Love the realistic way they handled exposition. Reading out something everyone had already read actually gets called out in a humorous fashion rather than just being glanced over. And Humphrey’s “We’re the experts” getting a smug little grin from Jim. Excellent stuff
@George Bingham I take it you're one of the privileged few who can afford to pay exorbitant medical insurance premiums. I hope your medical insurance covers long term health care as I'd hate to see someone like you having to resort to using the good old NHS when your provider says they won't cover this. Just bear in mind that as and when you contract COVID-19 you'll be treated in an NHS hospital, with NHS doctors & staff because no amount of insurance premiums will touch the level of care needed for this. You're one of those people who desperately needs to have that kind of illness so you can experience what proper Medical care is like. I wouldn't deign to pay an insurance company my hard earned money for them to tell me what I can & can't have, waste of money
Mr. Weasel is definitely an underrated gem to emerge from this show, him and Arnold are always a refreshing delight to accompany the main course of Hacker, Humphrey and Bernard.
"The civil service exists to enact legislation enacted by Parliament. As long as Parliament continues to legislate...." There's a lot of truth to that. Every time the politicians launch a new program to do something (or at any rate to make it look like they're doing something), someone has to be hired to administer it.
However you can get Ministers who think something is done the moment they request it, and then move on to the next thing and the next etc. No time or staff allowed for implementation or administration. It all gets loaded on the same staff for immediate implementation until someone has the courage to explain how things actually work. Wouldn't have happened in Sir Humphrey's time of course.
@@mittfh That's take back, rather than take on. Of course the Civil Service loves Brussels because it distances them even further from public scrutiny.
@@heliotropezzz333 Many politicians are enamored with process. A politician will happily put one process after another into place, and as long as the process is working, he feels a real sense of accomplishment even if the process itself hasn't accomplished a damn thing.
I work in french local administration and is exactly the same.Each time we have a change in local concillors , the new ones are trying to get their own politics implemented. Because they cannot change the old politics( contracts, conventions...)they are creating new programs ( slightly differents from the old ones). The state does the same and ask us to implement that equally.When many politics are redundants, they form commissions to unify them.But because nobody wants to let go of some details,the work is to heavy for the administration so we are oblige to hire.But hirying is forbiden( to reduce costs with the sallaries) so we hire a contractor ( with the investement budget and double the cost)till the next ellection .And so on. I can talk also about local concillors that are taking the head of some projets only because they are opposing them and is easier to destroy them from inside.
reminds me of the time the US congress ordered a report on reducing the amount of paper being wasted by congress and the report was half a million pages, printed in triplicate for each member and several hundred more for the press.
The moving light fixture is a clever metaphor for the civil service as a whole - a beacon to guide the political classes, it must always, in a strictly apolitical fashion, move from left to right, while never ceasing to rotate about its own axis: the good of the nation.
@@mrcaboosevg6089 that's the point. Those of us who know and understand, while we certainly have a chuckle at the way they satirise the truth, we also feel despair at the same time knowing it is in fact, the truth and not simply a made up comedy.
Ah, but Jim Hacker doesn't run the department, Sir Humphrey does and Sir Humphrey certainly *does* know how many people work in the DAA. He just wants to keep it secret
When i was in the public service (many, many years ago), it became very clear that bureaucracy feeds on itself. If you have some section or unit, then you need other staff to manage that, and you need other staff to manage the managers. And so forth. And of course no one questions the need for any of it, because, of course, to do so is to question what gives you your income, and something to do every day.
As a career civil servant, this was very much my experience. And there are no villains here - its just the way things work. If you want to get things done, you need accountability. Which means you need managers to hold people accountable, who in turn need managers etc. It's not as though large private companies don't face exactly the same issues, but at least they have a far easier measure of accountability - ie did we make a quid?
I have a good pal, quite high up in the civil service (I think her boss reports directly to a cabinet minister). I met her a few days after the Brexit vote (hard to believe that was already four years ago) and she looked rather dazed. "This is going to cost billions," she said, "and I don't mean a few billion - I mean lots and lots of billions, and that's just in the costs of all the consultants we are going to need to employ to deal with the negotiations." Seems to me she could probably take any Yes Minister script, change a name or two here and there and perhaps a department name here and there, and it would instantly become a modern comedy, appealing directly to today's young adults.
