"The West Wing" is a show about how politicians and leaders view themselves. "Yes, Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister" is a show about how they really are.

“A clear conscience. When did you acquire this taste for luxury?” Lol

Sitcom? I always thought it was a documentary.

I've watched every episode of Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister hundreds of times, initially on Video and nowadays DVD, and I still laugh out loud when I watch them. Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne brought their respective characters to life in the most amazing, and lasting, way. Without question, my all time favourite TV series :)

RIP Derek Fowlds. Such an integral player in this the best ever.

Best line ever :- Humphrey “How are things at the campaign for freedom of information”? Arnold “ I’m sorry I can’t talk about that”.

Bernard: "But that's on a need to know basis..." Sir Humphrey: "I NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING!!!" Brilliant!

One of the greatest comedies in the English speaking world. I learned more about politics ( and bureaucracy) than I ever did in class.

Paul Eddington should have a two BAFTA awards for his performance in the "A Victory for Democracy" & "The Key."

I watched Yes Minister and wonder how many times the actors had to take due to the material being hilariously funny. And amazingly its still viable in 2022. Nice to see the times havent changed. You can watch Yes Minister and totally relate even now 40 years on.

I think that, by and large, given an average of sitcoms, taking all things into consideration and avoiding simplistic explanations and vulgar oversimplifications, "Yes, Minister", is, in the fullness of time, at the appropriate juncture, keeping in mind that Rome wasn't built in a day, going to be voted by an interdepartmental committee of sound experts, as the wittiest civil service files ever leaked to the press.. I'd trade my favourite quango for more!

Sir Humphrey: “It is necessary to get behind someone before you can stab them in the back.”

Paul Eddington was one ofthe most underrated actors of his time. Its a shame he never ever received credit for it in Britain.He was as good and maybe even better than Nigel Hawthorne.

The Trident segment is fantastically written and beautifully delivered by those two actors. An absolute masterpiece. I think if I tried 100 times I would not be able to deliver Sir Humphreys lines without fluffing them.

I love both Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. As a Canadian, one of the many things I love about the show is it parallels the Canadian, as well as the Australian and New Zealand, system of government which is based on the British Parliamentary system. Canada has a House of Commons, the British have a House Commons. Canada has an appointed Senate, the British have an appointed House of Lords. You can take every scenario on that show and superimpose it on a Canadian government scenario. There's no difference. It's brilliant.

Never tell the people what your going to do, tell them what they want to hear. That's the basis of politics.

Yes, definitely one of the best sitcoms of all time. Not only did it make incredibly dry subjects hilarious in a show that was 95% dialogue, it did so in a way that was clever and sophisticated, but simultaneously accessible and understandable for just about everyone.

"He's a mouse learning to be a rat." That is frighteningly good!

Still watched by all MP's in Oz as well as their constituent's ….Absolutely Genius after all these terms of rule!

8:35 _“Vain, bombastic, obsessed with the press and his popularity, and nursing a secret Churchill fetish...”_ remind you of anyone?

Classic line delivered by Derek Fowldes in one of the episodes, "A consignment of gerryatric boot-makers - A load of old cobblers!"

An extraordinary phenomenon of a programme this. I sometimes meet people from outside of the UK who say what a funny programme this is, and I have to say, 'well, actually, this is how it's done in Britain'!

best sitcom ever. brilliant writing and acting. And still very relevant.

The bolero was perfect. Watching Eddington and Hawthorne act was like a dance.

“There has been movement.” “On which subject?” “On a subject which the Civil Service hopes there will be no movement.” “The Civil Service generally hopes there will be no movement on any subject.”

5:00 my favourite part of this clip, together with the music. Absolutely marvelous.

it is more than a sitcom, it is a timeles documentation about politics and bureau-crazy

Best show on the planet. Eerily accurate.

Hacker brings endless tears to my eyes. Just stupid brilliant funny. Sir Humphrey is all around perfected in speech, arrogance, set up, intelligent, they all worked too well together ❤️

Mockumentry is the best way to describe this show while it made us laugh and opened our eyes to the load of bullcookies we get from our elected politicians

The genius of the Yes Minister & Yes Prime Minister is that it was a sitcom which served as an excellent documentary, shining light on the unexpectedly inept world of British politics.

Love Jim Hacker, just cannot explain. Brilliant

Apparently these guys hated that it was filmed live. Especially during these parts. The laughter would throw them off. But that says a lot about how remarkable these guys are. The timing, the facial expression alone sometimes could replace 3 sentences of scripted dialogue

My late dad hated this programme but he was a politician so he had to work with the types of Jim Hacker when he was alive so it was maybe a tad too close to home...

The 2013 reboot seemed to highlight the notion that no matter how brilliant the writing can be on a TV show, it won't really work if you don't have the right players in your cast.

From my own direct knowledge, that proposal about letting smokers kill themselves to save future government health and retirement expenditures in fact was brought up by a civil servant at a very high level in the United States Department of Health and Human Services in the 1980s. The idea was turned down.

Best sitcom ever televised

Mrs Thatcher said it was the closest thing to how it really was in parliament.

A pure diamond of a series

I am watching the best sitcom 1 to 4 and they are very interesting showing pieces of yes minister and yes Pm.

Yes. I agree entirely. Yes Minister was the best ever sit com from the UK or anywhere. Very serious subject matter made very funny and close to the truth of things.

I miss shows like these. There was a charm to this level of elegance and grace. I think that's why I love Fry so much. There's an effortless affability about self-depricating humour that I always found wonderful.

