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Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister 2-PakRating:
Release Date: 28 October, 2003 Retail Price: $128.98 OUR Price: $116.08 You SAVE: $12.90! Cast: |
Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister 2-Pak Reviews
Hilarious and Depressing at the Same Time
When the creators of the show, Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynne
came up with the idea for "Yes, Minister" in the 1970's, they
wondered whether a comedy consisting entirely of "elderly men sitting around talking about government" would go over with the viewers. In fact they created one of the greatest comedy programs of all time. Of course, the casting was a major factor, and they had the good luck to come up with such a magnificent cast. What is interesting is that for Nigel Hawthorne (Sir Humphrey Appleby), this was his first real success in the world of acting although he was around 50 years of age at the time, so this program's creators saw the potential in him that so many others missed. It is absolutely amazing how he is able to memorize and recite with a straight face so many unbelievably long and convoluted sentences that are one of the trademarks of this show. Paul Eddington (Jim Hacker) was, on the other hand a well known actor, and he is able to go from being befuddled to well-meaning to conniving in a single episode.
Derek Fowlds (Bernard Wooley-a funny name) is also good as Hacker's personal secretary.
I mention in the title that the program is depressing because one sees how politicians take the public's tax money and use it to pay off other politicians in order to thwart the best interests of those taxpayers. In one of the supplements to the DVD discs there are interviews with real British politicians of the 1970's and 1980's and they say that the program does reflect much of the reality of politics, but it is not quite a cynical as is reflected in the show. In any event, if viewers develop
a better understanding of politics and it motivates them to get involved to keep the politicians on the level, then the world is not getting just entertainment from this series.
There may be some confusion in the program for people who are not British because of the lingo peculiar to British Politics (e.g. repeated references to "Number 10" which means the Prime Minister's Office) or various historical events or personalities in British political history which the viewer may be unaware of.
My favorite line is stated by a character who had been an MP in the House of Commons and was given a peerage so he moved over to the House of Lords. When asked what he thought of the change, he replied "I've gone from the animals to the vegetables!".
Priceless!
No subtitles
It's amazing that such great series don't include subtitles on the DVD set...
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