I went to see this re-make when it was in the West End a few years ago, and at the time I remember thinking it would be excellent to see it on television.
I still think it was, and unusually for me, I liked the new version, but I feel it worked better on the stage. Splitting one evening across six or so episodes was the bit that let the television version down IMO.
I always though Sir Arnold was worse than Sir Humphrey when it came to the "evil" stakes.
Anyone else think that?
Quote: Natalie Salat @ 1st March 2016, 4:13 AM GMTI always though Sir Arnold was worse than Sir Humphrey when it came to the "evil" stakes.
Anyone else think that?
Yep. I posted his name in the Most Despicable Sitcom Characters - thread.
Humphrey was always likable despite his actions and views because he had charm and humour. Sir Arnold on the other hand was like a ruthless Mafia Don...ice cold.
Yes Minister still feels very current. Just my opinion.
I finished the first series of Yes Minister and it is indeed excellent. I love it, even though I'm not a politics person, I find this fantastic. I love the characters and Sir Humphrey has to be my favourite character, where he manipulates Hacker and he is quite a pompous arrogant and likes to point out his education against Hacker's. I believe that Humphrey's character likes to think that he knows what's best for the country, but really knows what's better for himself and Hacker knows what is best for Britain, probably to get reelected again.
Quote: Wheel @ 6th April 2019, 3:48 PMhe is quite a pompous arrogant and likes to point out his education against Hacker's.
Sir Humphrey and Hacker were miles apart socially, educationally and intellectually. Nevertheless, I'm quite sure Sir Humphrey felt similarly detached from the vast majority of our representatives in the House of Commons. I have a feeling he thought Hacker "not a bad chap" as inferiors go. It was therefore entirely possible for the two of them to get along effectively and amiably on a daily basis.
Tolerance of society's lower orders can only be stretched so far, however, and I dread to imagine what Sir Humphrey would think of some of the creatures that are being elected to Parliament these days. 
Have we just seen a classic case of Sir Humphrey type snobbery and power mongering in the snaring of Gavin Williamson?
Dunno...........never watched the programme. Odd glimpses I saw of it I thought were clichéd and boring.
No Williamson is the architect of his own downfall and the only sad factor being that he actually managed to achieve such heights in the first instance'
The nearest thing to it is the 'Man overboard' Episode but that was Yes Prime Minister .
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 6th May 2019, 11:35 AMHave we just seen a classic case of Sir Humphrey type snobbery and power mongering in the snaring of Gavin Williamson?
I think the civil service has become infinitely worse since the early 1980s.
And rightly so as politicians will do anything to survive till the next Friday whilst the Civil Service are there to make sure we survive fr the next hundred years.
Yes Brexit has shown them to be at their conniving worst, bunch of f**king traitors out to preserve their own interests. They should face elections like the MPs but that's why they choose the jobs they do, knowing they're safe and can get off with the snidest treachery hidden away from public view. Think I'll write a sitcom called The Sick Of IT.
TTOI btw is nowhere near as good as YM, don't listen to those experts in getting it wrong. I only saw one ep of it but couldn't bear another of the smugly smartarse Iannucci patter. 
My childhood was the late Cold War of "Yes Minister" and it's hard for young people to appreciate how scary that was.
Paul Eddington himself insisted on a script re-write when the one he was given didn't give the threat of nuclear war an appropriate weight.
Without getting into modern-day issues, I wouldn't mind Hacker's alternate 1980s Britain being teleported to our world now, just to see how Jim and Humphrey and Bernard and their lot would deal with our world.
