The BBC Cannot Give In To Government Pressure | Yes Minister | BBC Comedy Greats 

Blair got around that by concentrating on the Universities so now the BBC does whatever the opposition wants it to do....at least until Labour get back into power, then they'll do whatever the government wants them to do! The BBC is 90% Left Leaning at a minimum today! ITV and Channel 4 are even worse!

@@franohmsford7548 The BBC has cancelled several extremely popular left wing shows (Most notably the MASH report) in recent years due to government pressure. The reason organisations like the BBC are called left wing is three fold: 1 By it's nature the BBC employs a higher proportion of highly educated people than the general population, there is a strong correlation between levels of education and political leaning (with higher levels of education increasing the proportion of left voters). 2 The government inherently has more to cover than the opposition. The government is governing so it's policies and actions inherently give it more to cover and make it more interesting to the public. This means that regardless of political leaning the government tends to draw either more or more damning criticism than the opposition. 3 Because of our first past the post voting system the government is significantly more right wing than the county. This is because Conservatives have consolidated the right-wing vote (with the Brexit party getting only 2% of the vote in 2019) whereas the left-wing vote is heavily split (32.5% labour and 11.5% lib dem in 2019). If votes were awarded proportionally then the UK would have a pretty even split of left wing and right wing in parliament, whereas in reality it is about 60% right wing. Besides that the government has made an utter mess of dealing with COVID, having the 28th highest deaths per capita (at time of writing) in the world, massively overpaying for PPE and choosing to use a plan for a particularly bad flu pandemic despite having completed a detailed plan for SARS (a virus extremely similar to COVID-19) which was a far more logical choice and in retrospect would have been far more effective. Not to mention all the number 10 parties and the lobbying scandal

the reason for the decline is indeed the decline of the goverment itself.

@@pioneer_1148 The MASH Report cancelled? YAY! But what the Left Wing don't understand is that the Left Wing is never happy - I hated League of Gentlemen, The Catherine Tate Show and Little Britain when they were first on TV....Now the Left Wing hates those shows as well BUT it was the Left Wing who WATCHED those shows! The MASH Report was complete and utter TRASH! Blatantly Biased Drivel! And it's not like HIGNFY, QI and Mock the Week are balanced either YET I still watch those shows because as bad as they are today with their lack of balance they're still at least watchable and not pure propaganda like The MASH Report! The mere fact that The MASH Report ever got made on the BBC in the first place shows just how bad the BBC has become!

LOL

I've never heard it worded that way. This show is such a gem.

Nowadays we just call them WaGs

I couldn’t quite hear what he said after “of” in that line because of the audience laughter lol but the subtitles say the line finished with “legal distinction” instead of “equal distinction!”

Today the BBC calls them presstitudes

"Ladies of..." suggests "ladies of the night" (prostitutes) or any similar negative statement (Ill repute, easy virtue etc), hence the laugh caused by the pause and the second laugh when he deftly avoids saying anything derogatory while suggesting it all along!

This could have happened earlier today.

Although thin6gs have changed after the Parlament made a law to forbid anyone from mocking their sessions

Does this also work with variations on the west side of the Pond?

Yes. It's timeless. One of the best shows ever....

@@ProperLogicalDebate Highly likely - it certainly works on the south side of the Globe.

I think he was waiting for the laughter to subside.

"Or ladies of... equal distinction." LMAO

I have had a conversation with a senior civil servant who did a Freudian slip.... it could have been lifted from these scripts. It is true, it’s more a documentary than a sitcom

@@09juliancarr Just check current Covid and Brexit measures against the "Four Stage Strategy"

He was masterful. Barely ever a cutaway and drlivered with skill and aplomb. His absurdly long obfuscations were the reason to tune in.

They did make W1A with Hugh Bonneville.....

Because back then, BBC faced virtually no competition.

Too busy covering up for peadophiles and corrupt journalists, that's why.

Especially as Nadine Dorries would pounce upon them. Bitch.

@@tolep oo0

and delivered masterfully by all three

It's absolutely marvelous. Incredible.

On the contrary, it's no other than himself who put the minister into this

you got that right,

Only after throwing him into the fire in order to prevent change in local government that would have a ripple effect on Whitehall. Humphrey's loyalty always came to the civil service first, country and it's elected leaders be damned.

@@ackbarfan5556 Thats not quite accurate though, Humphrey always put country above all but it was his belief that this civil service was the only entity capable of understanding what is best for country. He makes every effort to impede political leaders precisely because he believes they are ruining the work of the service, and by extension ruining the country.

@@lachyt5247 Fair point. It felt that way though.

