Literally centuries from now, Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister will still be remembered among the great works of political satire.

The thing about "courageous" refers back to an episode where Sir Humphrey explains the difference between "controversal" and "courageous" to Bernard with the following: "Oh, yes! 'Controversial' means 'this will lose you votes'. 'Courageous' means 'this will lose you the election'!"

I think we just witnessed an act of administrative love making

Nigel Hawthorne, what a superb actor, you could tell he thoroughly enjoyed portraying Sir Humphrey, brilliant actor.

Greatest documentary ever.

"The ordinary voters are simple people, they can't see their needs, they can't analyse problems!" - Problem with politics is politicians think like this, and the elecorate are just exactly what they think they are. It's actually a really good point.

I'm sitting here in 2020, reading comments from 2018 and 2016 about the 'current' (quoted as at time of writing they are in the past) political system and knowing they are the same observations as when this show was made, the 1980s. What upsets me most is I will be able to come back to this comment in a decade and nothing will have changed.

It's always funny when one of the characters suggests a sudden idea and then produces a pre-written note to give to his target.

"I tell him it will be the most courageous thing he has ever done." Love it. Love how Agnus and Humphrey realize what they have in common.

This is still the best political drama ever No one on either side of the Atlantic has ever been able to come any where near this Brilliant plots brilliant screen play brilliant actors

"No government is going to reform the system that put it into power." -- J. Trudeau.

Did nobody tell Cameron that he was incredibly “courageous” when he promised a binary referendum? I guess sir Humphrey was on holiday or something.

I love how the authors of Yes Minister so despised the civil service and advocated so hard for the New Public Management - and when “reform” finally came, it actually made things worse. As very well illustrated by The Thick of It.

Still fresh, still true ... how I miss these series!

It's great watching two hardworking and talented professionals doing their job. I mean the actors, of course.

This is so so relevant even in a former British colony like India .

I have both Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister DVD sets and watch them every other year or so. A regular reminder of how political systems work. It is also by far the best TV dialogue written anywhere. I live in the US now and I am always amused when they keep calling it a democracy. Stay realistic everyone.

when Humphrey and Agnes are talking, it almost feels like they figured out they are compatible, not just aligned for a political goal. I wish Agnes had returned for other episodes.

_"Of course they would want our policies if they could understand all the implications. But ordinary voters are simple people, they don’t see their needs, they’re not trained to analyse problems. How can they know what’s good for them? They need proper leadership to guide them the way they ought to go...The people don’t always understand what’s good for them...We know what’s right for the country. The principal necessity is to have a small group in charge and just let the people have a mass vote every few years...Secondly, it is not advisable for the voters actually to know the people they’re voting for, for if they were to talk to them they could fall for all sorts of silly conventional ideas."_ At some point we lost track of what makes democracy work: to keep the actually democratic part of the system as abstract as possible and leave the rest to the people who actually know what they are doing.

Brilliant , and this was 40 odd years ago !

You could almost hear the funk guitar in the background as Sir Humphrey and Agnes start clicking. Though knowing Sir Humphrey, he'd prefer something more "dignified", like a soprano libretto.

“That always does the trick” smirk 😏, love it.

Back when the BBC had comedies that spoke truth to power rather than enforcing it.

When he talks to Agnes - this beats every dialogue since Hitchcock's to catch a thief - the smooth execution 😂🤗

I love how Humphrey stands for dramatic effect.

I get the feeling that if you ever put these two in charge of a fictional evil organization like HYDRA, then not only would they have the world in their palm within a week, we'd be thanking them for doing such a good job.

Hasn't anybody else noticed yet the contrast in Sir Humphrey's oratorical/rhetorical style when speaking with his mentor and when he talks down to his political superior, the Minister in the series? That is, he speaks more direct(ly) and plainly with the one whom he obviously looks up to than he does to the Prime Minister, Jim Hacker, former MP, the one he should genuinely be serving but to whom he instead elects to speak in deliberate obfuscations and in a labyrinthine delivery of polished, yet super-inflated academic English befitting more a byzantine politician than a true civil servant? Just curious.

Aka Noam Chomsky - Manufacturing Consent.

I love this scene, how Humphrey finds a soulmate. 😍

unrelated note but I love when Hacker and Bernard team up (secretly) against Appleby. Those are the best episodes. Nice to see some “good” win against the blistering cynicism / self aggrandizement of civil servants. Lol props to Hawthorne for playing him so well.

Arnold is my spirit guide.

Government means stability, that's why civil services are so important to save the day from regular political disturbances

Love how Sir Arnold says 'photo opportunities'

Wonderful- and still very relevant over 30 years later. One comment- you didn't include the next bit when Sir Humphrey broke the news to P M Hacker (one of Sir Humphrey's finest 'long speeches ['We did a deal'])

Gwen Taylor (Agnes) is drop-dead gorgeous! I wish the BBC would re-run this series. We get constant "Dad's Army" but "Yes Minister" and "Yes Prime Minister" seem to be forgotten, which is a shame because they are as relevant today as they were when first produced,

This show truly feeds my hatred of government so much. I love it

The Agnus Moorehouse scene was pure genius and horseshoe theory at work. A supposed left-wing radical MP wanting to shake up the system finds common ground with a bulwark of orthodoxy, elitism and status quo- Sir Humphrey. Different motives, same goals. Perhaps the most enlightening moment in a show full of enlightening moments.

RIP, Sir Arnold.

Political Satire at its finest

Different time and reality but politicians and politics hasn't changed at all.

