Yes, Prime Minister - Nuclear deterrent

[syalams]

Courageous? My god, is it?!

[animuspossidendi]

salami tactic, slice by slice

[coruscantplanet]

"What is the last resort, Picadilly?!" lol :D

[Celynalba]

Very funny and horribly relevant now, especially with Philip Hammond determined to renew Trident at a coast of £25 billion, despite cuts to useful things like health and libraries.

[TulipFarella]

30 years on, its still accurate. The snobbery of eton, oxford and cambridge, the old boys network, its who you know from school. The politics, world events, and currant affairs. The bit about who reads the papers, is still true too. 30 years, and nothings changed!

[VicElford]

"you're PM today, the phone might ring now, from NATO HQ!"

rrrrrrrrrrrriiiiing

"NATO HQ, sir"

LOL, just great

[svartekaptenen]

That is actually quite clever, a couple of carriers for the navy and a substancial

army, and maybe more fighters for the RAF.

[wahaya2]

@svartekaptenen Well, National Service did exist, and there's been some murmurings recently of bringing it back. It's all very well until you have a big war, and then you decimate a whole generation of your population. It applied in both world wars, and also with America in Vietnam...

[largesatsuma]

"We need to give people a comprehensive education to make up for their comprehensive education."

Beautiful

[Chompyt]

this is amazing! i actually argree with the austrian :D

[HVGInvestment]

accidently on purpose 

[seeget]

because we only just met :D

[gamewizard]

Was Jim Hacker supposed to be Labour or Conservative?

[steve85nn]

@gamewizard He was supposed to be either! ;)

[CymruAlteran]

@gamewizard they never said plus it would have made it more political plus there are more parties than just thoes 2

[bluemoonrising26]

Where has all the good British comedy gone?

(Peep Show and The Inbetweeners R.I.P are keeping it hanging on)

[edinscot56789]

You know, if the Soviets had ever watched this show, they might have actually done the things the Austrian advisor guy is suggesting they might do. Lol! It sounds pretty ingenious, actually

[ROVER25X]

Oscar Quitak was good in this !!!

[interfector23]

"Why didn't I think of this before?"

"That's because we only just met!"

haha! Love it.

[pspboy7]

That advisor guy was awesome. He had the nuclear problem well in thought hehe.

[dantae666]

sums up my thoughts on todays defence problems excatly

[madleon81]

I imagine this in a Indo-Pak scenario... bloody relevant !!

[TheGreatBritishTeen]

This show is great!

[UberCookieboy]

"Because we just met"

[pggtips]

"We'll give our young people a comprehensive education, to make up for their Comprehensive Education."

(-8

[Kenta19191919]

Is it not so that Sir Nigel Hawthorn passed away?

[necropedal]

@Kenta19191919 Yes It is, a truly great loss. He passed away on Boxing Day (December 26th) 2001 at the age of 72

[Kenta19191919]

@necropedal

The people of England should be very proud for their sense of humour as well as for all those legacies in science and technology.

English know the importance of firing insult with style. They do so with the highest level of wit observable amongst all men.

I have to say that the script writer too should be give high credit and recognition.

We Japanese extend unlimited respect to this unique island race.

[necropedal]

@Kenta19191919 On all of those points I can agree. I think it is a testament to the series longevity that people still discuss its episodes, its actors and its messages with such considered respect.

I trace my heratige back the Brittain as both of my parents are English, so there is a distinct connection between myself and the people of the United Kingdom.

I also am a huge lover of the Japanese culture, it is where I believe my soul crys out to be.

So thank you for the reply :)

[Kenta19191919]

@necropedal

Our civil servants are quite similar, but we don't produce this kind of comedy. That's the difference.

England effectively abolished the Lords and anti-Royal feeling is getting stronger. Just because some of the aristocracies and Royals are allegedly degenerate and stupid, it is wrong to slag off the entire intellectual infrastructure.

I do hope that people of Britain realise the benefit of class system and how good the balance is between aristocracy and meritocracy in Britain.

[necropedal]

@Kenta19191919 I could not agree more. You are one of the most intelligent people I have spoken with here on youtube.

I would have to say though, I firmly believe that a time will come when power returns to monarchies and Royal Families. I think something needs to shake up the power structures of modernized society or else it risks stagnating indefinitely.

[Kenta19191919]

@necropedal

I don't think I am intelligent, but I certainly appear to share similar views on some matters regarding politics and social issues.

I envy Britain very much. As an economy Britain is not that great compare to Japan. But North Korea will never, never, kidnap British citizens and pretend that it never happened. Britain still commands respect unrivaled by any other. Not even the US can match the level of prestige and degree of respect Britain commands.

[necropedal]

@Kenta19191919 It is comments like that, that confirms your intelligence.

:)

[Kenta19191919]

@Kenta19191919

Japan should not allow North Korea to continue with the current policy on the kidnap cases.

Japan and also the world have a greater trouble maker, China. They have little to no respect for democracy and care little about the decency required for manageable capitalism.

If Japan cannot get her point across to N Korea, then she has no hope on China.

It is not right to give China all they want in fear for losing out on business opportunities there.

[kdum8]

@Kenta19191919 ありがとうございました。私は今、日本に住んでいるイギリス人で­す。日本も文化が深くってとても特殊 な国です。よく日本人の親切なことをびっくりするぐらい感じます­。

[Kenta19191919]

@kdum8

カナ漢字入力ができるんですね！すごい！ぼくは東京に住んでいま­す。

[PennyBR79]

Fantastic? Who needs trident?

