Fawlty Towers or Yes Minister? Page 4

All good.

Hardly seen any of Yes Minister But know a friend who has the first series on DVD, so will have to borrow and watch it. Watched it about twelve years ago and wasn't impressed. But my knowledge of politics has increased and read alot about the series and how true the show is. I will certainly understand the satire alot more now and will definetly give it a go.

In fact just found the first episode on YouTube. There will be no more posts from me for half an hour now.

So Jack, what did you think?

Blackadder Goes Forth and Fawlty Towers are as near as it gets to perfection for me. Yes Minister was very good but the Holy Grails of comedy are yet to be topped (please note my brilliant Pythonesque reference there. You are in the presence of genius.)

Quote: Aaron @ July 16 2008, 9:10 PM BST

So Jack, what did you think?

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Some good lines, not hysterically funny, but concentrates more on being clever and suceeds. Just can't enjoy sitting down though and watching something on youtube. Will lend the DVD and enjoy it more.

I would put Fawlty as my number one or two with Yes futher down the list. Tied with Fawlty would be Red Dwarf.

I thought it interesting to hear John Cleese say that at the start he wrote for Basil while Connie wrote for Polly. As the show progressed however, they swapped roles with John writing more Polly.

I would place Blackadder as a solid third. The first series is not my favorite. It came into it's own with the second series.

FT and Yes Minister. I can only rate those two shows as equals.

I've just seen Comedy Connections and was interested how they related Yes Minister to the business training videos Cleese, Jay and Lynn produced - just another training video "how not to run the country". And isn't Fawlty Towers from the same stable "how not to run a hotel"? I've gone past thinking "which is better?" Just enjoy

Edited by Aaron.

Fawlty Towers has my vote........

Quote: Goldnutmeg @ July 26 2008, 11:59 PM BST

I've just seen Comedy Connections and was interested how they related Yes Minister to the business training videos Cleese, Jay and Lynn produced - just another training video "how not to run the country". And isn't Fawlty Towers from the same stable "how not to run a hotel"? I've gone past thinking "which is better?" Just enjoy

Edited by Aaron.

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Thanx for the subbing Aaron!

I enjoyed both of the shows and it was an era of good shows at the beeb.
Today I can't watch tele for fear of quizz and cooking shows

Aitch,

Quote: Timbo @ July 3 2008, 3:06 PM BST

Yes Minister was very funny and to a point truthful, but it as had an unfortunate legacy. This was a series that changed the way people thought about politicians and civil servants, and changed the way politicians thought about civil servants. As Adam Curtis pointed out in The Trap, and as Anthony Jay has himself confirmed, the series was propaganda for public choice economics. The idea promoted by the series was that both politicians and civil servants acted solely in their own self-interest, and that disinterested public service is a myth. Obviously there is some truth that no-one is entirely blind to their own self-interest, but integrity and a sense of duty do exist. This was denied by the proponents of public choice economics, who promoted the culture of measurable targets and financial incentives that has dominated public life over the past twenty years, with disastrous results. It has also promoted the myth that civil servants are deliberately obstructive rather than objective in pointing out potential pitfalls based on past experience, a myth bought into by Tony Blair in his "scars on my back' speech. The result is that the traditional role of the civil service of "speaking truth unto power" has been replaced by a can-do culture, in which the way to get on is to tell ministers what they want to hear. Officials know that flagship policies are bound to failure, but anyone who speaks out is off-message and has his card marked.

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Hey Timbo,

But if Sir Antony Jay apparently admits to being a propagandist, would it not follow he could be double bluffing? Aha! Might not these subtle propagandists now be using the same psychology with a documentary rather than comedy slant to lead us down a different Primrose economic blueprint Path … After all, the Adam Curtis series was called "The Trap" lol

Fawlty by a mile. Yes Minster is OK, though.

Fawlty Towers. But then I've never actually seen Yes Minister, so Towers would have to be really bad to lose.

And you attack my comedy have/haven't seens. The cheek of it.