SPOILERS ALERT!!!
Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
Well, I wasn’t expecting to review anything from this series anytime soon. Particularly a theatre production! I suppose I would’ve shared my thoughts on this BBC sitcom series eventually, but it was a low priority for me, especially as I don’t watch the show very often.
I’ve made it an unofficial rule that I don’t review anything political – at least in the real-world sense. Mainly because I’m not an expert on politics but also, I’d like to avoid sharing my thoughts about real-worlds events and incidents that are likely considered hot topics.
They’re likely going to lead into heated debates if I share my thoughts on them. The main purpose of ‘Bradley’s Basement’ is to share thoughts on popular culture like films and TV shows. I don’t share my thoughts on something political unless I need to, which isn’t so often.
However, I feel like I can talk about this particular series involving politics because it’s a fictionalised version of UK politics. The events of the TV show didn’t happen in the real-world sense in the 1980s. The same thing applies to this theatre production I saw recently.
Let me put this into context. ‘Yes, Minister’ is a BBC political satire sitcom TV series that was released from 1980 to 1984. It comprises of three seasons from 1980 to 1982 before getting a Christmas Special, which was released in 1984 that set up its own sequel series.
Yes, after ‘Yes, Minister’, there was a sequel series called ‘Yes, Prime Minister’, which ran for two seasons from 1986 to 1988. Both ‘Yes, Minister’ and ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ were written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn – the latter wrote and directed this stage play. 🙂
Derek Fowlds, Nigel Hawthorne and Paul Eddington in ‘Yes, Minister’.
The ‘Yes, Minister’ series stars Paul Eddington as Jim Hacker, who first was the Minister of Department of Administrative Affairs in Whitehall before he became the Prime Minister of the UK. Joining him are Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey Appleby and Derek Fowlds as Bernard.
My thoughts on the entire ‘Yes, Minister’ series are…well, mixed at best. I suppose it comes down to when I first saw ‘Yes, Minister’ and ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ at a young age. I didn’t understand the plots of some of the political situations featured in the episodes. 😐
Then again, that’s because I’m not really into politics, so, I wouldn’t really grasp the intricates of some of the political terminology being used in the episodes, both when I was as a youngster and now being grown-up. Strictly speaking, this isn’t my kind of series.
However, I have enjoyed both ‘Yes, Minister’ and ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ on some level, as I’ve grown older. Mainly it’s down to how Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds play their characters in the bumbling situations they seem to get themselves into.
A thing I’ve noticed about both ‘Yes, Minister’ and ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ is that the writing and acting for both shows is played straight. That it’s not over-the-top or slapstick comedy like you would see in other sitcom shows such as ‘Dad’s Army’ and ‘Fawlty Towers’, which I’ve enjoyed.
I guess that’s why the ‘Yes, Minister’ series has appealed to people, because it reflects how the real world is going in terms of politics. They can connect to what’s depicted in the episodes to match what’s happening in the real-world scenarios we find ourselves in.
And they can get a laugh out of it. 😀 Like I said, the ‘Yes, Minister’ series isn’t really my kind of comedy, but I do appreciate why people like it. I know my Dad certainly enjoys seeing the ‘Yes Minister’ series whenever he can, as it’s his kind of comedy series to watch. 🙂
Which leads us to talking about this particular theatre production I saw last weekend at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham – ‘I’m Sorry, Prime Minister’. I enjoyed seeing this production on stage and it’s so fascinating this is a stage production, not a TV production.
Like ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’, ‘I’m Sorry, Prime Minister’ was shown in London’s West End first – the Apollo Theatre in London, no less – before it went on tour in the UK. My parents and I fancied seeing this theatre production, so we stayed overnight in Cheltenham to see it. 🙂
‘I’m Sorry, Prime Minister’ happens to be the ‘final chapter’ of the ‘Yes Minister’ series. It depicts Jim Hacker who is older, retired and resides at the tranquil Hacker College in Oxford. He’s in trouble when dealing with a ‘cancellation’ crisis by the college committee.
Hacker soon enlists the help of his former colleague, the delightful devious Sir Humphrey Appleby, who hasn’t lost his love for bureaucracy, Latin phrases and well-timed obstruction. Will Sir Humphrey be able to get Jim Hacker out of the mess he ended up in?
The thing that stands out for me from watching this theatre production is how it connects to real-world situations such as cancel culture as well the mentions of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic. These things happened quite recently concerning our modern world.
