You're a Banker | Yes, Minister | BBC Studios 

There are many, many brilliant scenes in the Yes Minister series, but I fully agree with you, this particular bit- where Sir H kind of gives up on the idiot banker - has to be up there among the top ten, if not top five of the lot. The casting in these series is simply out of this world - Desmond is fantastic, as is that awful man who Sir Humphrey kow tows to. (forget his name). (ok, there is the odd exception - eg the Arab man in the Qumran one, not really convincing in that case, TBH)

Sir Arnold? The man who can kill with a glance?

This and the face he made in the Cabinet reshuffle when Hacker said the could be promoted to the Foreign Office.

You should probably change your username. The mark of the beast isn't a good thing to play around with

I am not from the UK but I love economics, so when I found out there is a city called Milton Keynes in England I totally lost it. I'm glad somebody used that as a joke before me.

Glad you noticed, those are the nuances that made him such a great actor. His gestures are on point.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed. Gives me chills how good he is.

The first 45secs are a masterclass by Nigel Hawthorne, and how small gestures and expressions convey more than any words ever could in terms of bemused disbelief.

I missed the joke because I've always called it Milton "Keen"s

When you realise someone is so dumb you cannot possibly slow your brain down enough to get down to his level.

I love that line so much.

There is also a punchline though. Milton keynes

Dorothy had Glazebrook pegged when she said he was well liked in the city because always agreed with whoever was talking with him. Economists are virtually Astrologers who wear suits. The Milton gag was a reference to the American economist Milton Friedman who won a Nobel Prize for economics. He was a critic of the British economist, Manyard Keynes. They were both around the same era.... Keynes' time in the sun was more 1930 to 1950 and Friedman's popularity was 1950 to 1970s.. thereabouts. The gag is that Sir Desmond managed to combine their names and got all confused thinking they were both named Milton.

@@andrewsmith8729 The punchline this is leading up to is of course there is a Milton Keynes, a London suburb.

@@shelbynamels973not a London suburb. A town in its own right about 50 miles from London.

@@andrewsmith8729 the bigger gag is that there is no such thing as nobel prize for economics. Which kinda leads to the fact that banker not knowing economic theories is not an impediment to his work since the actual economic doesn't have anything to do with those theories.

Watching him as "C" in "The Sandbaggers". Nothing dim about him here.

He looked almost the same when playing Col Smithers in Goldfinger, which was about 20 years earlier. Smithers was not dim though.

@@TheRip72 He was playing a banker there as well!

@@JB-yb4wn who had some rather disappointing brandy.

@@TheRip72 Yes! Bond gave all the details, but M reminded him that Col. Smithers was giving the lecture here.

Have a go at The Thick of It if you haven't already.

It's never been more relevant, than today! 99% of all political happenings now a days, can very easily be viewed as being satirical and morbidly inefficient, as ever.

As a Yank, this is totally relevant. I never heard of this show until a few days ago.

@@andyoli75 When I did Politics 101 at Uni, the scripts for this were on the reading list. Seriously.

andyoli75 It's definitely worth picking up the DVD box sets for both Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.

Three economists went hunting. First missed by a foot to the right. Second missed by a foot to the left. Third jumps up and yells "We got him!"

@@s.g.3898 replace"economist" with "statistician" and then you have a proper joke.

@@s.g.3898 That great line from Harry Truman: "All my economists say 'On the one hand...but on the other hand...' - somebody get me a one-handed economist!"

fun fact, most of its true too. The writers would meet with MPs' at fancy places, wine and dine them for stories then make a episode around it.

Best documentary every

@@AzguardMike heck, it was Margaret Thatcher favorite show. Probably took some ideas to make politics more like it.

@@genstian they even got her to cameo in the radio show, once. I've always found it the best tribute the sheer number of politicians who sheepishly admit to being devoted fans...

Now you ve cottoned on to the reason it was written.

Work in tech or IT, too, I presume? I feel you brother

@@jappiejojo777 IT guy here, yes.

Or the Corporate Communications or HR departments.

Slartibartfast

@@Lovebug06901I was about to ask you what you were trying to say but then googled the actor and now I understand. I probably need to read A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, maybe I will do when I’ve made more progress with the other 10 or so books I’m reading

LOL

So is that why that rather distasteful female character in Brooklyn 99 is named Wunch?

@@davidw.2791I did say it was an English joke. I would not expect Americans to understand our humour. Try Googling "Spoonerisms" that might help.

@@davidw.2791 I did say that it was an English joke. I didn't expect any Americans to get it. Try googling "Spoonerisms" that might help.

Henry Byrd Riiiight. It’s like “Well-Boiled Icicles”!

This was unique.

This was and still is unique. There have been very few political satires and even less that were a success.

That's because Liberals have taken over Hollywood. Liberals are NOT funny people!

