The successful BBC television sitcom Yes, Minister and the sequel Yes, Prime Minister, written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, was aired between 1980 and 1988 during the height of a Tory government. Not only did they achieve high audience figures but it was able to boast of the incumbent PM Margaret Thatcher counting it as one of her favourite programmes. In fact, she was such a fan that she and her press secretary decided to write a sketch. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph she said “Its closely observed portrayal of what goes on in the corridors of power has given me hours of pure joy.”
Thirty years on, the original writers have returned to show us how little Westminster has moved on. Directed by one half of the double-act, Jonathan Lynn, Yes, Prime Minister first premiered at the Chichester Festival Theatre in May 2010, before going on to receive much acclaim for its sharp and witty dialogue during its three season West End run, and winning Best New Comedy Award at the Whatsonstage.com Awards.
With their cutting satire about events surrounding the shambolic coalition, the collapsing Euro, and the demand for oil, the plot has been cleverly updated to poke fun at issues relevant to a modern audience (and voter). Following the same lines as the original series, and just as insightfully written, the play is set during a weekend at the Prime Minister’s retreat of Chequers in Buckinghamshire.
Oozing double standards and the hypocrisy of government, Prime Minister Jim Hacker, played by former Spitting Image voice Michael Fenton Stevens, does a tremendous job of showing a man under heart-attack-inducing strain. Praying, hiding under the desk, and screaming as potential scandals unravel, he is unable to make any decisions without his team of equally incompetent advisers, including manipulative Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby, played by the silver-tongued Crispin Redman, and Indra Ové as the bolshie Special Policy Advisor Claire Sutton. From threatening BBC cuts to deliberating on whether to agree to the Kumranistan Foreign Minister’s request for three female escorts, however much the plot may verge on the farcical it is all too easy to recall the headlines that have inspired this fiction.
Simon Higlett’s convincing Chequers library set design has everything from a Disraeli portrait to a secret bookcase door and a view of the picturesque Chilterns in autumn. The audience lapped up the use of television screens and live camera crew for the BBC interview. Yes, Prime Minister is now on an extensive UK tour, including High Wycombe where I was pleased to catch it. With a new television series currently airing on Gold and receiving less favourable praise, this production won’t fail to have you laughing your head off, jumping out of your skin, or choosing to abstain from voting at the next general election.
Yes, Prime Minister on UK tour until June 2013. Performance time approximately two hours and 20 minutes. For more information and tickets visit the website.