It’s interesting how the writer and director Jonathan Lynn applied these recent events in a modern-day story set in the ‘Yes, Minister’ series and applied a comedic take on it. Something I’m not sure would work in a TV sense for today, but in a theatre sense, it does work well.
In terms of how the story is played out, it all takes place in Jim Hacker’s home at Hacker College in Oxford. It’s divided into three scenes. Act I has two scenes and Act II has one scene. There’s a lot of talking between characters throughout all three scenes in the story.
That’s also something that didn’t really gel with me when checking out the ‘Yes, Minister’ series. It’s often talking between characters and not enough action happening, as you would usually expect in a comedy series. But it does suit it well in this theatre production.
In terms of the cast, it’s a very small cast, which is quite surprising, considering the TV episodes have more guest characters as well as the regular characters compared to this theatre production. 😐 Not that’s a bad thing, as the cast in this theatre production is good.
In the theatre production I saw, Robert Kitson plays Jim Hacker. I was hoping to see Simon Rouse (Hindle in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘Kinda’) as Jim Hacker in ‘I’m Sorry, Prime Minister’, but due to medical grounds, he couldn’t appear, which is a great shame indeed. 😦
With that, Robert Kitson is very good playing Jim Hacker, and I imagine he would’ve had to rehearse and remember his lines in a short space of time. Apparently, Robert Kitson’s been in ‘Sooty & Co’, which I saw as a kid, and he’s been in ‘The Demon Headmaster’. 🙂
Clive Francis plays Sir Humphrey Appleby in ‘I’m Sorry, Prime Minister’. I enjoyed his take on Sir Humphrey on stage. Clive Francis has also been in an episode of ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ and he’s well-known for playing Francis Poldark in the 1970s BBC TV series ‘Poldark’.
It’s a shame that Bernard, originally played by Derek Fowlds, died in-between ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ and ‘I’m Sorry, Prime Minister’. I would’ve thought he would’ve at least appeared in this theatre story to make the ‘Yes, Minister’ trio complete. Sadly, that wasn’t to be for this.
Princess Donnough stars as Sophie, a care worker who looks after Jim Hacker whilst he’s retired since his wife Annie also died in-between ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ and ‘I’m Sorry, Prime Minister’. 😦 It was interesting to see Sophie as a black and gay character in this story.
William Chubb stars as Sir David, the man who relays the messages to Jim Hacker that the college committee wants him out for saying some ‘politically incorrect’ things at the college. Sir David appears in the first scene in Act I and the third and final scene in Act II.
I liked it when the production came to an end, Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey ended up living together with Sophie looking after them, and Sir Humphrey said, “Yes, Prime Minister” instead of “I’m Sorry, Prime Minister”. It’s nice it didn’t end on an unhappy note.
During the bows by the cast at the end of the production, I liked it when a tribute was made to Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds in a cast photo from ‘Yes Minister’. 🙂 It’s lovely the tribute was made to them, since they’re sadly no longer with us.
I also picked up that the ‘Yes, Minister’ and ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ TV theme tune was played at the end of the production whilst the cast made their bows. It’s a shame it wasn’t played throughout the production, including at the beginning, but it’s great it was played.
So yeah, I enjoyed seeing ‘I’m Sorry, Prime Minister’ when I saw it on the stage recently. It’s not my kind of comedy, but I got some laughs from seeing the production, especially in how the actors who played Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey interacted with each other. 🙂
I doubt ‘I’m Sorry, Prime Minister’ will get a TV adaptation at some point. I could be wrong, of course. Maybe this will likely be released as a TV special in the same way ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ got its TV special on U&GOLD. It’s possible. I haven’t come across news of it yet.
If you’re interested in seeing ‘I’m Sorry, Prime Minister’ on stage at all, then there are still dates for its current UK tour, including in places like Milton Keynes, York, Brighton, Southend and Malvern Hills. Please check out the above link to find out more information.
As to whether I’ll do reviews on the ‘Yes, Minister’ or ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ TV shows or not, well, that’s yet to be determined. I’m not sure whether I’ll do quick reviews on each season of the two shows or if I’ll do in-depth reviews on the episodes. 😐 Only time will tell.
I’m sure there’ll come a point where I’ll be revisiting the ‘Yes, Minister’ series at some point on my blog. When that happens, I’m sure I’ll enjoy checking out the episodes and share my thoughts on them, especially having seen ‘I’m Sorry, Prime Minister’ on stage. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
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