Yes Minister (guesting on The Modern British History Podcast)

In this bonus episode, Gareth is a guest on The Modern British History Podcast. Harry White is the host and he generally looks at the modern (post war) British political scene. In this episode, he invited Gareth on to discuss the eighties sitcom Yes Minister and they discuss how it caricatures the civil service of the time. And have things changed forty years later?
Find more from Harry here:
www.modernbrit...

[@jamesatkinsonja]

Really enjoyed this-interesting discussion.

[@leehallam9365]

A bit suprised by what you said about Bernard because I don't see how the show works without him. Both Hacker and Sir Humphrey need someone to express their thoughts too, it could have been two seperate characters I suppose but having it be the same one with torn loyalties works well I think. It would be interesting to count up screen time I suspect he has the most out of the three. He does fulfill the Grandad function in one respect, he often is silent for ages before delivering the punchline.

[@jamesatkinsonja]

I generally feel Bernard and Hacker's wife Annie act as 'stand ins' for the writers own view points while Hacker [minister] and Humphrey [Civil service] argue there own perspective on the issues/topics.

[@leehallam9365]

Nice podcast, I do hope though the show gets the usual treatment at some point. I think you are right that it is a reflection of the seventies, that is because of two things. Firstly it was the start of the decade, the world doesn't change instantly, for instance if you visited a typical home in 1980 it would loom like a seventies home, with the odd new thing there. The other is that the writers had sources, people who were very highly placed people from the Wilson and Callaghan era, Marcia Falkender and Bernard Donoughue, kept secret at the time. A lot of the situations were true, or based on true situations. The incident with the smuggled alcohol in a Muslim county was true, the hospital was based on the reality of not one, but six mothballed hospitals or wings of hospitals run in that way, with support staff, but no medical teams.

[@alanrockunited]

Would love to hear you do 'Extras' if it counts as British. Happy to guest.

[@davidkeisler2105]

Should be require watching for every high school or college government student.

[@jamesatkinsonja]

7:38 I agree. I remember the writers of Red Dwarf saying that it took so long to get on TV as people saw it as a Sci Fi show [and hence too expensive] while they weren't seeing that at it's core it was an 'odd couple'/Steptoe and Son style show with Rimmer+ Lister. 16:09 It's similar to how 'One Foot in the Grave' does let Victor win occasionally. I particularly like 'Big Brother' in series one as it's an early victory for Hacker at a time when Humphrey is usually on top each week. 32:17 ITV did a 'Yes Minister in a Bank' sitcom in 2001 called 'High Stakes' with Richard Wilson but was such a flop the already taped second series never aired [although apparently it saw the light of day on DVD].