The Complete Yes Minister

The Standard
November 8th, 1983

"Ministry of Truth"
By Brian Walden

Are you short of ideas for a decent Christmas present? Then for goodness sake go out buy Yes Minister, Volume Three, by Jonathan Lynn and Tony Jay (BBC Publications).
I seldom plug books - or anything else for that matter - but Yes Minister, both as a book and on television, is quite the best thing our age has to offer. It has an entertainment and educational value which is unique.

It is uproariously funny and passes the acid test of becoming more amusing at every subsequent reading. The television programme is adored by the public and is also the preferred watching of most politicians and senior civil servants.
I will go so far as to claim that in the characters of Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby, Messrs. Lynn and Jay have crated something as immortal as P. G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster and Jeeves.

Like Wodehouse, Lynn and Jay, have essentially only one plot and that is all they will ever need. Just as Jeeves gets Bertie in and out of the soup, Sir Humphrey does the same for Jim Hacker.

But of course it can't be true to life? Can't it? Why do you suppose it is the favourite programme of Margaret Thatcher and Lord Home, who say is so publicly? I shall withhold the names of my civil service friends who share that view but prefer not to admit it.

Real life is not so humorous. In all other respects Yes Minister is accurate. It should be bought for every school in the country.