You really love this show, isn't it, I have seen your comments on many of these videos

@@RahulKumar-ng2gh yes. Discovered it during the lockdowns. It's a masterpiece

@@sharmista_modak I have discovered it few years back and never left it, it's very informative too, one learned nitty-grities of English language

@@RahulKumar-ng2gh indeed

@@sharmista_modak same. Love it, it's amazing.

She said on a number of occasions it was her favourite programme. There is also the cringe-worthy bit where she guested starred with them. I totally agree it is still one of the greatest comedies ever. Making politics where it is basically 2-3 people taking in offices, funny, takes genius level comedic writing, and a brilliant cast.

@@MrDarkweaver It's okay that she came on the show. As long as it wasn't due to them giving into government pressure. But I am sure it wasn't due to them giving into government pressure.

@@MrDarkweaver Ah yes, but Mrs Thatcher was there to be presented an award by Mary Whitehouse's organisation. In the speech that was made someone made allusion to "Mrs Thatcher taking her rightful place in comedy". Apparently she didn't laugh which is a bit of a shame.

@@AGMundy Thatcher didn't have much of a sense of humour by all accounts :) Surprising she wanted to be in it at all, given the nature of the programme....

​@@AGMundy Jonathan Lynn who co wrote yes minister made the comment and he reckoned that gave him his biggest ever laugh

It depends on the premise I would say, alot of cool stuff in each episode, so it's difficult, to pick a favorite, that is why the whole premise must be accepted as a whole :)

Replaced by Brexit enemies sabotaging their own economy.

Yes, leave our Mrs Brown's Boys, Holby City and Eastenders alone, Boris!

@@skymanifest8339 if that’s the best the bbc can do in the 21st century - a comedy that repeats the same jokes for how many seasons and has just been signed for another 4, and a hilarious superficial soap opera then maybe they need to go. Then we have the mess that is Dr Who and come Christmas; the ‘Overbaked’ Vicar of Dibley.

That was the joke with that file being the size of all the others put together

@@xr6lad Coming from Australia, the BBC is a breath of fresh air and a much needed point of difference compared to all the other generic trash from the US.

"Anything more mind-numbing" How about 90% of the BBC output.

Yes, maybe the aliens would watch and exclaim, “It happens on other planets too!?!”

A Chinese colleague surprised me one day when I made some aside based on this show by knowing exactly what I was talking about. Apparently some of the more advanced English students at his high school would catch the show after school -- I suppose it must have had subtitles but they liked to try to understand the language as spoken. I was a bit taken aback that it would be shown in China but he said something sardonic about 'corrupt western government'. He also said it disappeared abruptly one day (I reckon because some parent in the government actually watched it....). It is a truly incredible show and its as relevant today as it was 40 years ago. They may be styled 'comedy' but I reckon they could also be called 'educational'.

Well power has similar structures in all places. From governments to countries, to companies even down to family in some or most occasions.

@@martinusher1 It got cancelled because the translator passed away at the age 74, and they couldn't find one to replace him. Yes Minister is not easy to translated if you want to capture the true essence of the show.

@@martinusher1 Apparently it was translated into Chinese and shown on CCTV in the 90s when Western import was not forbidden on prime time TV. Although, people can still access classics through fansub translations.

I can assure you that the phrase "Yes, Minister." was banned in Canberra during the 1980s. You had to say "Correct Minister", or "Affirmative Minister", etc. I think that may be where "absolutely" started to replace a simple "yes" in what's left of the English language.

actually its used in law courses to explain how laws are made

The Aurther Conan Doyle series of Sherlock Holmes was issued to the Indian police as an instruction manual.

I think Hollowmen is their graduate course.

@@LaurieKoudstaal and Utopia

Any yes prime minister video, I always look for the person making the standard “documentary” comment. Had to look quite far down the list for this one.

@@captainspongeboy Congratulations 🎉🎉🎉.You,sir are better than the rest of us.

They are BBC staff who interviewed the minister

People with low intelligence that can not understand the words properly

According to trustworthy sources within the intelligence community, who agreed to be interviewed on the premiss of anonymity, these 19 people belong to a small scale, organic Russian troll farm..

Now 54 dislikes, 54 morons that gave in to government pressure.

I can understand why a few people might not like the show. _I'm not one of those people,_ but in watching all the episodes probably dozens of times over the last 40 years, I have noticed that the expository bits at the start of episodes, where one person is talking to another, and starts "as you know" and then launches into a complete telling of the setup for the episode - those bits of exposition can seem a bit forced, and with the advent of streaming I sometimes find myself fast-forwarding through them. It's just not very artful storytelling to have two characters talk out loud about things they both already know (and both know that they both know) just for the sake of informing the audience - especially not when it's the first thing that happens. It feels awkward to watch, and there are craftier ways of getting that information across during the telling of the story. It's far outweighed IMHO by the brilliant gags in the show, but I can see how for some people it might be a big turnoff.

