😂😂😂

😂😁🤣

😂😂😂😅

Sir Humphrey (Nigel Hawthorne) was phenomenal - the writing and Hawthorne's portrayal consistently excellent. But, "A clear conscience... when did you acquire this taste for luxuries?" is an absolute highlight. Hardest laugh I've had in the past month. I watched both series (YM and YPM) in their entirety some years ago, but didn't remember the details of this scene ... wasn't quite prepared for the level of perfection there. 🤣🤣🤣

@@apomekhanes297 There is another scence where Sir Humphrey is talking with Sir Arnold who having retired from the civil service was Chairman of the Freedom of Information Committie and Sir Humphrey ask him..How things were going at Freedom Of Information and Sir Arnold replies without missing a beat replies Sorry cannot say

Odo: you'd stab a man in the back? Garak: of course! its the safest way to be sure Sir Humphrey: Mr Garak, you excell yourself once again!

Just Garak... Plan, simple... ​@@AzguardMike

9:11

My fave!

The two he attended no doubt.

It is the pause in the sentence which makes it even better. The universities ... both of them.

one day that joke might not be relevant anymore and people will wonder what universities Humfrey was talking about, the fact that the joke has survived so long is a testament to just how powerful those institutions are.

@@sevenpolar3483 Oxford and Cambridge are the 2nd and 3rd oldest universities in the world. They've been around for centuries (800ish years) and will probably still be around for centuries to come.

True, but I don't think the performance would have been as good without Hacker, or even Bernard. It's a role that doesn't really work in isolation.

All three of them. All three.

The shows (Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister) were one of the few gems that provides an insight into political life. The West Wing was a more idealistic take on the executive. If only more voters understood how the sausage is made.

That's why the remake was so awful. None of the actors were any good with their roles and they had zero chemistry.

@@DomWeasel There was a remake?!? never heard of it. I guess politics never changes really, but this show was absolute perfection so not sure why they bothered

Those are great! Mine is “a mistake can only be seen as such, at the time, without the benefit of hindsight”.

“Minister, I don’t know what you don’t know, it could be almost anything” “The ship of state is the only ship that leaks from the top” “The Official Secrets Act isn’t there to protect secrets, it’s there to protect officials”

Favourite* Time for Americans to learn the English language.

@@bobbrewer5182 "Yes, the English speaking nations can be said to include the United States....With a certain generosity of spirit. " - Bernard

@@iandhr1 “two nations divided by a common language” Winston Churchill. Which just reminds me of when Hacker starts talking like Churchill lol

I have had the honour of meeting Nigel Hawthorne in his role of The Madness of George III, and he accepted my humble gift with a handwritten note which I treasure to this day! May he rest in eternal peace!

Let's not forget the writing he delivered so well. Nigel Hawthorne was part of a trio in that series that were absolutely perfectly cast, and each of them were brilliant. But the writing they delivered was comedic genius. How else can you explain something so funny, witty, and satrical about something as dry as minsterial politics?

Could you care to explain the joke to the non-English? Thanks

@@saradhiv3467 certainly, he is referring to Oxford and Cambridge. By implication he doesn’t regard anywhere else as a university.

@@johnwilliamson8110 I understood which two Unis. Over the course of time, its shown that he favours his own alum and I thought he preferred one over the other and when he said "both of them" he was making a one time concession.

@@saradhiv3467 Nah it’s what John said 😂

@@saradhiv3467 it was more than that even. He only really regarded another chap as being of sound standing if he was an alumni of the exact same college within Oxford Uni.

Not so suprising, Hull is a great instituition. Larkin, you know.

LOL very good sir... "both of them" one of the best lines of the whole series, short and concise compared to Sir Humphrey's regular soliloquies.

Sir Humphrey isn't a politician.

@@lauterunvollkommenheit4344 It's a weird one because Civil Servants are effectively the government.

@@lauterunvollkommenheit4344 Spot on.

Both Bernard and Sir Humphrey are in fact unelected bueraucrats from civil service.

This should be shown to all kids in the higher grades in school to prepare them for the bullshit politicians are pulling all the time.

Based

Bet you can still remember the first African American you hit 🤢🤢

Best political sitcom that is

What? I thought it was a documentary!

After all these clips got recommended to me I finally started watching it in full, am almost done with series 2 of Yes, Minister now, and I fully agree. I think it’s certainly one of the finest comedies I’ve ever seen.

@@siriondil4739 what about only fools and horses

A great primer for politics on both sides of the Pond.

