Yes Minister Series

Quotes

"The programme presents the battles that undoubtedly do take place in Whitehall between Ministers and Civil Servants in a beautifully British manner…the truth is far more disturbing than anything seen on the screen."
- Brian Sedgemore, M.P. News of the World

"For those of us who in the past have lived lives that imitated YES MINISTER's art, the programme is a sort of political 'whodunit?'… Whoever gave away our trade art secrets enabled Mr. Jay and Mr. Lynn to be at their best when they caricature Whitehall and Westminsiter…But I suspect that Mr. Jay and Mr. Lynn want to portray more than the small change of political life. Like Anthony Trollope, they aspire to write fiction that is about politics, not just politicians. And like him, they achieve some remarkable successes."
- Roy Hattersley MP, The Listener

"Brilliant scripts with a satirical quality seldom ever seen on television."
- Jimmy Reid, Glasgow Herald

"It's closely observed portrayal of what goes on in the corridors of power has given me hours of pure joy."
- Margaret Thatcher, quoted in the Daily Telegraph

"YES, PRIME MINISTER…can claim a rightful place in the history of satire. Out of it all we are given deeper insights into the way civil servants get their way than from all the writings of their most scathing critics."
- Editorial in The Daily Telegraph

"The scripts of Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn are often chillingly accurate…(the programme) not only deserves its popularity but also helps to sustain our democracy."
- Gerald Kaufman M.P., The Sunday Times

"An accurate and unexaggerated guide to the way the British government works."
- Enoch Powell, MP, The Guardian

"The funniest television series since Dad's Army."
- Richard Last, Daily Telegraph

"Quite stunningly in a class of it's own."
- Ray Connolly, The Standard

"Required viewing for politicians and leading civil servants. When it is screened it often empties the Chamber."
- Daily Mail

“Scalpel-sharp in observation, deceptively simple in construction...at its frequent best Yes Prime Minsiter exhibits the classical perfection of a Mozart sonata”
- Richard Last in The Times

“Yes Prime Minister....is not only a continuing marvel of editing by Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay but also a collector's must”
- John Coldstream in the Daily Telegraph

“Yes Prime Minister is a comedy in a class of its own”
- Celia Brayfield in The Times