Yes, Prime Minister to return after 24 years

Tinie Tempah

Or Wee Huff as we call him in Glasgow.

Hope they can do justice to YPM and that I can manage to watch it *cough* torrent *cough*. Time to get out my old box set episodes I think.

A long way past satire

The pivotal point about Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister was that someone was actually in charge - controlling what happened (or stopping things from happening). The gag was that it was never the (prime)-Minister.

What's changed in the intervening years is that nobody now believes anyone in Westminster is in control. All that our politicians and civil service do is run to catch up with events that happen around them and try to explain them away as "We meant that to happen", "It's not what it looks like", "Yes, it's terrible but it's not our fault" or "That is the fault of the other lot".

To make satire work, the programme has to lampoon the government and make it appear absurd. The sad fact is that in reality we're so far past the government actually being absurd that any satirical opportunities have vanished.

Rather than laugh at the ridiculous situations that arise, now most people would just nod sadly and say "Yup, that about sums it up."

"The modern mandarin is no longer a patrician High Tory; he's probably a Guardian-reading, carbon-offsetting Coldplay fan - with a risqué Tinie Tempah playlist for dinner parties."

Really? Sir Nicholas McPherson is a Guardian reading Grime fan?

OK.

Casting will be key

I saw the stage play a couple of years back, the writing was excellent, but some of the acting just didn't do it justice. It showed that the success of the original programme was that they combined great scripts with great actors. So finding a new set of great actors will be key to the new series' success. I am not holding my breath.

PPE

It was the politicians that studied PPE (at the LSE). The mandarins were all Oxbridge Greats graduates. That might just be the only element that needs changing in an updated version.

-A.

All you freetards!!! :(

Just because you cheapskates can't / don't want to pay for stuff??? get out and get a job!!!

and where are all the star trek fans, moaning about it going on sky atlantic???

...

'UK Gold' is the 'gold standard' of UK TV... only fools and horses, vicar of dibley, absolutely fabulous, bread, Sykes, Royle family, comic strip, young ones..

get on yer internet, they are also on you tube... but noy in full quality...

One of my favourite programmes...

... but I think that it'll be hard to reprise, as the storylines deliberately stayed simple as an intellectual battle between Minister and Sir Humphrey, and the lessons that Sir H gave Bernard we simple but very well written.

Politics is far more complex in everyone's mind now - not sure that they will be able to capture the same mood. During my short time in central gov, I used a couple of the tricks Sir H mentions ...

Yes Prime Minister was funny in its day...

precisely because its viewers couldn't believe their leaders could be be that incompetent and corrupt.

Unfortunately, time has proved the opposite.

The day that born again liars ^h^h^h^h^h^h politicians start acting as if the welfare of the people they are supposed to represent is their primary concern are still as far away as ever.

Today, an informed & objective observer would conclude there was a covert war on the public by petty minded bureaucrats/control freaks.

It applies not just in the UK

I've been an Australian federal public servant in Canberra for five years. You *think* Yes Minister is a satire until you actually go and work in government.

Ooh! Oooh! —In view of the impending fuel shortage, can we get Margaret Thatcher's still-twitching corpse to guest write a scene again?

Squirming with embarrassment, watching that, helped keep me warm through the harsh winter of '84.

Was satire

now a documentary

I've never seen a sitcom restarted successfully after a long layoff. Thank the lack of gods that I don't get GOLD. If I did I might be tempted to watch it.

@Grease Monkey: praise??

Hey, if you are more than 40 years old you will know the quality sitcoms I am talking about.. sadly most of the really good actors are now dead, or given up on the hopeless mismanaged bureaucracy the industry has become..

most of the '70s audience is now gone or too old - and todays bosses are far too worried about offending some minor group... and then some of the really good vintage comedies are just too expensive in licensing and commission cost, they are just not shown..

to say nothing about the teenage sense of humor these days, this is why most comics do not do TV, but make a lot more money doing live shows and even doing ads!!