Yes, Prime Minister (2013)

The danger of constantly celebrating the past

Nostalgia. Easy promotability. A blend of old and new. Low risk. Lots of press. And a brand new half hour to be written by Clement and Frenais, writers of the near-perfect Porridge. What's not to like? As a consumer of comedy, I'm fine with all of the above obviously. As a writer of comedy, my feelings are slightly more mixed.

Q&A with Jonathan Lynn as Yes Prime Minister hits USA

The Prime Minister, the scheming Cabinet Secretary and the morally confused Principal Private Secretary have taken over the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles now through July 14.

Interview with Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn

Writers Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn talk about how was it to come together again and write.

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.

Yes, Prime Minister: review

I'll willingly admit I haven't seen any of the original series, though I am a young buck at 23. I've seen every episode of the aforementioned TTOI, The Day Today, Seinfeld and The Larry Sanders Show, though. I know what I like when it comes to comedy. My opinion of Yes, Prime Minister 2.0 is not tinged with nostalgia and if I'm honest, this reboot did nothing for me.

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.

Yes, Prime Minister panned by UK critics

The revival of classic 1980s comedy Yes, Prime Minister has been met with criticism from reviewers.