I’ve been a fan of Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister for years. I love the wit of the scripts and the charm of the characters. I was looking forward to the new stage version by original writers Anthony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, which played at The Grand Theatre 14th – 19th February.
The beleaguered PM Jim Hacker, played by Paul Eddington in the TV series, was replaced by Richard McCabe, and duplicitous Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby, portrayed by Nigel Hawthorne in the series, was replaced by Simon Williams.
The PM is trying to cut a deal with oil-rich Kumranistan for a $10 trillion bailout of the skint European Union. Of course, all is not as it seems, and Hacker is the last to find out the shady machinations orchestrated by Humphrey. Only with the help of pedantic Principal Private Secretary Bernard Woolley (Chris Larkin) and Special Policy Advisor Claire Sutton (Charlotte Lucas) can Hacker discover the truth. And the truth is a morally dubious tangle of sexual perversion, abuse of power, the consequences of war, and a whole lot more.
I found myself missing the charming smarminess of Nigel Hawthorne’s Appleby, and the vulnerability of Eddington’s Hacker, but after a while the new actors grew on me. The originals are still the best, but this next generation brought new and different aspects to their roles. Richard McCabe was a harder Hacker, a cross between a pudgy Gordon Brown and a shiny-faced David Cameron, with a voice reminiscent of Tony Blair. Chris Larkin was a dopier, funnier Woolley, his arms hanging dorkishly limp by his sides. Simon Williams was a more serious, less ingratiating version of Appleby and he delivered the Appleby monologues (long-winded, over-complicated, breathtaking sentences) with aplomb, winning a round of applause each time. There was less verbal sparring between Jim and Humphrey, which was a shame as that was always a highlight of the television programme.
It’s been 22 years since the last TV series ended, and it was interesting to see how it was updated for the 21st century. The paedophilia aspect was shocking and unexpected, and was examined and discussed for a large chunk of the play. The writers may have a combined age of 147, but they haven’t lost their edge.
As usual, they covered a whole raft of issues with brutal honesty, mentioning such things as the BBC only producing 35-40 hours of original programming a week and questioning why they are regarded as a beacon of excellent broadcasting. The financial crisis was explained as the failure of computer models of sub prime mortgages, combined with the inability of anyone to understand what was really going on. QUANGOs and jobs for the boys were mentioned (and nothing has changed since they were mentioned in the first series of Yes, Minister all those years ago). Immigration, America, the cushy lifestyle of politicians – all issues were treated with great cynicism and conventional wisdom was shown to be flawed. They even took on the sacred cow of global warming, which most thinking people know is true. But after a few words from Humphrey, you start to doubt all that ‘indisputable evidence’ that people are causing it. Another example of how the old show has been updated and made compelling and fresh.
Yes, Prime Minister was funny, witty, and topical with a good dollop of ethical debate for good measure … all the things it used to be. New TV series, anyone?
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This play was absolutely dreadful, thought the second half might improve as they had to set the situation up in the first, however it continued in almost joke free vein.
No effort at all put in to the writing on discussing it later we could see lots of missed opportunities for humour. Many stretches where we were simply treated to the writers’ own political prejudices in true pub bore fashion.
I really can not understand the positive reviews.