"( theme music playing )" "One of the first successful sitcoms of the 1980's" "Marked the beginning of the new political landscape." "It's miraculous that "Yes, Minister" was ever a hit at all." "If you think about it, it was three elderly men" "Sitting around and talking about government." "No action, no women," "No sex." "You know..." "I don't know how it ever worked." "Apart from on radio-- I think there was" ""Men from the ministry"" "There hadn't been a sitcom about parliament," "And I think we were ready for something like this." "We were ready for them to be sent up the wall." "We discovered we could personify the conflict" "Between the administration and the civil service" "With Jim and sir Humphrey," "Which is a traditional comic formula," "Namely the servant who is abler than the master." "Briefly, sir, I am the permanent" "Undersecretary of state known as the permanent secretary." "Woolley here is your principal private secretary." "I, too, have a principal private secretary" "The principal private secretary to the permanent secretary." "Directly responsible to me are 10 deputy secretaries 87 undersecretaries and 219 assistant secretaries." "And directly responsible to the principal private secretaries" "Are plain private secretaries." "And the prime minister will" "Be appointing two parliamentary undersecretaries and you'll be" "Appointing your own parliamentary private secretary." "Do they all type?" "None of us can type, minister." "Mrs. McKylie types." "And she's the secretary." "Pity, we could have opened an agency." " Very brilliant." " Yes, very amusing, sir." " Yeah, I suppose they all say that." " Certainly not, minister." "Not quite all." "We'd started in '77." "And we were ready to go ahead in '79." "But there was a worry" "That there had to be an election by October '79" "Because that was-- the government's time was up." "And they were a bit worried not knowing" "What the series was going to be like at that stage." "There might be something that touched on a hot political issue" "Bang in the middle of the election and might be" "Heartily objected to by one or other of the parties." "So it was all delayed" "Until 1980, after mrs." "Thatcher won." "The result of that was that people think" "That the series is about the Thatcher government," "But it wasn't." "Then we started researching." "We went-- we had" "Basically, we took a lot of people to lunch." "Lots and lots of lunches" "With really indiscreet people" "Who'd worked in the very upper reaches of government..." "With cabinet secretaries in 10 Downing Street." "And I still can't tell you who they were." "The higher up you get, the more indiscreet they become," "Until people sort of very near the top" "You know, you give them a good lunch and a good bottle of wine," "They'll tell you absolutely anything." "How are things at the campaign" "For the freedom of information by the way?" "Sorry, I can't talk about that." "We had a sequence once" "About Jim having to spend three hours" "At an Arab-- an islamic reception in a tent," "And it was going to be completely dry," "No alcohol whatever, just orange juice," "And the terror that struck the whole British delegation at this." "And then the idea" " Jim's idea" "That they could set up an operations room" "Because of a sterling crisis back in England." "And that the operation room could have lots of red boxes" "Filled with whiskey so that they could go in" "With their orange juice and collect their urgent message," "Come out with a slightly more golden orange juice" "Going for three hours in a tent in the desert." "Minister, there's an urgent call for you" "In the communications room, a mr." "Haig." "General Haig?" "No, "mr." "Haig." You know, with the dimples." "Yes, yes." "You'll excuse me." "Most important." "I believe there's a message for me from "mr." "Haig."" "Yes, minister." "I can't tell you where and I can't tell you when," "I can't tell you who was involved," "All I can tell you is that that had actually happened." "That's why it was so funny." "We couldn't think up things" "As funny as the real things that happened." " Bernard." " Yes?" "You're wanted in the communications room." "A mr." "John Walker." " Johnny Walker?" " Yes, from the Scotch office." "Scottish office." "They really thought that we were not actors." "They really thought we were politicians." "And that's the faction side of it." "I think people totally believed in "Yes, Minister,"" "That it was almost a documentary." "I used to meet the queen" "And she kept saying, "What are you doing here?"" "In the theater, you know." "And I'd say, "I work here, ma'am."" "And she'd say, "Do you?"" "And she'd obviously got locked into her mind" "That I was sir Humphrey." "And so she couldn't quite see what I was doing" "In these strange buildings."