Introduction

Yes, Minister is a British comedy series about manipulations in political life. The series started on BBC 2 in 1980. It consisted of 21 episodes, each of which is about 30 minutes long. The story centres around three main characters: James Hacker MP, Sir Humphrey Appleby and Bernard Woolley. It all begins when James Hacker’s party wins the elections and he gets appointed as the Minister for the Department of Administrative Affairs.

In his work James Hacker often clashes with his Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby. They have totally different priorities. Hacker wants to stay popular and in the public eye, but he also has to carry out Cabinet’s policies and please the PM. Sir Humphrey’s main objective is to increase the staff and the budget of his department. They are obliged to work together but it’s a very rare occasion indeed when their interests coincide.

The third character Bernard Woolley, James Hacker’s Principal Private Secretary, is usually placed between the other two. He has the difficult task of staying loyal to the civil service and Sir Humphrey, while also being sympathetic to Hacker’s plans.

The Characters

Hacker, James George (Jim)

Former editor of Reform, Member of Parliament (MP), Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Cabinet Minister for Administrative Affairs. Hacker is a man in his late 40s when he becomes Minister at the DAA. He has a wife Annie and a daughter Lucy. They live in the constituency of Birmingham East.

Hacker graduated from the London School of Economics (LSE) and this is often commented on by other characters who all graduated from Oxford or Cambridge. They consider his education rather poor and definitely inferior to theirs. Hacker mostly speaks RP but he sometimes uses expressions that are considered to be slang like: dead duck, cockup, starkers and blimey. Although he is learning, he still frequently has difficulties understanding Sir Humphrey’s long and complicated sentences.

Appleby, Sir Humphrey

Permanent Secretary at the Department for Administrative Affairs. He graduated from Baillie College in Oxford and after that went straight into the civil service. During the last 30 years he has served in 11 governments. His nickname is Humpy.

Sir Humphrey almost never uses simple words or terms. His life is practically devoted to confusing James Hacker with long and elaborate sentences which could easily be replaced with plain and easier language if only he wished to do so.

Woolley, Bernard

Principal Private Secretary to James Hacker. Graduated from Oxford and considered to be a high-flyer in the civil service. Bernard is very precise with how the English language is used. He carries this to extremes and corrects other people’s words and phrases.

British words and terms

• Backbencher = an MP who sits on the back benches in the House of Commons
• Bennite solution = a radical left-wing type solution to a problem, from Anthony Wedgwood Benn
• Blimey! = a mild oath
• To blub = to cry
• To boob = to make a big mess
• Borough = an administrative area of London
• Buggin’s turn = a rewarded office from a long-term service
• Chap = man, fellow
• Cockup = a mess
• Damn all = nothing
• Dead duck = a bad idea, a born loser
• Polling booth = a special enclosed compartment where people mark their vote on a paper
• Quango = Quasi-Autonomous Non-Government Organization, whose senior appointments are made by the government
• Queue = line
• Starkers = naked, in the nude
• Surgery = a time when the voters can meet their MP
• Tea lady = a woman working in the canteen
• Telly = television
• Toodle-oo = bye bye
• Tube = London underground
• A wigging = a lecture, a telling-off

Bernard’s Corrections

• James Hacker: "When a country is going downhill, it’s time for someone to get inside into the driving seat and put his foot on the accelerator."
• Bernard Woolley: "I think you mean the brake." (from the episode The Official Visit)
• James Hacker: "Now, listen. I want you to go through the Whip’s office to get to the backbenchers and to the central house, to put a stop to this thing before it starts."
• Bernard Woolley: "I’m awfully sorry to quibble again minister, but you can’t actually stop something before it starts." (from the episode The Writing on the Wall)
• James Hacker: "But we can’t stab our partners in the back and spit on their face."
• Bernard Woolley: "You can’t stab anyone in the back while you’re spitting on their face."
• James Hacker: "How does Bob Carter know when we don’t?"
• Sir Humphrey: "Oh, perhaps he has the PM’s ear."
• James Hacker: "He is in the PM’s pocket."
• Bernard Woolley: "The PM must have a rather large ear." (from the episode The Devil You Know)

