Yes, Prime Minister

Year

1986

Genre

Comedy

Country

UK

Director

Actors

Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne, Derek Fowlds, Diana Hoddinott

Description

Caught off-guard by the sudden retirement of the Prime Minister, Sir Humphrey and his civil service allies soon get their house-trained minister, James Hacker, elevated to the top job. ------- Following a series of circumstances involving the Eurosausage, the Home Secretary drink driving and the Chancellor's dalliances with a shady lady from Argentina, Minister for Administrative Affairs Jim Hacker finds himself elevated to Number 10 Downing Street without being quite sure how he got there. But life as Prime Minister is no easier than being a Minister; Hacker still finds his every move challenged by the Civil Service as represented by his new Cabinet Secretary, the ever-wily and manipulative Sir Humphrey Appleby, who is as equally determined that nothing should change as Hacker is that changes should be made. Wandering nervously between them is Bernard Wooley, Hacker's private secretary, who continues juggling his responsibilities to his political master with his loyalties to his Civil Service colleagues...

Episodes

• Season 1: 1. Grand Design, The (1986). The new Prime Minister is preoccupied with defense issues as he begins to learn some of the details, such as the Russians having six times as many nuclear weapons as the UK or that the armed forces could withstand a conventional attack for 72 hours at best. As only Jim Hacker can do, his "Grand Design" is less than practical and it is left to Sir Humphrey, now Cabinet Secretary, to inject a dose of realism. The PM also wants a cook for 10 Downing St., but wants the government rather than himself to pay.
• Season 1: 2. Ministerial Broadcast, The (1986). Jim Hacker plans to introduce his "Grand Design" to the British public during his first broadcast as the new P.M. However, Humphrey continues to try to convince Hacker to hold off, planning to let it die.
• Season 1: 3. Smoke Screen, The (1986). Sir Humphrey opposes P.M. Hacker's plan to cut taxes, so Hacker steers the Minister for Health into campaigning against smoking as a diversion.
• Season 1: 4. Key, The (1986). Sir Humphrey has to scramble when the Prime Minister's Political Advisor, Mrs. Wainwright's, convinces the PM that she should get her old office back. Sir Humphrey and his predecessors have been trying to get her moved for years but he may have met his match when she also suggests to the PM that he re-assign Sir Humphrey's responsibilities for promotions and appointments. When the PM orders Bernard to take away Sir Humphrey key to the door connecting the Cabinet Office to 10n Downing St., the Cabinet Secretary sees the light.
• Season 1: 5. Real Partnership, A (1986). The Prime Minister must deal with a worsening financial crisis that requires all government Departments to cut their budgets. The belt-tightening coincides with a hoped-for civil service pay increase and Sir Humphrey and Sir Frank Gordon, the Treasury Secretary, decide they need to ensure the pay rise is announced as soon as possible. The PM thinks he has Sir Humphrey this time when his political adviser provides challenging questions about the pay rise. Sir Humphrey seeks advice from his predecessor, Sir Arnold Robinson, and develops a plan to win over the PM.
• Season 1: 6. Victory For Democracy, A (1986). The Foreign Office is having problems with the PM who is starting to question their advice in favour of a more pro-US line. In question is the political situation in St. Georges' island where Marxist guerrillas are posing a threat and am impending vote at the UN to condemn Israel. Sir Humphrey and his Foreign Office counterpart connive, of course, to ensure that the PM sees things their way. The PM, however, sets about to outwit them.
• Season 1: 7. Bishops Gambit, The (1986). P.M. Hacker is to appoint a new bishop, and Sir Humphrey may secure a cushy appointment on retirement if he can convince Hacker to appoint the current Dean to the bishopric.
• Season 1: 8. One Of Us (1986). It is revealed that a deceased Cabinet member was a spy, although an inquiry chaired by Sir Humphrey in the 1970's cleared him of suspicion. Humphrey arranges for P.M. Hacker to authorize rescuing a child's dog from a missile range to raise his popularity.
• Season 2: 1. Man Overboard (1987). The Employment Secretary wants to move army regiments to north England to save money, so Sir Humphrey leads P.M. Hacker to believe the Employment Secretary is after the P.M.'s job.
• Season 2: 2. Official Secrets (1987). P.M. Hacker wants to prevent publication of the unflattering memoirs of the previous P.M. as an official secret, and a furor erupts in the press when his actions are leaked by the press.
• Season 2: 3. Diplomatic Incident, A (1987). When the French hold out for primacy over a sub-Channel tunnel, P.M. Hacker uses the info that they planted a bomb in their own embassy to obtain more favorable terms.
• Season 2: 4. Conflict Of Interest, A (1987). P.M. Hacker, pressured by rumors of wrongdoing in the City, is tricked by Sir Humphrey into appointing a less-than-honest man as the new Governor of the Bank of England.
• Season 2: 5. Power To The People (1988). A local councilwoman is throwing her weight around, but P.M. Hacker's plan to make local government truly responsive to its constituency motivates her to cooperate with Sir Humphrey's opposition.
• Season 2: 6. Patron Of The Arts, The (1988). P.M. Hacker is scheduled to speak at a broadcast awards ceremony -- right after the announcement that the arts budget will be much smaller than hoped.
• Season 2: 7. National Education Service, The (1988). On the advice of his political adviser, P.M. Hacker plans to eliminate the National Education Service and let parents choose the schools their children will attend. Horrified, Humphrey must prevent the precedent being set of eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Season 2: 8. Tangled Web, The (1988). The Prime Minister finds himself in a bit of a pickle when he flatly denies in the House that the government has bugged MP's telephones. It turns out the government was and Sir Humphrey was aware of it. The PM wants Sir Humphrey to back him, but he refuses to participate in a cover-up. The shoe is on the other foot however when Sir Humphrey makes unwise comments to a radio interviewer thinking that the tape recorder has been turned off. The PM agrees to help him, for a price.

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