Tbf the Government saved all that money by not hiring any negotiators and just hedging bets on the economy not crashing instead. Given its only a few months to go, and currently our largest trading partner with which we have a deal with for post Brexit is currently the Faroe Islands, i dont think theres high hopes atm
oh my goodness the suits! the suits....Hacker, Bernard, Humphrey ...the fit is impeccable. ..how often do you see people wearing such suits these days? they can't be off- the- rack....how did the BBC afford to dress its actors in such quality? considering that the sets and production values of this era are so cheap by modern standards. Those suits are a standout.
At this time, tailored suits were absolutely de rigeur for any civil servant; a cleverer way would have been to have the civil servants far better dressed than Hacker. As for expense, the BBC just had a good tailor in its wardrobe department.
Adolfo Rufatt No. He’s Neil Fitzwiliam. Apparently he had a car accident that led to a brain injury ending his career in ‘98. afternoontea.mpt.org/tea-time-tidbits/111918/ The midshipman in M&C is Lee Ingleby.
I did not know about his accident although unless he was appearing elsewhere his IMDB list of credits show only one part after his1980 Yes Minister appearances in 1982 and a 1986 part as a March Hare..
@@dakkar0902Yes, the first series of Yes Minister (the only one with Frank Wiesel in it) was recorded in early 1979 but broadcast was delayed until 1980 owing to the 1979 General Election.
That's not comedy anymore, that's historic deocumentary for future generations. :D We have way over 30.000 administrators in Brussels who on behalf of the EU ministry of administration affairs administer other administrators in the EU countries. So Sir Humphrey was right, 23.000 is relatively small! (Gasp!) :D)))))
30'000 is extremely small given what the EU actually does. The UK government has near half a million civil servants. In fact, when responsibility is delegated to Brussels, it's often as a cost saving measure. Brussels is quite efficient given the constraints it has to work with, and the costs are shared by a lot of member states, instead of being duplicated by all of them. The UK has already had to hire more civil servants to cope with Brexit than the EU has in total.
@@BineroBE as we've left the stinking edifice that is the EU, we shouldn't be relying on outsourcing functions which a sovereign nation should be carrying out to an increasingly unfriendly power. We've left, accept it.
Who actually believes there should (or could) be more Naval Sailors than tax collector's? How would that work? The Army is one thing, but Ships are expensive, and where do they think that money comes from? Tax enforcement is always one of the worst places to try to make cuts to government, because you almost immediately find yourself reducing your revenue more than you're saving.
Lolwat, this is the second time an automatic youtube mix music playlists suddenly throw a british non-music video in and then the rest of the playlist is just random junk. Seems there's something about british humor the youtube algorithm can't quite resist.
The funny thing is that even though this is happening now it’s become normalised. We no longer bat and eyelid at a political scandal and our reality is more of a comedy than this.
Of course - there have now been major cuts to the Civil Service sine this was made including to overblown departments such as the NHS. While it is true there was a lot of fat in parts of the Civil Service, neoliberal theory took it way beyond the fat.
I've heard it said about the New Zealand Railways back when they were bloated (before the mid '80s) that they functioned in spite of bureaucracy, not because of it.
ITS NOT GOVERNMENT MONEY ITS TAX PAYERS MONEY and yes, if i could amplify that more I would. The last time any western governments actually generated any revenue other than triple dipping on the tax payers dollar was before 1913 and the Federal Reserve Act.
The subtlest thing, and the funniest thing, about this show, is that it applies to every government regardless of government structure, except communism, because in communism, everybody agrees with big smiles on their faces, or they get shot.
Nothing wrong with performance of Neil Fitzwilliam as Frank Wiesel, but I think it was a wise rather than courageous decision to remove the character after the first series. Fitzwilliam sadly suffered serious injuries in a car crash and had to retire from acting.
