Ignorant Master, Capable Servants: The Politics of Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister

Abstract

Yes Minister is a British situation comedy which was produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1980 to 1982, with a Christmas Special airing in 1984, and written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. Jay had attended a lecture by Barbara Castle to the Civil Service College in 1972 which made him aware of the intriguing distinction between ministry’s policy and minister’s policy. Earlier on, Jay had helped to launch That Was the Week That Was in 1962 and he felt that the civil service would be an excellent subject matter for a new sitcom. John Cleese had been at Cambridge with Lynn where they had set up the team of the Cambridge Footlights and it was Cleese who introduced the two men to each other when all three cooperated on the Video Arts project (Cornell, Day and Topping 115). The idea was that Jay would use his inside knowledge of Whitehall wrangling, while Lynn was to contribute his wonderful sense of humour and gift for comic rhetoric (Evans 586; Lewisohn 735). In 1977 the pilot script was submitted to the BBC and by the time several episodes were completed in script, it was 1978 and broadcasting was scheduled for 1979. However, since a General Election was to be held in May 1979, the BBC was worried that such an eminently political comedy might be perceived as influencing electoral behaviour. As a result, Series One started on 25 February 1980 when the new Government led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was in office.