Both - earlier in the episode Hacker was in an interview that was going poorly, and his attempt to dig himself out of a hole resulted in him unwittingly insulting the PM, so he and Sir Humphrey were trying to pressure the BBC into not airing the interview.

The cry that the BBC should be closed down goes all the way back to when it first started as a public corporation in 1927 and is nothing new. Winston Churchill hated the BBC but knew the use of it during the war. Harold Wilson detested the BBC and always gave interviews to ITN instead. Margaret Thatcher hated them, but did like Yes Minister. And of course the Blair government poured a huge bucket of shit over the BBC with the Hutton Enquiry findings of 2004.

@@johnking5174 the fact every successive government hates the BBC is probably the best argument for its existence.

@@tmarritt the current one probably loves them

@@yourmum69_420 nope still hates them and is trying to destroy them from every angle

@@tmarritt they haven't even removed the "mandatory" license fees

Two men wrote Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister - Sir Anthony Jay (conservative leaning man) and Jonathan Lynn (labour/left leaning man). So balanced writing.

@@johnking5174 Also they had frequent secret meetings with Marcia Faulkner and Bernard Donoughue, both very senior political insiders.

the epitaphe of writing, is that it was all done to succumb the bbc writing, they apparently had a self-assesed self-deprecating head of productions, I would imagine. Or you know, they might have omitted certain aspects of the program. anyway, hats off to them, cheerio.

It was also a comedy, and one of the very best.

This is what true satire is all about. Most of today's crop of comedians think that sarcasm and satire are the same thing, when they are the lowest and highest form of wit respectively.

There is an element of truth in every joke :-)

Factualities taken into a comedic throughput or given a humourous scenario to play about within, etc.

It's very popular in Russia, I believe.

Superb actor Moray Watson playing him. Moray died in 2017. He appeared in so many films and TV shows.

Excellent casting!

Yes he was, i liked him in Churchill the Wilderness Years with Robert Hardy

He was marvellous in Rumpole of the Bailey too..

Probably says as much about today's BBC as it does about modern politicians

@@profaneangel0842 or more about the effect of certain partisanship attitudes colouring public opinion... Even if the person saying that "X is a liar" is repeatedly shown evidence of being a liar themselves, some people will simply ignore that and believe "X is a list". Conversely, if someone has done something that is disliked by a group, then even if they have evidence and proof of "y is a liar", that groups people will ignore that. I made this vague, so one cannot say I deliberately aimed it at any one side. If someone reads it as such, it says more about the side they're defending....

When the BBC does nothing but criticise them, why would they ever agree? If the BBC wants interviews, it can't just push people away. Currently, there is zero incentive for anyone to give an interview with the BBC.

Neither can the BBC comment on the actions of Government ministers who were immune to the actions of Project Yewtree

ah, ah...Mister Heath ??//

Nah. The Tories have stopped the pretence. Now they just tell them what to do and threaten them with further funding cuts. But as they have appointed everyone at the top and abolished the BBC Trust, they don't even need the threats now.

Comedy based entirely on upper-class white men talking to each other in offices. Nowadays would not be considered "diverse" enough or "inclusive" enough for broadcast.

@@jrd33 I think it is not about the premise but it is more to do with the fact that the writing was truly some of the best that the BBC has ever had, the comic timing of the actors involved added to the scripts which were written in such a way as to make the viewer believe that somewhere in Whitehall this is happening now.

Just 220? I thought it was their annual conference

To be fair covering a three day music festival on a hundred acre site with a dozen stages can't be done with half a dozen people. Sky can use over a hundred staff to cover a single football match that takes place on one pitch, that has all camera locations, electricity, running water etc already set up and only lasts two hours. 200 staff to cover Glastonbury is perfectly reasonable.

Certainly not, they are our allies, I mean.. enemies... err I mean collegues.

comedy? this series is a documentary

Correct, better t.v. days and we only had 4 channels (BBC1, BBC2, ATV, CH4) when this was aired.

Yeah, but now we've got Strictly and some crap on ice. ❄️

lol at anyone begrudging current crap we have today for being "agenda driven" all the while praising this show. Are you serious here? Yes, it's absolutely hilarious and amazingly well written. It deserved all the awards it was given. I peruse these clips for continuous streams of laughs. But to pretend this wasn't "agenda driven" is madness. Just look at all the comments about how this is "actually a documentary" to realise how effective the agenda behind this series was and still is.

More people watch the Kardashians.... What a shite!. Proven fact that IQs are declining.. Wonder why

The files got larger.

On the contrary my dear fellow a great deal has changed, just not the important things :-)

The BBC did get the rights to televise parliament.

Well the chair of the BBC is a guy who donated £400k to the tories party. So things have changed.