Yes Prime Minister

Yes Prime Minister Actors & Actresses

Paul Eddington
Nigel Hawthorne
Derek Fowlds
John Nettleton
Diana Hoddinott

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Yes Minister

Yes Prime Minister Episode Guide

Season 1

1.1 The Grand Design
New Prime Minister Jim Hacker gets a frightening briefing on Britain's ability (or rather inability) to defend itself. After a conversation with his Chief Scientific Advisor, he realises that the best solution is to cancel the order for the Trident nuclear missile, channel all the money into conventional forces, and reintroduce the draft, simultaneously solving Britain's defence, unemployment and education problems. The Civil Service and the military establishment are appalled. But Sir Humphrey, now Cabinet Secretary, manages to put off the problem with some scrambled eggs.

1.2 The Ministerial Broadcast
Hacker intends to reveal his Grand Design for Britain's defences in a live television address. After all, his Cabinet colleagues are all in favour of it, and the party's polls show that it's a vote-winner. But Sir Humphrey has other plans.

1.3 The Smoke Screen
Hacker wants a 1.5 billion pound tax cut. The Treasury does not. The Health Minister wants a massive government anti-smoking campaign which would deprive the Treasury of four billion pounds of tax revenue. Jim decides to pretend to support the anti-smoking proposals to get the Treasury to go along with the tax cut. As usual, it all goes wrong and Sir Humphrey must come to the rescue.

1.4 The Key
Encouraged by his political advisor, Hacker decides to clip Sir Humphrey's wings. Sir Humphrey tries ever more desperately to maintain his power and privileges.

1.5 A Real Partnership
A financial crisis is stopping government pay raises just as the Civil Service is due for a pay raise. Sir Humphrey is honour-bound to get a substantial pay raise for his fellow civil servants (his own massive increase is, of course, beside the point), but must somehow make it look modest to the Prime Minister.


1.6 A Victory for Democracy
Hacker's "Churchillian" desire to preserve a democratic Commonwealth nation from a Communist take-over brings him into conflict with the Foreign Office, which is negotiating an agreement with the Communist nation backing the coup.

1.7 The Bishop's Gambit
As Prime Minister, Hacker must appoint a bishop--er, "recommend the appointment to the Sovereign"--but unfortunately, the two candidates are a suspected disestablishmentarian and a left-wing troublemaker who doesn't even believe in God (naturally, he's the one the Church of England wants). Meanwhile, a British subject has been arrested in the Islamic state of Qumran and is set to be flogged for possession of a bottle of whiskey, and Sir Humphrey has his own reasons for helping his old Oxford college get rid of its Dean.

1.8 One of Us
Hacker is annoyed that a dog lost on an artillery range is stealing headlines from his new defence policy, while the head of MI5 is annoyed that his predecessor has just been revealed as a Russian spy. Worse still, he was cleared of spying by an inquiry conducted by Sir Humphrey Appleby.

Season 2

2.1 Man Overboard
The Employment Secretary comes up with a brilliant idea for reducing unemployment by transferring much of the military establishment to the primitive wilds of Northern Britain. Hacker approves. Sir Humphrey and the generals do not.

2.2 Official Secrets
Hacker is chairing the committee responsible for security clearance on his predecessor's memoirs. But is it really a state secret that Hacker "raised the average age of the Cabinet, but lowered the average IQ"?



2.3 A Diplomatic Incident
The French want control of the new Channel Tunnel, and are willing to cause a diplomatic crisis to get it. Meanwhile, the question of the former PM’s memoirs is settled by a timely--er, tragic--death.

2.4 A Conflict of Interest
A scandal in the City of London threatens to embarrass Hacker during the Party Conference. Hacker wants to respond by appointing a tough-minded Bank of England Governor. Sir Humphrey wants to appoint an old friend who will help sweep the whole thing under the carpet.

2.5 Power to the People
Hacker wants Sir Humphrey to deal with radical Houndsworth Council Leader Agnes Moorhouse, who is embarrassing the Government by hamstringing her local police. When Hacker's political advisor comes up with an imaginative plan for bring democracy to local government, Sir Humphrey realises that the scheme would be disastrous for the Civil Service. He and Agnes must form an unlikely alliance to put a stop to it.

2.6 The Patron of the Arts
Hacker has foolishly agreed to speak at the British Theatre Awards dinner on the very day the arts budget (with only a very small increase) is to be announced. And the Director of the National Theatre (which is receiving almost no increase) will be introducing Jim, armed with facts and figures about how government wastes the money it can’t afford to spend on the arts. Where those figures came from is a mystery; the fact that Sir Humphrey sits on the board of the National Theatre is pure coincidence.

2.7 The National Education Service
The Prime Minister is worried about education--and not merely his own. But his scheme (or rather, his political advisor's scheme) to abolish the Education Department and allow parents to choose where to send their children to school horrifies Sir Humphrey, who believes that "parents are the worst people to raise children."

2.8 The Tangled Web
Hacker's pride in his clever responses to Parliamentary Questions turns to horror when Sir Humphrey informs him that those responses were not entirely true (although Hacker didn't know, as the responsible Minister he is "deemed to have known"). Jim wants Sir Humphrey to back him up if further questions are asked, but Humphrey feels he has a responsibility to the truth. But he may soon find that truth cuts both ways.