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"Yes, Prime Minister: The Complete Collection" includes all 17 episodes of series on 3 discs. The first episode "Party Games", during which Jim Hacker MP is elevated to Prime Minister, is a one-hour special that aired in 1984 and is not officially part of the series. "Yes, Prime Minister" had two series of 8 half-hour episodes each that originally aired on the BBC 1986-1988. The characters are visibly older and not quite as funny as in "Yes, Minister", which ran 1980-1984, but it's still laugh-out-loud quality, and there are some real gems. The dynamic between Sir Humphrey Appleby (Sir Nigel Hawthorne) and now Prime Minister Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington) has changed a little, as Hacker is beginning to feel that, as the PM, he should not be pushed around by a civil servant.
"Party Games" finds Hacker, to his own surprise, in the running to become the next Prime Minister when the current one resigns and the civil service finds the leading two candidates for the job too independent-minded for their taste. Sir Humphrey is appointed Secretary to the Cabinet, replacing Sir Arnold (John Nettleton), and uses his position to maneuver the malleable Jim Hacker into Number 10. As PM, Hacker confronts issues such as Britain's nuclear deterrent, budget cuts, a complacent Foreign Office, appointing a Bishop, covering up a Soviet mole in MI5 during the Cold War, unemployment, bailing out an investment bank, making local government accountable, and coping with an potential international incident involving a puppy that France is using for leverage.
The funniest episodes are often the backroom power struggles, as when Sir Humphrey and the PM's sharp political advisor Dorothy Wainwright (Deborah Norton) fight over office space and influence, or when Sir Humphrey and Permanent Secretary of the Treasury Sir Frank (Peter Cellier) compete to be head of the civil service, or when the preceding PM makes unkind comments about Hacker in his memoirs. Writers Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn felt that the series would be too predictable if Sir Humphrey was always able to outwit Hacker, so, in "Yes, Prime Minister", Hacker sometimes uses the weight of his office to beat Humphrey at his own game. Out of 17 episodes, I observed that Sir Humphrey takes the day in 8 and the PM in 6. In the others, their interests are aligned.
This back-and-forth works well, not only because it is unpredictable, but because Jim Hacker is transformed from a hapless, well-intentioned MP to a pompous, self-important PM. The position has gone to his head. He's convinced that anything that might embarrass him will undermine the fabric of government. He is more frank, cynical, and interested in preserving the status quo than he was as an MP. In a way, this is not as funny, but, curiously, it posits that the PM may not have much power, after all, as he is more vulnerable to public opinion. For those who loved Sir Arnold in "Yes, Minister", he is back for 5 episodes. Sir Frank features in a few episodes. And Dorothy Wainwright is frequently the source of the PM's better ideas. Worth buying so you can watch it more than once.
The DVDs (BBC Warner 2003): This is a 3-disc set. My one complaint is that the volume must be turned unusually high to hear the dialogue clearly, as the laugh track is too loud in comparison. There are 7 bonus features. "Funny Turns: Paul Eddington: A Life Well-Lived" (26 min) is a BBC special about Eddington's life and career, made after his death in 1995, that interviews his wife Patricia and his closest colleagues about his long career and his final illness. "Christmas at the Ministry" (2 min) is a short sketch that aired on BBC-1 in 1982. "Cabinet Minister Sound Bytes/Jonathan Lynn Interview" (12 min) is an excerpt of a BBC program that interviewed Lynn and a number of former MPs in 1986 on the debut of the new series. "Paul Eddington Interview" (9 min) was done by his friend the actress Felicity Kendal in 1986. "No, Prime Minister" is a text review by Sir Humphrey of Hacker's diaries. There are text bios and filmographies for the writers and 16 members of the cast. No subtitles.
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