RIP Sir Antony Jay

[subcontrabass]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37167744

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/aug/23/yes-minister-co-writer-sir-antony-jay-dies

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Great series - a perfect blend of superb scripts and the ideal cast.

[Nick Armstrong]

How odd - and of course sad .... I was only today watching the broadcast this afternoon on BBC2 (scheduled, not a Jay tribute) of the first ever 'Yes Minister', complete with home-made 'pilot show' title sequence of dodgy black-and-white drawings and generic music... I'd never seen this episode before!

Not on iplayer, but available on youtube

Jim meets Bernard and Sir Humphrey for the first time... (actually, not quite the first time for Hacker and Appleby - as the plot reveals).

Great series - a perfect blend of superb scripts and the ideal cast.

[subcontrabass]

Great series - a perfect blend of superb scripts and the ideal cast.

It is sad how little has really changed in nearly 40 years since the end of "Yes, Prime Minister". I was told last week by a fairly junior civil servant that the Permanent Secretaries no longer hold their private meetings in gentlemen's clubs as there are now several female Permanent Secretaries. The moist urgent matter under current debate was the acronyms to be used for the newly-created departments. DExEU for the Department for Exiting the EU was acceptable but "DIT" for the Department for International Trade was apparently not. It is good to know that such important things are being decided at the highest levels.

[BBMmk2]

It is sad how little has really changed in nearly 40 years since the end of "Yes, Prime Minister". I was told last week by a fairly junior civil servant that the Permanent Secretaries no longer hold their private meetings in gentlemen's clubs as there are now several female Permanent Secretaries. The moist urgent matter under current debate was the acronyms to be used for the newly-created departments. DExEU for the Department for Exiting the EU was acceptable but "DIT" for the Department for International Trade was apparently not. It is good to know that such important things are being decided at the highest levels.

So if a programme like this was to be launched again, we wouldn't see much difference!

[Lat-Literal]

Yes - sad news - and while in some ways nothing has changed, in other ways it has become worse as in "The Thick of It". The latter, while critically acclaimed, was too nasty for my liking. I did like "2012", the comedy series showing a preposterous side to the bureaucratic preparations for the London Olympics* and for cosy bumbling, the corny "The Men From The Ministry" is still essential. But what none of the programmes I have mentioned has ever had is the subtle and sophisticated writing of "Yes Minister"/"Yes Prime Minister".

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sMhAMcCoRI