Phrases and Puns

• "Very droll, minister." (often said sarcastically commenting on ministers words)
• James Hacker: "We’re gonna have egg yolk all over our faces!"
• Sir Humphrey: "Not egg, minister, just imperialistic yoke. (from the episode The Official Visit)
• CMG = Commander of the Order of St.Michael and St.George, KCMG = The Knight Commander of the Order of St.Michael and St.George, and GCMG = Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St.Michael and St.George (In the civil service also known as: Call Me God, Kindly Call Me God and God Calls Me God)
• James Hacker: "The Knight of the Thistle, how do they award the Thistle?"
• Bernard Woolley: "A committee sits on it." (from the episode Doing the Honours)
• James Hacker: "The first law of political indiscretion: Always have a drink before you leak." (from the episode The Death List)

Gobbledegook

• Bernard Woolley: "Now, may I just have your approval for this Local Government Allowances? Amendment Number 2 for this year’s regulations."
• James Hacker: "What is it?"
• Bernard Woolley: "It is Statutory Instrument to be laid before the House. As Minister responsible for local government we need you to authorise that the revised Paragraph 5 of Number 2 Regulations 1971 shall come into operation on March the 18^th next, revoking Regulation 7 of the Local Government Allowances Amendment Regulations 1954(b)."
• James Hacker: "What the hell does all that mean?"
• Bernard Woolley: "It is all right, there is an explanatory note, Minister. These Regulations are to make provisions for prescribing the amount of allowances and financial loss Allowances payable to the members of local authorities. Explanatory note: Regulation 3 of the Local Government Allowances Amendment Regulation 1971 ("the 1971 regulations") substituted a new regulation for Regulation 3 of the 1954 Regulations. Regulation 3 of the Local Government Allowances Amendment Regulation 1972 ("the 1972 regulations") further made amends Regulation 3 of the 1954 Regulations by increasing the maximum rates of attendance and financial loss allowances. Regulation 7 of the 1972 Regulations revoked both Regulation 3 and 5 of the 1971 Regulations, Regulation 5 being a regulation revoking earlier spent regulations with the effect from 1^st April next. These regulations preserve Regulations 2 and 5 of the 1971 Regulations by revoking Regulation 7 of the 1972 Regulations.
• James Hacker: "And that is an explanatory note???" (from the episode The Middle-Class-Rip-Off)

Examples of Sir Humphrey’s speech

• Sir Humphrey: "Well, minister, if you ask me for a straight answer, then I should say that, as far as we can see, looking at it by and large, taking one thing with another in terms of the average of departments, then in the final analysis it is probably true to say, that at the end of the day, in general terms, you would probably find that, not to put too fine a point on it, there probably wasn’t very much in it one way or the other. As far as one can see, at this stage. (from the episode The Writing on the Wall)
• Sir Humphrey: "The identity of the official whose alleged responsibility for this hypothetical oversight has been the subject of recent discussion, is NOT shrouded in quite such impenetrable obscurity as certain previous disclosures may have led you to assume, but not to put too fine a point on it, the individual in question is, it may surprise you to learn, one whom your present interlocutor is in the habit of identifying by means of the perpendicular pronoun."
• James Hacker: "I beg your pardon?"
• Sir Humphrey: "It was…I." (from the episode The Skeleton in the Cupboard)

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Sources:

• Television series: "Yes Minister" by Anthony Jay & Jonathan Lynn, 1980-82
• Web site: britishtv.miningco.com/msub3.htm (paper did not give page title)
• Books:
  • Room, Adrian 1990: An A to Z of British Life. Oxford University Press, Hong Kong.
  • Moore, Margaret E.1989: Understanding British English. Carol Publishing Group. New York.
  • Hurme, R.; Pesonen, M; Syväoja, O. 1996: English-Finnish General Dictionary. 9.edition. WSOY, Juva.
  • Urdang, Lawrence 1991: The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms. Oxford University Press, the United States of America.