems, which

Sir Humphrey and Bernard and Claire,

the new special advisor,

we try to help him,

but in our helping way,

cause him great hindrance.

Yes.

HE LAUGHS:

I mean, I find that working

with David, who's Jim,

and Henry, who is Sir Humphrey,

is, I mean, it's very funny because

I've been told that

they have quite a long history

working together,

and so they're almost like

a unit, and so it's quite funny

coming in, and seeing them

rather like a kind of double act.

And as Bernard, I'm trying to

sort of feather my way in,

to try and work out where you fit.

He seems to think he's in charge

and we're just paid officials.

Functionaries.

Good God!

It's not his business to interfere

in the way Government is run.

The cast get their scripts

eight weeks in advance

in order to learn

the dialogue heavy episodes.

Jonathan, who co-wrote it with Tony,

is also directing.

He's quite hard.

He can be quite hard on,

well not just me, but everyone.

But the results,

I think, are pretty good.

So it's hard work,

but, you know, it's, it's worth it,

you know, for the end results.

The actor playing Jim's new

coalition partner

rounds off the stellar cast,

and I think we all know who he is!

Hi, I'm George Clooney.

And I'm playing Rory McAllister in

an episode of Yes, Prime Minister.

All the important decisions that

affect us are taken in London.

Have you any idea

what that feels like?

Of course I have.

All the important decisions that

affect us are taken in Brussels!

I'm just terribly flattered

to be asked,

because the standard's

incredible high.

Beautifully done.

Beautifully acted,

beautifully written.

I'm very, very glad to be doing it.

It's slightly,

slightly scary, if I'm honest.

I find myself waking up in

the night thinking,

"Oh, God, am I going to get all

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