Henry Goodman

Radio Times review

What an absolute delight for the brain and the ears. This new series was created by Jon Canter (the freelance comedy writer who has worked with everyone from Fry and Laurie to Smith and Jones), stars the ludicrously vocally talented Miles Jupp, and tantalises the listeners with three impossible interviews.

Each week, James Boswell, the famous biographer of Dr Samuel Johnson, travels through time to interview a historical figure he could never have met. This week it's Sigmund Freud, next up is Maria Callas and the series closes with Harold Pinter (played by Harry Enfield).

One cannot help feel pity for Boswell as every question, every response, every word he utters is immediately pounced upon and psychoanalysed by Freud (played to neurotic perfection by Henry Goodman). So much so that Boswell ends the interview believing he may well want to kill his father and sleep with his mother.

A work of genius.

President Richard Nixon - or, to give him his full title, disgraced president Richard Nixon - recorded almost all conversations he held in the Oval Office and it is these transcripts that provide the basis of the dialogue for Sky Arts' Nixon's The One.

Harry Shearer, of The Simpsons and Spinal Tap fame, takes the lead role - one he has honed over many years for the US cult comedy show Saturday Night Live - with Henry Goodman lending support as Henry Kissinger.

Nixon brags, rambles, whines and holds forth, while Kissinger fawns, flatters and, in one memorable scene, fumbles an uncomfortable and not wholly convincing explanation as to why a foreign journalist quoted him as calling his boss "a cowboy". Such is their depth of friendship that Nixon forgives Kissinger, and then orders his entire outgoing phone calls traced.

Those who prefer their viewing a little more visual might go away disappointed - the characters are largely chair-bound, it is filmed on a single set and the only discernible action is outside the window when a gardener shambles past. But for anyone wanting a fascinating, funny and slightly disturbing insight into the mind of the former leader of the free world, Nixon's The One is the one.

This sequel - re-make, or whatever you want to call it - of the classic 1980s satirical sitcom, began on digital channel G.O.L.D. last week. But having being informed that the second episode was better than the first, I thought it best to reserve judgment until after seeing 'em both.

These six new episodes of Yes, Prime Minister are set in Chequers, with PM Jim Hacker (David Haig) running a coalition government in the middle of a Euro crisis. He's still being "helped" by Sir Humphrey Appleby (Henry Goodman) and Bernard Woolley (Chris Larkin), - but Humphrey's idea of sorting everything out involves the creation of an oil pipeline built by the Islamic nation of Qumranistan (formerly Qumran) joining all the EU countries. The problem's that in order to strike the deal, Britain has to join the Euro...

The first episode appears to just set the ground for the forthcoming five, all of which appear to be set in a short period of time. In the second episode, Chequers entertains the Qumranistan foreign minister, when Hacker, with next to no information, has to make a speech for the minister. You know what you're getting when the opening line is, "Welcome our very welcome guest... welcome."

The series contains the same satirical digs as the original, though so far the institution that's been attacked the most over the course of the two episodes is the BBC, which Hacker insults and manipulates in order to get a live interview. Given the revised series was rejected by the BBC because they didn't make a pilot, it makes the attack even more vitriolic. Naughty boys.

Let's face it, though; this new series will always be in the shadow of the original. But on its own, this updated version has its moments - most of them in the form of long speeches from a certain Cabinet Secretary.

By far the longest scene of the week arrived courtesy of the new (but unimproved) version of 80s sitcom Yes Prime Minister (G.O.L.D.), which was surely - and admittedly I may have dozed off for a moment - just one endless sentence. I'm sure fans of nostalgia thrilled to the new Sir Humphrey (Henry Goodman) Appleby's familiar mastery of verbal bamboozling as he led coalition leader Jim Hacker (David Haig) up the garden path towards the euro via some Byzantine shenanigans concerning an oil-rich former soviet republic. Writers Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn have lost none of their genius for the marathon one-liner - or indeed their other formula, in which Bernard innocently feeds the master a line about democracy only to receive a homily on the dangers of allowing politicians to think they are clever enough to run the country. But it seemed woefully out of date, in its staginess and jokes that were old when Paul Eddington was alive. It isn't just that Britain has moved on, dragging politicians with it (here we had the absurdity of Jim Hacker talking about "wops", "frogs" and "dagoes" while the other two exchanged Latin epigrams), but that comedy has. Certainly I preferred David Haig in The Thick of It.

Thanks to the interim exploits of Malcolm Tucker, Gold's decision to revamp the Eighties political satire Yes, Prime Minister was always going to be a gamble. And after a slow, canned-laughter-heavy opening it looked like this update had backfired. But it had more than hit its stride by the time the two main sparring partners, PM Jim Hacker (David Haig) and Sir Humphrey Appleby (Henry Goodman), clashed. And unlike The Thick Of It, the only F-word I have to report so far is funny.

The revived Yes, Prime Minister, returning after a 24-year absence, at least came in on the perfect political cue. "Dealing with Europe isn't about achieving success," David Haig's exasperated PM tells the head of his Policy Unit, "it's about concealing failure." But that kind of timing isn't what comedy is about and in two ways this was a beat or two off. For one thing, you just can't pretend that The Thick of It never happened, as this seemed to do in featuring a scene of political advisers wincing as their boss flounders through an interview. For another, Henry Goodman can't quite expunge the memory of Nigel Hawthorne's silky perfection. Further consultation required.

It's 24 years since Yes, Prime Minister was last on our screens but, along with Fawlty Towers, it's probably the most fondly remembered of all British sitcoms. Doubtless fans will come to this updating by original writers Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay carrying big bags of goodwill. But political satire has changed in those intervening years, everyone's a critic and politicians are routinely savaged on social networking sites. And we've had The Thick of It, which attacked government and opposition with equal comic ferocity.

So all of this makes Yes, Prime Minister seem the most gentle and polite of comedies. There are no hard edges, just knowing winks and gags about Greek bail-outs. Its good manners feel dated, but luckily it is saved by the peerless David Haig and Henry Goodman as hapless PM Jim Hacker and suave cabinet secretary Sir Humphrey.

Twenty-four years on and following an acclaimed stage revival, Yes Prime Minister returns to our screens with the same on-stage pairing heading the cast: David Haig (as hapless PM Jim 'I lost my hair in the service of my country' Hacker) and Henry Goodman (playing Hacker's inscrutable, conspiratorial advisor, Sir Humphrey). In these post-The Thick of It times, its fundamental generosity of spirit and good nature inevitably feels a little dated, in spite of knowing references to Euro crises and coalition politics as the pair negotiate over funding a new pipeline for a post-Soviet state. Yet Hacker and Humphrey are durable archetypes and Haig and Goodman perfect for them, seeing the script through its flabbier passages with the assurance of actors entirely at ease in their roles.

Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn's Eighties comedy series Yes, Minister - and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister - set the bar for political comedy very high. Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne were immaculate in their roles as cabinet minister/PM Jim Hacker and his permanent secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby, and provided an almost impossible act to follow. This updated remake, which went to G.O.L.D. when the BBC refused to commit, follows the recent stage production and has a workmanlike David Haig, Henry Goodman and Chris Larkin in the roles of the PM, Sir Humphrey and private secretary Bernard Woolley. The satire is gentle and perceptive as they tackle coalition issues, the Euro crisis and a European summit. But, given that the foul-mouthed The Thick of It has transformed the way we approach political humour, it lacks bite and the studio laughter is very tacky.