The writers eventually put directions in the scripts that Paul didn't have to say the lines if he could do them with his face.

Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds were all brilliant and played superbly off each other. They got on well with each other and no one's ego got in the way. In an interview Derek Fowlds said that filming each episode was like a masterclass in acting for him. Sad to think that they are all dead now, neither Paul Eddington nor Nigel Hawthorne living to a great age. Clever though 'In the Thick of It' was it can't compare to 'Yes Minister/Prime Minister', which at times was able to be quite cynical, but without lots of swearing, and being very funny.

Yet no BAFTA 💔

Incredibly Paul Eddington was a distant relative of Arthur Stanley Eddington who in 1919 confirmed Einstein’s general theory of relativity by observing an eclipse of the sun. He became world famous because of this,but eventually shunned the limelight as it wasn’t to his taste,Einstein however took to it. When he settled in America in 1933 none other than Charlie Chaplin took him under his wing and guided him through celebrity status. When Eddington announced his observation a news reporter asked him if it was true that only 3 people in the world understood the theory Eddington paused then replied I'm trying to think of the other one.

@@suvonil_ Hard to get such things when you are essentially pissing on all the people of power in the country. I don't know the relations between the BBC and the Bafta's but when you also piss on the networks, it probably hurt their chances.

He became it at the end. Politics... :) ... :[

Outstanding actor. Who could have played this role better?

I counted six

You're the reason they no longer make shows like this. The humour just flies over the empty noggins of modern day audience like you.

I like your non-literal use of the world "literal". And that, incidentally, is a quote from the novelisation of the series. One of those "editorial notes".

I'm betting so was his reaction in the scene when he was learning that his daughter was gonna be in the nude badger protest.

Peter Sellers was famous for this. In a lot of his movies, the best bits of dialog were often adlibed by Sellers. For example, the "Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!" scene in Dr. Strangelove he made up on the spot, and had the other actors in the scene laughing in fits.

Nice to know 😊

Liu Omar Daley That was my first thought also. Paul Eddington was great with his facial expressions alone.

I‘ve heard that the writers new of this and had whole lines in thenscript with the remark, paul may do this with facial expression.

It got to a point that they were writing notes in the script of "Eddington doesn't have to say this line if he doesn't want to."

Which is why Margaret Thatcher's funeral drew such a large crowd.

@Stuart Penman How true.

It was literally written into the scripts; sometimes writer Jonathan Lynn would annotate a line in the margins with "Paul doesn't have to say this this line if he doesn't want to" because he had such an amazing ability to perfect convey the _meaning_ of a line without even having to say it, solely through the use of his face.

I couldn't agree more. IMHO Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister was the best comedy series ever made, surpassing anything else done in the U.S. or Britain.

The complete episodes are available right here on KZfaq.

@@odysseusrex5908 no they are not.....only a few

@@chadhaire1711 Maybe they aren't all available for free. I haven't counted but a fair number of them are. Either way though, they are all available for purchase for $1.99 each. Search for Yes Minister Full Episodes, or Yes Minister Season 1 and look at the right hand side of the screen.

I bought them on Amazon, one of the best investments of my life. Especially since they are cheap.

Its streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

And Derek Fowlds

I think I've never seen any actor control his face so well. That truly was masterful 😁

I always got the impression that each one of the three realised that his individual performance depended on the performance of the others: they shined more brightly because of the brilliance of the other two.

Chrissy Wager Erm, anyone who believes that the purges and famines were made up by the West are slightly nuts and wholly incorrect. You, my friend, seem to have a screw loose.

Yeah Stalin was a swell guy. Just ask the Ukrainians. Or his son!

Chrissy Wager I agree with you about Thatcher and I do get annoyed when people are hounded just for being socialist or communist but Stalin was a lot worse than Thatcher by far. He had people executed and purged from photographs, he had people sent off to prisons, he was ruthless and the only time he was seen to smile in public was when a reporter fell over. He's really not that hard done by, he deserves most of his criticism.

KingOfTheInterWebs Stalin did far worse than executions. He executed millions without even a show trial. He did it not because there was any reason to think they were guilty but to terrorize the whole country into obedience.

By The Way Labour Re-Introduced Free Milk...and then ALSO abolished it soon after. Presumably that does not suit your beliefs. Good Old Labour..FRIEND of the people ! Brought in Roulette machines which have ruined endless working class families' lives in the most impoverished areas, removed Grammar Schools so the Working Class are denied a REAL opportunity to get on ( while MOST send their OWN children to Grammar or Private Schools like Shami and Diane and Harriet etc.. Brought over MILLIONS of unskilled and semi-skilled workers who are DELIGHTED to earn the minimum wage as that is the equivalent of 2/3 salaries in Eastern Europe so The BRITISH working-class can not compete. Big Business LOVE pating the new lower rate per hour ! I was from a solid Inner London Labour area ( their National HQ was in my High St.)..a bunch of Anti-British self-serving hypocrits it would be harder to find. Labour Motto: UP THE WORKERS ! Yes RIGHT UP THEM !!

... forty years later....

It took a lot of work. I have the scripts here at my home, and they fill pages and pages of dialogue.

The mark of a real professional is making it look easy.

They should make a GIF out of it. With the subtitles "he's dead" at the first second and "tragic !" at the last second.

@@TheNefastor i had that look on reading about Rush Limbaugh. And if/when Trump goes, it will have a second outing. I wouldn't celebrate any death but there are some evil people whose departure i certainly won't mourn...

@@Shelsight completely understandable.

Yes, indeed calling him "two-faced" is insulting : he's capable of so much more :-D

You have to remember that Sir Anthony Jay, one of the scriptwriters was also a speech writer for Margaret Thatcher

Giovanni Acuto But, remember, Jonathan Lynn has stayed he was the opposite, ie not a Tory.

She also wrote a self insert fanfic with herself in the show. If that's not a sign of a fan I don't know what is.

@@ackbarfan5556 The fact that it had both a left and right leaning writer was part of what made it work. In fact it's never quite clear if Hacker is supposed to be a Tory or Labour PM. He could quite easily be either.

@@waylander1978 Yeah, they said that themselves; they more or less just wanted to make fun of the general idea of British government and the civil service and not really influence either side. 'The Party' that Hacker is a part of, is sort of a mixing of both Labour and Tory ideas, a 'centralist' party if you think about it. Of course, the two of them went out of their way not to try to do anything divisive.