Nigel Hawthorne owned this part completely. May he RIP

Genius. Brilliant acting by all as well

Sir Humphrey is the patron saint of the Croatian government. Also of former Yugoslavian, essentially, if one puts aside that they were irreligious.

The writing was amazing

Brilliant series. We got the box set donkeys years ago. 👍

I saw this in 1984 at 19 yrs old and it was a paradigm shift from monty python.

Thank you for reminding me, I keep forgetting....

Best sitcom ever. Probably didnt realalise it at the time. So true to life even today. In UK and Ireland. Love watching it today to remind us what still goes on. Should be re-run👌👌👌👊

dear lady.

An achievement of genius.'" True. Scathing expose of reality. Seemingly the lesson is finally taking.

Dear lady.

Sir Humphrey's intro music was on point 🤣🤣

Me: “Will you answer a direct question?” Teacher: “I strongly advise you not to ask a direct question”. Me: “Why?” Teacher: “It might provoke a direct answer.” Me: “It never has yet...”

Sorry to be pedantic, but Ianucci incorrectly describes Bernard as Hacker's Parliamentary Private Secretary. Bernard is a civil servant and is Principal Private Secretary. A Parliamentary Private Secretary is an MP appointed by a Minister to be his or her ears in Parliament. In Yes Minister, no such character exists

I can't see the Americans ever writing some thing like this , can you ? I think the British would the only ones. Every make it one of their most popular and best loved comedy shows .

@Rain13Dog Thank you very much! The Dance of the Knights is the perfect entrance for Sir Humphrey!

My son Vasu is also fond of these episodes and put on TV when ever I want to see.

Thanks so much!

Dear sir please upload whole series on UKposts, it be my best and favourite comedy series. Thanku so much sir, specially Sir Humphrey Appleby.

Simply genius!

Best? Well, top 5 anyway. Mrs Brown's Boys, Vicar of Dibley, Bless Me Father, and Keeping Up Appearances are all right up there with it.

I never quite understood what the eternal quarrel between politicians and administrators was all about until getting elected to local government for a couple of years. Even at this stage of government the civil servants tried everything to stop politicians to implement policies. And I have to admit they were often right. Over the years I watched "Yes Minister" over and over and slowly learned how to deal with the apparatus. And once I even quoted it in a speech. "We are the opposition in charge, you are the opposition in exile" is now in the records of the burrough of Hamburg-Eimsbuettel.

I learn a lot from it . 😂😂

Bernard was not Hacker's Parliamentary Private Secretary but his Principal Private Secretary. There is a difference

“If you made him too ignorant nobody would believe someone like that could become Prime Minister.” Insert one of *those* pictures of current occupant.

"Gdzie kucharek sześć tam nie ma co jeść" . Polecam kabaret starszych panów pt. "Rozum"

"No one that incompetent could ever become a minister." Enter Boris Johnson...

It's the best sitcom!!!!

britain is talented in producing funny characters.

Shame we could not have Sir Humphrey negotiate Brexit for us - it would be settled within days. Sir Humphrey knew how to handle our European enemies ... whoops sorry, friends.

Real politicians are now only clowns by comparison to the tv series.

If you want to count paperclips all you need is a paperclip optimizer and you'll have your answer. Tell that to the P.M.

The "dear lady" thing is a perfect example of "making patronising contempt sound like good manners" which is the key feature of a public school/Oxbridge education.

1:20 Humphrey is not God. Will you tell him or shall I? 🤣 🤣

Even now nobody knows how they move and shake 😂

As I understand it, it was because of this documentary (I could be using that term loosely thanks to the top comment) that The Thick of It was conceived.

Very clever and funny ! Pip. Pip. !

All people in "power" (government, bbc, etc.) under-estimate the brilliance of the ordinary British citizen. We DO have a brilliant sense of humour - unlike any other country on the planet !!!

It’s not, in my humble. But brilliant all the same. Thanks for the vid.

i bet sir humpfrey was mycroft's favourite tv character. the only reason he'd ever lower himself to watching the idiot box ;)

Armando Iannuchi used yes minibater as his inspiration for the thick of it

Hacker is so naive and he has good intentions

Stephen Fry: fan. hahahahhaha

greatest sitcom ever

Stephen Fry Fan That's hilarious

5:05-5:10 best use of the dance of the nights theme

though most governments bear similarities, in TV of some nation you could watch the second most boring sitcom, while in certain country you could only watch the most boring play. - love from China

where's part 2????

Stephen Fry- Fan 😂

Mrs Hacker was pretty saucy

I wonder who Boris Sir Humphrey is?

What movement (instrumental classic music) is played at the 5:06 mark, when Sir Humphrey walked in to meet Hacker? Thank you!

1:23 Parliamentary Private Secretary Bernard?

Part 2 is blocked worldwide. I'm not sure it's on youtube, but the whole program can be found here and there on shady websites.

Imagine what Humphrey and Hacker would have done with Brexit. Come on BBC. Get on it.

If you want a top 8 in no particular order im happy with your numbers 1,2,5,6 and 8. But i would add the following BBC comedies (will only include ones ive grown up with=not ones i was too young too see first time round) Some mothers Do ave em. Im Alan Partridge ( IMO the first Partridge sitcom series was the finest comedy ever) and The Fall and Rise Of Reginald Perrin. If you want a few from the other sides think of Rising Damp Father Ted. Only When I laugh and the New Statesman

what was the piece of music when Humphrey was introduced?

"Middle -aged men are boring" is a misconception.