@@martinputt6421 Althougt my english is not perfectly fit to allow me to enjoy all the rafinesses of these brilliant dialogues, a parallel I would dare to suggest is a major political satiric novel from a czech writer , Jaroslav Hasek : The good soldier Sveik, labelled "a satirical dark comedy" in Wiki EN.

Marky Polo - What makes you think that British comedy is filmed or created in Hollywood? Oh, I get it. You’re saying something totally daft and irrelevant as a form of humour?

Another year or so and people will be praising the set and the props.

@@cacambo589 What's wrong the set? I think it's very handsome.

Sir Frank is a great character and masterfully executed.

And don't forget Dorothy Wainwright, Hacker's political adviser. She was the only character who absolutely had Sir Humphrey's measure every time! Its a pity we didn't see a lot more of her.

I especially like the scene where Hacker's female political advisor is grilling Sir Frank about the honours list (or some such thing). Sir Frank starts getting flustered, which was a great acting job by whomever it was who played him.

There is some logic to it. If you know the person since university or even childhood you also know their habits attitudes etc. Someone who you only know by their professional resume is ultimately an unknown. You don't know how ambititous or not they trully are. If they plan on kicking you out after a few years. It may be unethical but its not illogical. We're hardwired to look for people that we trust.

LOL Exactly.

It's why the FT is printed on pink paper, so you can tell from a distance.

+Neakal I know. Sir Desmond's just a solid brick wall. It's beautiful. "Can't understand it. Full of economic theory."

Yes Minister is good, but it is nothing compared to Only Fools & Horses.

+Dat_French_Dude Haven't seen it besides s few clips but I doubt that I personally would enjoy it add much as Yes, Minister. That being said, it's doesn't seem bad.

I reccomend you see the entire series, but also stop watching it at the end of the episode "Time on our Hands". It was supposed to end there, but it kept going on, and the rest wasn't all that funny. There are loads more series which you should check out too (Blackadder, Red Dwarf, Fawlty Towers, Jeeves & Wooster...)

+Dat_French_Dude Seen Blackadder, the WWI series is the best imo. ATM I'm watching The Good Life.

Yeah, ww1 series is definitely the best. Never heard of The Good Life tho. What's it like?

They got a lot of that even at the time. "How did you hear about that?" "We...didn't? We made it up whole cloth...."

@@Bloodlyshiva Read the book "A Very Courageous Decision" by Graham McCann (available on hoopladigital via many USA public libraries). I haven't finished it, but they said they didn't make up many things. They did a lot of research and found stuff that *had* been in the news but not prominently, e.g., the hospital with a full support staff but no medical staff and no patients.

@@JimC I did. That's where I got it from.

And mein to !

Oh wow I just got that!

Not from England, are they referring to the place?

Golkarian yes

Me neither but it's an outlying area near London. Bletchley Park where the codes were cracked in in MK

Yes Milton Keynes is a hotbed of cryptology.

* wanker

@@daysofthunder6110 *That's the joke

@@daysofthunder6110 Oh, don't be so obvious, darling. We all know what dear Treblaine meant, so you don't have to be so common. Rather clever our Treblaine, we do so enjoy it when he pops by for a sherry.

@@karl4834 I heard that the collective noun for a group of bankers is a "Wunch".

Very droll.

well that's the look we're all giving Alexandra Ocasio Cortez right now!

Love it ! 1970's and 1980's Script waiters, I mean, Script WRITERS , will be the future Prophets and Profits in 2323 , give or take 20% V.A.T.

35 years nothing: That was always true.

@@Delightfully_Bitchy This

Yes Minister was her favourite sitcom. The Iron Lady was a maverick herself.

She wrote a very funny scene for it herself and gave herself all the funniest lines lol.

​@@tombarter3287 sounds rather far fetched.

​​@@tombarter3287Thatcher was no maverick. She was a typical bright woman of her generation. She spent her adult life trying to ape what she would have been brought up to believe, were her betters. Her tortured accent. The practiced little smile. The incredibly boring clothes. She was the epitome of the upper working class girl aping the rich. I think it was a generational thing. They were all over the place. They were my parents and their contemporaries. People were finally waking up to the realisation that their 'social betters' were not in fact better. Very often hadnt 2 brain cells to rub together. My Dad reckoned it was seeing the "upper classes" at close quarters during the war that broke the spell. But that generation had had the idea of inferiority to the rich drummed into them and rail as they could were never truly able to throw off that yoke. I never admired Thatcher. Her espousal of moneyterism was all part and parcel of toadying to the rich in the city instead of enduring that the country had a manufacturing industry to provide decent well paid jobs that folk could take a pride in. Etc.

@@helenamcginty4920 What does?

There is but it is a place not a person.

Former MK resident is laughing his A off.

Style council fan laughing his ass off.

I didn't even get that joke.

@@cockoffgewgle4993 Ah, but where do you live?

Replace Desmond with the CEO of Pfizer and you get to see how we got the whole pandemic scam

A documentary, a set of training videos, and, like the Simpsons, a prediction about the future.