So good to see sir Humphrey being the student 😊😊

The Russian jurist and statesman, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, referred to democracy as the "insupportable dictatorship of the vulgar crowd". Another of his quotes which is highly relevant to this video is: "In a Democracy, the real rulers are the dexterous manipulators of votes, with their placemen, the mechanics who so skillfully operate the hidden springs which move the puppets in the arena of democratic elections. Men of this kind are ever ready with loud speeches lauding equality; in reality, they rule the people as any despot or military dictator might rule it."

this conversation between agnes and sir Humphrey is so typical and informative. =) I was surprised he did not offer her a job in the civil service ;) possibly under him =)

We need Sir Humphrey as Cabinet Secretary and the script writers as his advisors. Someone malleable as Prime minister. What could possibly go wrong?

One of the best intelligent written shows in history.

This is so outlandish and so close to the truth , as far as the electorate choose who they vote for; it is frightening !

Great clip well done

How little things change in order to stay the same

"Many a true word said in jest."

RIP John Nettleton.

The scene with Agnes and Sir Humphrey is a pretty accurate portrayal of how the middle class, metropolitan intelligentsia view the electorate and democracy. The average voter is treated with sneering contempt and loathing and this scenario is even more relevant today than it was decades ago when it was written.

This is simply brilliant - an indictment of ‘representative democracy’ such as I have rarely heard. And hilarious as well!

I love the fact you can't tell whether Humphrey agrees with Agnes or like with Hacker is just trying to push her into doing his bidding.

Just brilliant 👌

Sir Arnold is still alive at 92.

"Something like this" while picking it up was just the right timing.

"These are simple farmers. People of the land. The common clay of the New West. You know. Morons." Agnes channels the Waco Kid.

beautiful stuff

These series are full with wise political quote

Thatcher loved the show.

Great show excellent

Judging by the comments, this clip is apparently a Rorshach test.

This is still as relevant now as it ever was

Great clip. John Nettleton and Nigel Hawthorne are marvelous in the series.

Ministers n MPs should be made to watch the 2 classics before taking office!

Greatest fly on the wall documentary ever, surprised they let it be shown..

I really love the second meeting between Agnes Moorhouse and Sir Humphrey. The firs time he was patronising and lost...the second time he was respectful and won...

Follow up this excellent exposure of how bureaucrats and social reformers share similar agendas by reading Tom Wolfe's "Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers"

This is actually true. People do not know what they want and how to deal with it. They dont even have any idea of what could really happen if things happened as they wanted. An eg: People said that every village should have electricity. Everyone supported it. Govt. Got forced to do it. Now the people from villages got electricity but now they have to pay the bills. The jobs in villages are low earning wages. And spending on electricity is a considerably big amount which goes from the salaries. So the govt or the private electricity providers have no profit. Now the villagers got electricity for 8 hours a day..then 8 hours in 4 days until it reduced to just a few hours a day. It was too much to pay even the compulsory amount for the bill whether one uses it or not. The people who supported for electricity were from cities. The villagers had no say. Not planned. Nor the costs nor any consequences thought of. Now city people do not want to pay for villagers electricity from their pockets as they think that whole world comes with millions in their bank account. People do not know what they need. Only by working on ground does one get to know issues that need to be truly resolved and they have become so complicated that elected ones feel it is better to continue with what one has rather than opt for a change.

"The people doesn't understand what's good for them"

is this how edward bernays and walter lippmann chatted about manufacturing content to give an illusion of a informed electorate? manufacturing content/manufacturing consent.

Agnus has a beautiful voice.

When the Shah of Iran had that great big party in the desert someone said the communist leaders hit it off with the monarchs who were present.

sir arnold needed a show

RIP, John Nettleton, a.k.a. Sir Arnold Robinson - perhaps the only individual who Sir Humphrey was never able to get the better of.

Utter perfection.

"And so the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn't that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people" - From Sir Terry Pratchett's Night watch

You should see California, where there so many propositions and measures and constitutional amendments and charter amendments every four years that it takes me a couple hours to do enough research to even try to cast an informed vote. I'd much rather elect legislators and let them handle government; they're paid enough and they have offices with staff.

Just too accurate!

Almost perfect in every way

So true today [and in all times] how they think of us!

This old BBC 2 comedy which is one of those that won't ever be repeated again is so true and to the point, more so today, showing that our politicians really don't give a toss about the people. Written by a politician too.

'I would go further than the narrow focus of the title. 'The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, '' - Karl Marx, German Ideology (1845)

This is so true. Every kid should be made to watch this and they'll understand better the dirty world of politics....

I love Sir Arnold.. 😄 He is gangsta civil service mafia

I love Sir Arnold. So bright

Sickeningly realistic

The scene ended with those perfect lines .. Oh ! Agnes ..you are a great loss to the civil service

the funny thing is, im actually agreeing with humphrey

To our credit, we tired those reforms in the USA. We have regional (State) government with substantial power, and local governments that are not subject to national control. Inspite of our two party system, our legislators run on their own reputation and often stand against their own party in ways that wouldn't be tolerated in Westminster. We've always had mavericks in both parties, and even now, in the age of Trump, we have a small number of anti-Trump Republicans in Congress. Debited against that credit is the fact that it hardly fixes everything thing. People can rig any kind of system, and human apathy can undermine any amount of democratic control.

I wish this was on tv now....

Sir Arnold - god calls me god

So scary, but so true.

Gwen Taylor, who plays Agnes in this clip, was also the one who played Mrs. Big Nose in Monty Python's Life Of Brian. It was she who, after the crowd had established that Christ had just uttered the words "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" said "Oh I'm glad they're getting something".

Good old British humor totally love it.

The earlirst description of the cathedral in modern media

Nigel and Paul and of course Bernard such a team ...

So long, John!😪

Sir Arnold the unsung wit of YM/YPM!

60,000? Try 600,000 in the US!