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Yes, Prime Minister
1986 - 1988 8.4 (123 votes) 2 Seasons
Official Website
Genres
Comedy
Networks
BBC Two
Created By
Antony Jay
Jonathan Lynn

Yes, Prime Minister

Overview

James Hacker MP the Government's bumbling minister for Administrative Affairs is propelled along the corridors of power to the very pinnacle of politics - No. 10. Could this have possibly have been managed by his trusted Permanent Private Secretary, the formidably political Sir Humphrey Appleby who must move to the “Top Job” in Downing Street to support him, together with his much put upon PPS Bernard Wolley. What could possibly go wrong?

Key Crew

Producer: Peter Whitmore

Top Cast

Paul Eddington
Paul Eddington

Jim Hacker

Nigel Hawthorne
Nigel Hawthorne

Sir Humphrey Appleby

Derek Fowlds
Derek Fowlds

Bernard Woolley

Seasons

Season 1 poster
Season 1 (1986)

Vision, integrity and a ruthless streak are the weapons of the political power. Unfortunately new Prime Minister Jim Hacker has none of these, but he does have the cowardice, desperation and a scheming, pragmatic Cabinet Secretary in Sir Humphrey...

8 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: The Grand Design
1986-01-09

With his finger now on the nuclear button, Hacker plans his first act as Prime Minister to be a radical new defence policy.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 2: The Ministerial Broadcast
1986-01-16

Jim is coached in the world of show business as he prepares to address the nation on his defence policy.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 3: The Smoke Screen
1986-01-23

Jim favors abolishing smoking through heavy taxation but runs into strong opposition from the tobacco lobby and the Treasury department.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 4: The Key
1986-01-30

Office politics take precedence over national issues when Sir Humphrey and Bernard fall out with each other after Jim tries to restrict Sir Humphrey’s access to №10.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 5: A Real Partnership
1986-02-06

Sir Humphrey tries to get his scheduled pay raise even though increases for M.P.s have been put on hold for budgetary reasons.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 6: A Victory for Democracy
1986-02-13

Jim must take action to avert a Marxist takeover of a Commonwealth island nation despite the efforts of the Foreign Office to keep him ignorant.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 7: The Bishop’s Gambit
1986-02-20

Jim has to choose a new bishop but doesn’t like either the Church or Sir Humphrey’s choices.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 8: One of Us
1986-02-27

Hacker threatens to place Sir Humphrey on leave while a security inquiry looks into why he cleared a confessed Soviet spy many years earlier, so Sir Humphrey retaliates with a dog in distress on Salisbury plain.

Runtime: 30 min
Season 2 poster
Season 2 (1987)

If Prime Minister Jim Hacker has a fault (and god knows...), it is that he has ideas. Fortunately his Cabinet Secretary, Sir Humphrey makes sure they never come to fruition. Meanwhile poor Bernard, his Private Secretary, sits uneasily on the fence between them...

8 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: Man Overboard
1987-12-03

Sir Humphrey makes Jim suspicious of the Minister of Employment when he needs the P.M.’s support in opposing a plan to shift military personnel from the south to the north of England.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 2: Official Secrets
1987-12-10

Jim considers approving the publication of his predecessor’s memoirs, but it becomes a plumber’s nightmare as a series of leaks spring up.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 3: A Diplomatic Incident
1987-12-17

Jim uses the occasion of his predecessor’s state funeral to negotiate with the French over the conditions of the Channel Tunnel.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 4: A Conflict of Interest
1987-12-24

Hacker and Sir Humphrey clash over the appointment of the governor of the Bank of England and the cover up of a banking scandal in the City.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 5: Power to the People
1987-12-31

Sir Humphrey makes a very strange ally out of the formidable Agnes Moorhouse, a radical political reformer from a London council, in his efforts to stop Hacker’s plans to make local government more democratic.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 6: The Patron of the Arts
1988-01-01

Jim Hacker faces embarrassment when Sir Humphrey tells a friend in the arts that the PM's government is planning to cut grants.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 7: The National Education Service
1988-01-08

Sir Humphrey faces a conflict of interest when Hacker devises a plan to improve educational standards by abolishing the Department of Education and Science.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 8: The Tangled Web
1988-01-28

Sir Humphrey has to decide if he will support the P.M. or inform Parliament when Hacker denies knowledge of a wiretap authorized by his office without his knowledge.

Runtime: 30 min

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