It's interesting, isn't it? The FT has a very distinct look, so that you can recognise it even when folded, this even extends to their website. The purpose, surely, is so that people who buy it can let people who see them reading it know exactly what they are reading, and in so doing make people hold certain views on them.

@@candlestorms That is dedication to the uniform.

@@kapitankapital6580 by 'distinct look' surely you don't mean the pink paper that it is printed on? Probably the greatest marketing wheeze ever. Even if you see it edge on, you know what it is.

@@thePronto exactly right

What, economists understand what's in the FT, its quite light compared to working papers

Thanks for contextualising that.

Thanks for explaining what we could easily have seen for ourselves by watching the video

This scene serves as a set-up for later when Glazebrook offers Hacker a way out of the predicament he got himself into when he authorized the conversion of a city farm to a carpark. Glazebrook makes a passing mention that he read about Hacker's plan in the FT, while in this earlier scene he admits to never reading it.

Sadly when Sir Nigel retired he became senile and suffered a complete disconnect between the brain and the larynx. Thus he contiinued to ramble 'Governmentease' until his final breath - his last words being 'Further more...'

Ministers or president?

+thedarknesscallingme Or the European election in my Country Denmark, we voter No back in 1992, got a new election with out the police state, the euro economy aso, now we will have a vote to remove them exceptions and get us in as full members and even if it is going to be a legit election and we end up with a No we will still be in the EU !

perfectly sums up every desire held by every political party that's the whole point of political parties

..and the recent Brexit referendum!

Let see, as I read, they already began to talk about a re-vote, only reason they might be allowed to leave in 2 years time, is the fact that the EUSSR is set up to collapse before that

Same in NZ with the flag change referendum

XKT035 My name is unimportant.

I first saw him in 'The man in room17' but that was in the days of live to air TV acting and I don't think it was ever recorded.

And on the train, with The Beatles!!!

All Criminally Tragic Twenty-Four Floors Of It.

@Berty Wooster Out of curiosity who did you, or who would you have (if you aren't American), voted for...

@The Shield I have a hunch, and wanted to know if it was correct. I'm getting a similar hunch about you....

@The Shield Being a democrat voter. Or at least a democrat supporter.

Yes, Milton Keynes is a town in Buckinghamshire in England.

John King Yes I know where Milton Keynes is.

Sorry

Fair play to you mate, there can't be many non-uk residents who know about this series

Didn't originally get it because he puts a different accent on the 'Keynes'

+timothy evans haha i remember that

+timothy evans What amazes me is just how well it holds up now. The same issues of the london skyline, scottish independence, new rail infrastructure, and the NHS are just as true today as they were when this was first broadcast. Like you say, a series of genius.

+Sapiensiate Thank you. I can watch it again and again and again. It is up there with Shakespeare; they both have something to say about most human conditions. If I could foresee them they would not be unforeseen.

+timothy evans Both Yes, Minister and Yes Prime Minister are probably the greatest civics lessons ever given by anybody.

No it's trite and confuses the reality of politics with the simple minded clarity of unaware sociopaths.

Maybe they're bankers

godfrey galea You are right about both the economists and the "new town" Milton Keynes but where does that leave Milton Shulman?

bmniac - he was the theatre critic on the London 'Evening Standard' for several decades.

The town was named after the economists!

@@bmniac On the wrong platform?

Armando Iannucci - the creator and chief writer of The Thick of It is a huge fan of Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister - he championed it as the best British sitcom for the BBC in 2004.

I'm watching him right now as "C" in "The Sandbaggers". Check it out and thank me later.

​@@shelbynamels973 Indeed. "Sir Richard Greenley" or "C" from that (late 70's) series "Sandbaggers". And another actor I remember very well from that series is Roy Marsden ("Neil Burnside") who is probably particularly well remembered for his role as "Jack Ruskin" in the Yorkshire Television series "Airline", although many would be more likely to remember him from the TV series "The Green Green Grass". Still, Richard Vernon played many fine roles throughout his performing career, and I've no doubt that he is still well missed. Cheers.

@@mickeymcnaughton2555 I remember him primarily as Insp. Dalgliesh in the P.D. James mysteries. His persona here is quite a departure from it.

​@@shelbynamels973 Yes, you're right Shelby. I'd not included him in relation to that series earlier on. "DCI (later Commander) Adam Dalgliesh", to be played by Bertie Carvel in the (2021-2022) TV series, "Dalgliesh".

Did Humphrey forget his line at that point ?

No, the character is totally flummoxed. And Sir Nigel portrays that perfectly.

"twenty less intelligent" what are you blithering on about man? My dog Cyril is at least seven or eight more betterer than you at inglish

spodule6000 oh thank you for giving me the best laugh so far today.

Top gag fella 🤣🤣

A 21st century joke about a great 20th century comedy.

@TheRenaissanceman65 I'm fairly certain that humor is an even more old fashioned concept, one you clearly never heard of.