This is a great sitcom, but anybody who thinks bureaucracy is only bad is wrong. Any large organization needs it. Obviously, there is good bureaucracy which supports the organization in reaching its goals and bad bureaucracy which exists for its own sake.
It really is amazing that all sides of the political spectrum say the BBC unfairly supports their opposition...to be honest they're probably all correct
The only way of reducing the size of a civil service is to reduce the amount of regulation. If Hacker's aim was to stop wasting government money he should have proposed eliminating departments regulating the economy.
Love the realistic way they handled exposition. Reading out something everyone had already read actually gets called out in a humorous fashion rather than just being glanced over. And Humphrey’s “We’re the experts” getting a smug little grin from Jim. Excellent stuff
Paul Eddington could speak entire sentences with just his facial expressions alone.
Darren Z and they knew it. Sometimes the scriptwriters would write “Paul doesn’t have to say this line if he feels he can just show it”
"public doesn't know anything about wasting government money, we're the experts" True words for
any government
And very evident even now
@George Bingham
I take it you're one of the privileged few who can afford to pay exorbitant medical insurance premiums. I hope your medical insurance covers long term health care as I'd hate to see someone like you having to resort to using the good old NHS when your provider says they won't cover this.
Just bear in mind that as and when you contract COVID-19 you'll be treated in an NHS hospital, with NHS doctors & staff because no amount of insurance premiums will touch the level of care needed for this. You're one of those people who desperately needs to have that kind of illness so you can experience what proper
Medical care is like. I wouldn't deign to pay an insurance company my hard earned money for them to tell me what I can & can't have, waste of money
George Bingham
The Uk has the cheapest healthcare system in the developed world.
MyPoint ofView yikes and gosh
£38 billion on a track and trace app- the current govt are the Olympic gild medalists qt wasting money...
The bureaucracy has expanded to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.
jmsloss yes. And afterwards bureaucracy expanded - at an even faster pace - to meet the challenges of reducing bureaucracy.
Is expanding.
Mr. Weasel is definitely an underrated gem to emerge from this show, him and Arnold are always a refreshing delight to accompany the main course of Hacker, Humphrey and Bernard.
Mr. Wisel😁
@@PulkitAgrawal1999 Didn't know how its spelled so I went with Weasel 😅
@@rewrose2838 I just went with pronounciation, he says Wisel not Weasel 😅
Too bad he was sent out on a trip and never came back
Really? I couldn't stand Frank Weisel. I'm glad they got rid of him; he was annoying.
Brilliant documentary.
@peter west: 😂 I see what you did there
"The civil service exists to enact legislation enacted by Parliament. As long as Parliament continues to legislate...." There's a lot of truth to that. Every time the politicians launch a new program to do something (or at any rate to make it look like they're doing something), someone has to be hired to administer it.
However you can get Ministers who think something is done the moment they request it, and then move on to the next thing and the next etc. No time or staff allowed for implementation or administration. It all gets loaded on the same staff for immediate implementation until someone has the courage to explain how things actually work. Wouldn't have happened in Sir Humphrey's time of course.
And with the UK government about to take on responsibilities formerly delegated to Brussels...
@@mittfh That's take back, rather than take on. Of course the Civil Service loves Brussels because it distances them even further from public scrutiny.
@@heliotropezzz333 Many politicians are enamored with process. A politician will happily put one process after another into place, and as long as the process is working, he feels a real sense of accomplishment even if the process itself hasn't accomplished a damn thing.
I work in french local administration and is exactly the same.Each time we have a change in local concillors , the new ones are trying to get their own politics implemented. Because they cannot change the old politics( contracts, conventions...)they are creating new programs ( slightly differents from the old ones). The state does the same and ask us to implement that equally.When many politics are redundants, they form commissions to unify them.But because nobody wants to let go of some details,the work is to heavy for the administration so we are oblige to hire.But hirying is forbiden( to reduce costs with the sallaries) so we hire a contractor ( with the investement budget and double the cost)till the next ellection .And so on.
I can talk also about local concillors that are taking the head of some projets only because they are opposing them and is easier to destroy them from inside.
reminds me of the time the US congress ordered a report on reducing the amount of paper being wasted by congress and the report was half a million pages, printed in triplicate for each member and several hundred more for the press.
