Yes Minister Page 6
Quote: Oldrocker @ May 12 2011, 1:05 AM BSThttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13363738
Step forward Jim Hacker !
Dated so little although to be fair it's probably more of a job for Thick of It's Nicola Murray if she hasn't taken up a post at Yale ("the key people?").
I finished my YM/YPM box set yesterday. It ended with an episode which made Sir Humphrey look like a tit for a change (he didn't realise the mic was still on after a radio interview). Was this planned to be the last episode/season or was the show suddenly axed?
I believe it was intended as the final installment of the series.
Quote: Aaron @ January 8 2013, 4:20 PM GMTI believe it was intended as the final installment of the series.
Thank you. So, as some sort of happy ending they wanted to show that Humphrey is only human. 
In the episode The Greasy Pole a character called Sir Wally McFarlane is the chairman of the British Chemical Corporation. This guy has such a distinctive accent which doesn't sound British to my ears. First I thought he's French, then Eastern European.
But I think with a name like McFarlane he must be British. Is he Scottish, Welsh or anything else?
Scottish.
Quote: Aaron @ 20th September 2014, 10:15 PM BSTScottish.
Thank you very much. I never heard it that way before...no Groundkeeper Willie, no Private Fraser.
Very interesting that you can hear that much of a difference! Groundskeeper Willie is an almost Dick Van Dyke-like caricature of an accent at times, but both Freddie Earlle's (the actor in this case) and John Laurie's are distinctively, similarly Scottish to my ears.
Quote: Aaron @ 20th September 2014, 10:30 PM BSTFreddie Earlle's (the actor in this case) and John Laurie's are distinctively, similarly Scottish to my ears.
I don't know how to explain it but I think Laurie and other "typical" Scottsmen roll R's a bit more like...I don't know...like Adolf Hitler. Whereas this McFarlane guy doesn't pronounce his R's that sharp...on the contrary, he pronounces them like a Frenchman, at least to My ears. But this is only One aspect. There are even more aspects. Short: Fraser and McFarlane do not sound similar in the slightest to me.
It's the same thing with Welsh accents: For example Private Cheeseman from DA and Sgt. Major Shut Up from IAHHM do not sound very similar to me.
Quote: Gordon Bennett @ 20th September 2014, 10:43 PM BSTIt's the same thing with Welsh accents: For example Private Cheeseman from DA and Sgt. Major Shut Up from IAHHM do not sound very similar to me.
No, they're quite different indeed! Windsor's is a very subtle, gentle accent (and hard to hear much accent in it at all when he's shouting!), whilst Talfryn's is incredibly strong. Boy-o.
Anyway, now diverging from the topic of Yes Minister...
An interesting thread.
Quote: Aaron @ 20th September 2014, 10:30 PM BST
Thanks for mentioning his name. I Googled it...I knew I saw him before, he played the cafe owner in the second episode of Going Straight, where he was speaking with an Italian accent.
I liked him in both shows.
Quite a prolific character actor; you'll have seen him in many other things too. Two different roles in each of Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum, for example.
Quote: Aaron @ 21st September 2014, 9:58 PM BSTQuite a prolific character actor; you'll have seen him in many other things too. Two different roles in each of Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum, for example.
Ah, yes... I think he was an Italian prisoner of war and a Train driver in DA...can't remember him in IAHHM. Very funny guy.
Back on topic: He's great in that Yes Minister episode...I love the scene where he shouts at Hacker "Sit down!"