Yes Minister & Yes Prime Minister were two of the most popular British comedies of the 1980s. The House of Commons is said to have been almost empty, when the series aired on XX nights.

In Yes Minister we are introduced to the newly elected Minister for Administrative Affairs Jim (James) Hacker, Permanent Secretary to the Minister of the DAA Sir Humphrey Appleby and the Minister's Principal Private Secretary Bernard Wooley. The first epiosde aired in 1980, it became an instants success, and it was followed by 20 more episodes, the last one to be shown in 1982. In 1984 a Christmas Special (Called Party Games) was produced, in which Mr. Hacker quite surprisingly, became Prime Minister. This was followed up by another 14 episodes shown in 1986-87 under the name of Yes Prime Minister.

Former British PM Margaret Thatcher also found the show most amusing, and she even wrote a short sketch starring herself, Paul Eddington (Jim Hacker) and Nigel Hawthorne (Sir Humphrey).

The series was subsequently published in book form as the Diaries of PM James Hacker, published post-humously around the year 2010. In it were also various notes and documentation from the Appleby-archive and government files, and comments by Sir Bernard Wooley who at that time had made it (or will make it?) to Cabinet Secretary.

The books as well as the series itself are highly recommendable. The books are based upon the actual scripts, but are somewhat revised and extended. Therefore it is probably better to watch the series before reading the books.

Some of the info and all of the images on this page are borrowed from The Yes (Prime) Minister Files. This site is a gigantic encyclopedia on everything Yes (Prime) Ministerial.

If you'd like to buy the show on DVD or VHS or perhaps purchasing a copy of the book, please use one of the links on the right-side menu. That way I'll get a small contribution to my education and life in general, and you'll get some of the best comedy in the world sent to your home :-).

Absolutely Fabulous
Blackadder
Black Books
Jeeves & Wooster
To The Manor Born
Yes (Prime) Minister

You can order the entire series
from W. H. Smith Online

At this time, only the first two seasons of Yes, Minister has been released on DVD, but all are available on VHS.

Yes Minister Series 1 (DVD)
Yes Minister Series 2 (DVD)

Yes Minister Series 1 (VHS)

Yes Prime Minister Series 1 (VHS)

Yes Prime Minister Series 2 (VHS)

Yes Minister (The Book)
Yes Prime Minister (The Book)