Bernard has all the best lines in both the series.
Love the ceiling light which doesn't stop moving the whole scene!
skiwime - wondering if that was a deliberate metaphor?
@@marylynne9104 Nah, just poor set design.
Can’t unsee it now!
its always swinging in every scene
"I think that's a very good idea Mr. Ferret...
Love the swinging light fitting in the back ground while he's reading the news paper 🤣 what classics
Well noticed.
You've got an eye for detail 😉
Bernard saves the day by just being there and just uttering a few smart comments
"The readers of the Sun don't care who runs the country, just so long as..."
Sir Humphrey: "The public doesn't know anything about wasting money. We are the experts."
Hacker (snickers)
Sir Humphrey: "That's not what I meant!"
One of my absolute favourite shows!
_"We have all bloody Reddit."_
Me - Sounds about right. 😁
The moving light fixture is a clever metaphor for the civil service as a whole - a beacon to guide the political classes, it must always, in a strictly apolitical fashion, move from left to right, while never ceasing to rotate about its own axis: the good of the nation.
I couldn't have said it more succinctly myself Sir Humphrey
This is ain't a comedy, this is documentary.
If only, real life is just as bad but nowhere near as funny
@@mrcaboosevg6089 that's the point. Those of us who know and understand, while we certainly have a chuckle at the way they satirise the truth, we also feel despair at the same time knowing it is in fact, the truth and not simply a made up comedy.
To be fair it is a comedy but cunningly disguised as a documentary.
Have a bit of a ferret around!
Mr Weasel....er, Weisel...
I think that is a very good idea Mr. Ferret........ Weasel...... Wise... hahaha
"I suppose we could get rid of one or two of the tea-ladies!" 🤣
Paul Eddington was a fantastic and very underrated actor. What a shame. He deserves a statue.
I've seen each of these episodes so many times, but was just now noticing how sharp their suits are.
2:26 is absolute gold🎉🎉🎉😂😂😂
It's telling that Jim doesn't have the slightest idea how many people work in his department.
Ah, but Jim Hacker doesn't run the department, Sir Humphrey does and Sir Humphrey certainly *does* know how many people work in the DAA. He just wants to keep it secret
A better show cannot be made.
When i was in the public service (many, many years ago), it became very clear that bureaucracy feeds on itself. If you have some section or unit, then you need other staff to manage that, and you need other staff to manage the managers. And so forth. And of course no one questions the need for any of it, because, of course, to do so is to question what gives you your income, and something to do every day.
As a career civil servant, this was very much my experience. And there are no villains here - its just the way things work. If you want to get things done, you need accountability. Which means you need managers to hold people accountable, who in turn need managers etc.
It's not as though large private companies don't face exactly the same issues, but at least they have a far easier measure of accountability - ie did we make a quid?
1:15 - when you're tired of seeing all the Reddit ads
1:13 good morning have you read this?
In 30-40 years, people will be saying, "You know that 'The Thick of It' show? It was rather prophetic"
Well yes but they had to tone down the language.
Mr ferret lol.
SO GREAT a dialog done by the finest actors in the world,TImless homor of the finest qualety !
I have a good pal, quite high up in the civil service (I think her boss reports directly to a cabinet minister). I met her a few days after the Brexit vote (hard to believe that was already four years ago) and she looked rather dazed. "This is going to cost billions," she said, "and I don't mean a few billion - I mean lots and lots of billions, and that's just in the costs of all the consultants we are going to need to employ to deal with the negotiations."
Seems to me she could probably take any Yes Minister script, change a name or two here and there and perhaps a department name here and there, and it would instantly become a modern comedy, appealing directly to today's young adults.
Tbf the Government saved all that money by not hiring any negotiators and just hedging bets on the economy not crashing instead.
Given its only a few months to go, and currently our largest trading partner with which we have a deal with for post Brexit is currently the Faroe Islands, i dont think theres high hopes atm
@TheRenaissanceman65 DExEU and which is the other department?
Mr Weasel 😂😂😂😂
Having them need just 500 people is great writing. It's so easy to go over the top, 5000. Yet, they held back. That makes it a lot more real.