You mean how government STILL works.

If Sir Humphrey was American he would ne DONALD TRUMP

@@damienocallaghan2648 those that abuse capital letters emphasise nothing but the hysteria of the abuser. I doubt someone with the wits of Sir Humphrey could possibly arise in America.

​@@damienocallaghan2648 Eh? Appleby is highly intelligent, Trump is the only idiot in a village populated by baboons.

Humphrey is far more intelligent and would be down right furious at being compared to that nincompoop.

😁😆❤️

Yes... or, rather, exposes of what goes on behind closed doors.

according to the doccumentry, the episodes were based on leaks by three MP's close to the PM. So Humpy and Hacker saying Number 10 is the only ship that leaks from within, is very true

@@AzguardMike It was worse than that. There were apparently several senior members of the civil service that were sending the writers all the background information that they needed on a regular basis.

It was reality TV back then as well, the guy that Humphrey was based upon was cooperating with the writing staff and some of the events are based on actual ones, like getting drunk at the arabian reception for instance.

The very best of comedy, not just British. Period.

It always was reality, governments have just gotten complacent in putting on a front.

Intelligent media gives rise to intelligent patrons, intelligent patrons expects its government to be accountable to people. Now we can't have that can we Bernard.😉

When was that? People were always stupid. If anything, they are slightly less stupid now, but that isn't saying much.

@@amoral_minority true, just trying to be coy

@@abhaygsingh4405 not talking about your comment, yours was funny

I wonder if there's a site that has the number on how many people actually watched it back in the day.

That just goes to show the even-handed, far-sighted nature of the Civil Service.

I doubt if any contemporary actor could remember and deliver the following lines from the episode: "what a tangled web we weave" as well as Nigel Hawthorne : "Unfortunately although the answer was indeed clear, simple and straightforward, there is some difficulty in justifiably assigning to it the fourth of the epithets you applied to the statement, inasmuch as the precise correlation between the information you communicated and the facts, in so far as they can be determined and demonstrated, is such as to cause epistemological problems of sufficient magnitude as to lay upon the logical and semantic resources of the English language a heavier burden than they can reasonably be expected to bear." I also doubt that many contemporary beings have a sufficient attention span rather longer than that of the average goldfish or garden furniture, to understand them or find them amusing. I'm almost certain that no contemporary American could possibly follow them, although the immortal Dorothy Parker would have relished them with delight. Anyone that can write: “Those familiar with the novels of Miss X will look forward to her next novel with the sort of enthusiasm generally reserved to that of the fatted calf when contemplating the return of the prodigal son.” could also have written those words delivered so perfectly by Nigel Hawthorne. Wits such as those are rare in any land let alone America.I doubt if contemporary America can produce another wit like that of Dorothy Parker, although tthe writers of the big bang theory do indeed come close at times. There are indeed some that sneer at Americans but they forget some of the wonders that America has produced, not least Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker - real cynics are not common in contemporary America, as far as I can determine. The predisposition of contemporary Americans to sentimentality would have to be excised before another Dorothy Parker might be possible.

P.S I think this is why the regional government major hire the people but the central government or the overseer aka the governor paid/approved their salary payment.

I heard a minister say on radio 4 about Boris J. before he was forced out of office: “Yes he is a liar but his heart is in the right place.” That was point 4 taken care of.

Let's not go too far lol

@@Bawheidbob I bet none of them have ever had that said to them before 😂🤣😂

Without any doubt "Yes, minster" is the crown 👑 of the BBC sitcom, l borrowed it many times from the library till I end up buying the complete collection to say the least!

This would never get commissioned today

More like (what he is really saying) "months of fruitless work".😄

"This is a British democracy" tops it for me.

Only British?

The exercise of power is about politics (with a lower case 'p') - they are eternally entwined.

Yes, it really is universal but so well clothed in British-ness.

No it couldn't according to the woke agenda you would have to have half if them black,some black woman in it,a man in a wheelchair,a transgender arsehole for the LGBT+ mob a asian person,just to get pass the planning stage,so your not accuse of racism against minority people,this why tv is shit today

So clever it would not be allowed to be made today particularly criticizing progressive liberal Marxist governments in Western civilizations

There are no writers around today let alone actors that could make a series of such subtlety

@@michaelmeredith9470 Not true. It's a studio exec problem.

It’s a documentary performed as satire - and satire, as we all know, is sarcasm’s more truthful alter-ego.