Splendid show
oh my goodness the suits! the suits....Hacker, Bernard, Humphrey ...the fit is impeccable. ..how often do you see people wearing such suits these days? they can't be off- the- rack....how did the BBC afford to dress its actors in such quality? considering that the sets and production values of this era are so cheap by modern standards. Those suits are a standout.
At this time, tailored suits were absolutely de rigeur for any civil servant; a cleverer way would have been to have the civil servants far better dressed than Hacker. As for expense, the BBC just had a good tailor in its wardrobe department.
Just as true to life today as it was then and just as applicable in Canberra as in Whitehall.
Administration is like entropy : it only expands.
😄 as ever.
Aaah good old English comedy, cheers😂
the chandelier kept swinging around
"ferret around"....almost blurted water on my laptop
3:03 🎉❤❤
1:03 😂
Tacks is the best form of defence😆
Tax....is the best form of defence
always good for a laugh
This series is why The Thick of It was made, both are wonderful
The actor reading the news was the cursed midshipman in Master and Commander, The far side of the World... Was he?
Adolfo Rufatt
No. He’s Neil Fitzwiliam.
Apparently he had a car accident that led to a brain injury ending his career in ‘98.
afternoontea.mpt.org/tea-time-tidbits/111918/
The midshipman in M&C is Lee Ingleby.
Niel Fitzwilliam played Mr. Ferret/Weasel/Wiesel. The Midshipman in M&C,TFSOTW was played by Lee Ingleby
Thanks!
The character didnt add anything to the dynamic of the comedy and the actor was poor with pretty bad overacting
I did not know about his accident although unless he was appearing elsewhere his IMDB list of credits show only one part after his1980 Yes Minister appearances in 1982 and a 1986 part as a March Hare..
Genius!
I think it's a very good idea, Mr Raaaaab.
I heard 3 thousand the first time!
I like this show...it helps to keep my contempt for all things political, fertile.
These days,I'm surprised you need help !!!
We did that study a few month ago.... We need another 500 staff....
Is there Anyone able to explain to me if Turin on the front page is the Turin in Italy, and what happened around that time in Turin?
some football result I would have thought. Perhaps one of the english clubs beating a big italian team (juventus?) in the european cup
I found that 1979 European cup super league final was held in Turin, Italy. As the show was aired from 1980 to 82, maybe that is on the event.
@@dakkar0902Yes, the first series of Yes Minister (the only one with Frank Wiesel in it) was recorded in early 1979 but broadcast was delayed until 1980 owing to the 1979 General Election.
I'll never understand why this documentary series includes a laugh track.
They are laughing at the viewers, why obviously!
They filmed before a live audience so that the ever-cautious BBC couldn't say that no one found it funny and pull the plug.
@@stephenphillip5656 Did my joke really go over your head?
@@Durwood71 They all missed it! Makes you wonder if they really got all the jokes!
That's not comedy anymore, that's historic deocumentary for future generations. :D
We have way over 30.000 administrators in Brussels who on behalf of the EU ministry of administration affairs administer other administrators in the EU countries.
So Sir Humphrey was right, 23.000 is relatively small! (Gasp!) :D)))))
30'000 is extremely small given what the EU actually does. The UK government has near half a million civil servants.
In fact, when responsibility is delegated to Brussels, it's often as a cost saving measure. Brussels is quite efficient given the constraints it has to work with, and the costs are shared by a lot of member states, instead of being duplicated by all of them.
The UK has already had to hire more civil servants to cope with Brexit than the EU has in total.
@@BineroBE British jobs for British people.
@@nottmjas So you're arguing for more bureaucracy, and the government as main creator of jobs?
@@BineroBE as we've left the stinking edifice that is the EU, we shouldn't be relying on outsourcing functions which a sovereign nation should be carrying out to an increasingly unfriendly power.
We've left, accept it.
@@nottmjas Dude, you've left, why wont you accept it?
Which episode is it?
Who actually believes there should (or could) be more Naval Sailors than tax collector's? How would that work? The Army is one thing, but Ships are expensive, and where do they think that money comes from? Tax enforcement is always one of the worst places to try to make cuts to government, because you almost immediately find yourself reducing your revenue more than you're saving.
I love the swinging lightshade!
Lolwat, this is the second time an automatic youtube mix music playlists suddenly throw a british non-music video in and then the rest of the playlist is just random junk. Seems there's something about british humor the youtube algorithm can't quite resist.
i have to find these shows somewhere, i would love to know what the upshot of this storyline was
If you're prepared to pay, you can get the complete series in a box set on Amazon for around £13.
Hilarious
1:15 Redditors meetup
Have you read it?
I am waiting for the BBC to put out "yes Prime Minister"!
They did, with the same cast, but at No. 10.
Bring back British comedy (bbbc). And truth.
Public doesn’t know anything about wasting government money..we’re the experts.. 23000 paper pushers and letter writers 😂😂😂 nowadays emailers...
Facebook browsers you mean.
Think of how many trees are now being saved by the switch to digital communication.
The funny thing is that even though this is happening now it’s become normalised. We no longer bat and eyelid at a political scandal and our reality is more of a comedy than this.
Why did Frank read it back? Because we the audience need to know.
Sir Humphrey reminds of Frank Underwood from the house of cards
It’s no wonder that we have to endure inane rubbish these days as programmes like this are so true.
THEY SHOULD DEFINITELY KEEP FRANK WEISEL (""MR. WEASEL"") IN THE SERIES.
...so that he can have a ferret around...
Of course - there have now been major cuts to the Civil Service sine this was made including to overblown departments such as the NHS. While it is true there was a lot of fat in parts of the Civil Service, neoliberal theory took it way beyond the fat.
Best show to learn everything about politics.
Where is the follow up video??
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency.
I've heard it said about the New Zealand Railways back when they were bloated (before the mid '80s) that they functioned in spite of bureaucracy, not because of it.
ITS NOT GOVERNMENT MONEY ITS TAX PAYERS MONEY
and yes, if i could amplify that more I would.
The last time any western governments actually generated any revenue other than triple dipping on the tax payers dollar was before 1913 and the Federal Reserve Act.
I'm appaulled
It's more of a documentary than a parody
Apparently it's Margaret thatcher's favourite show
That Chandler is moving about quite a lot. Perhaps there's a ministry or dept that looks into such things.
The subtlest thing, and the funniest thing, about this show, is that it applies to every government regardless of government structure, except communism, because in communism, everybody agrees with big smiles on their faces, or they get shot.
Weasels a pain in the rear end
23,000 bureaucrats, how true, all governments of the world have a civil service which is lopsided.
Weasel is like a competent and nicer Cummings
Nothing wrong with performance of Neil Fitzwilliam as Frank Wiesel, but I think it was a wise rather than courageous decision to remove the character after the first series. Fitzwilliam sadly suffered serious injuries in a car crash and had to retire from acting.
Plus ca change...
The number of civil service employees is now at 450 thousand
😂❤️🔥😭😀😍👶👍
This is a great sitcom, but anybody who thinks bureaucracy is only bad is wrong. Any large organization needs it. Obviously, there is good bureaucracy which supports the organization in reaching its goals and bad bureaucracy which exists for its own sake.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🎉🎉🎉
Reddit
TH-cams ai subtitling is horrendous
Mandatory viewing for Junior Ministers in the Thatcher Government.
back when the BBC didnt do the gov's bidding...
General Lo but protected jimmy saville 😡
@@denmark39 i got the impression that people at the time didn't think it was true when they were told that fact. He was beloved, after all.
Thatcher loved this show and she was Prime Minister at the time
Thatcher took part in an episode speaking lines approved by herself
It really is amazing that all sides of the political spectrum say the BBC unfairly supports their opposition...to be honest they're probably all correct
They lost the political advisor character quite quickly
glad they got rid of Weasel, he was too expository
"WISEL!"
The only way of reducing the size of a civil service is to reduce the amount of regulation. If Hacker's aim was to stop wasting government money he should have proposed eliminating departments regulating the economy.
back when the BBC wasnt POISON