[kayman92]

3:36 Oh he's a Lib Dem.

[oldbluescott]

They go way overboard with the laugh track. The laughter is so loud, and it starts and stops so suddenly. It reminds me of the Monty Python sketch where Michael Palin controls the applause track with a little switch, so it goes on and off like a light.

[tomenicus]

@oldbluescott It seems you're right. But this would be funny even without laugh track. I mean there's no reason to underestimate the show - it's one of the best.

[oldbluescott]

@tomenicus I agree. In fact, it would be much better without the laugh track.

[ckyliu]

@oldbluescott It's not a laugh track. That's the studio audience you can hear, many British sitcoms and panel shows are filmed in front of a live studio audience.

[oldbluescott]

@ckyliu The way they start and stop laughing all at once sounds so mechanical. Are there "applause" signs to tell them when to start and stop?

[ckyliu]

@oldbluescott not to my knowledge, it's all natural laughter although the audience probably see some kind of "warm up act". If you ever been to a live comedy show, the laughter is very much like this however, there are 200-300 people in this audience typically.

[ckyliu]

@oldbluescott "The actors did not enjoy filming as they felt that the studio audience added additional pressure. But Lynn says that the studio audience on the soundtrack was necessary because laughter is a "communal affair." The laughter also acted as a kind of insurance: Jay observes that politicians would be unable to put pressure on the BBC not to "run this kind of nonsense" if "200250 people were falling about with laughter." - Wikipedia

[tomenicus]

@ckyliu So was there any audience or not? Just've been curious. It doesn't make the show any worse, there's nothing that could do this worse. Actually, it makes it even better, because every day it's much closer to that what we observe in reality.

[ckyliu]

@tomenicus Yes there was a studio audience, about 200-250 for the recordings of Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. Much like a chat show.

[dmpcornwall]

@oldbluescott It would be real laughter. According to Ronnie Barker's autobiography, how it works is that there are microphones that are pointed at the audience and the laughter we hear is taken from there reaction at the time. However, we might only hear a 5 second insert of laughter out of a 30 second spell of laughter. I'm guessing, that in the studio, the "NATO Headquarters" went on much longer, but for the purpose of a 30 minute programme, they would cut it down to a shorter time.

[edinscot56789]

"Accidentally on-purpose" Love it!

[Barqu3ntine]

Extra-terrestrials?

[tomenicus]

That's scottish (?) guy has a point. The all nuklear weapons made no sense. It was all for the enemy to be threaten, not to real use. fortunately Russians thought so too. As for my country, Poland, THere was so many american missiles pointed to it, that it would be a bare, hos lifeless sesert after a day from the beginning of war. We hate wars, because despite of the good soldiers we've got each time we have economy ruined: WWI, WWII, COld war.

[agemangirl1919]

There is a close analogy between Poland and Korea. But which one is more respected as a nation? Poland.

[tomenicus]

Is it? I believe there was respected kingdoms in Korea when no state structure was build on the terrain of Poland. Besides, I always cosidered Koreans as strong-minded, hard-working and respectable men, who efficiently rebuild their country into the modern state, nothing like this I can tell about Poles, who are Hard-minded, pretend-to-be-working and want respect only to themselves.

[swanseajackthe3rd]

"We could give our young people a comprehensive education to er..make up for their comprehensive education"

:D

[schizoidboy]

Someone ought to stick this guy with Obama.

[ateohispano]

"You are Prime Minister today! The phone might ring now from NATO Headquarters!"

-Ring-

"Hello, yes. NATO Headquarters, Prime Minister."

XD

[Mantis06]

"They can't even control Afghanistan!"

He would have to eat those words now...

[FlytheUnionJack]

well listen to our officers, they say the british army is fighting a war with 1 hand behind its back because the goverment wont provide the resources or man power, the goverment rarthers its at home in storage and in the barracks

if the army was left to control its self we would destroy afghan

[albierte]

As an American and a soldier, I would like to say that it was George W. Bush who hijacked the war in Afghanistan by going into Iraq. The UK got a bum deal by being our cousin.

The enormous cost of fighting two wars drained the UK of the manpower and the finance to its economy.

I wished we had more competent leadership to manage our foreign policies and our economy.

[perfacetus]

Most of the West would have to eat those words now!

[CashOnTheNail1955]

Post request to the BBC Sky for Brown, Cameron... view Trident, Failure... then their 'edited' comments be broadcast on BBC 4

[oldstuff]

Just another brilliant clip from a legendary series. Sadly, I'm not convinced that their are actors capable of stepping into the shoes of Fowlds, Hawthorne and Eddington. The scripts were phenomenal but their delivery was just amazing.

[bedsitter1982]

Right.

Fowlds, Hawthorne and Eddington were really pros.

[Scoused5000]

Although the Queen maybe Commander-in-Chief U.K. Armed forces, at the end of the day the the PM makes all the decisions on defence and deployment. The other thing is the Prime Minister has been granted all the Powers of the Sovereign by Parliament.. Hence Royal Perogatives. So the PM is Commander-in-Chief in all but name you see.

[mycroftc]

"I think i certainly would." Classic non-technocrat politician. Relevant and on the mark even after decades.

[mortallius]

"Courageous? Oh my god is it?!"

[drattigan91]

I don't agree, it's different and has changed with the times. instead of being about the government being manipulated by the Civil Service it's about the government being ruled by a group of political advisers, which is how it is done now.

[delacaravanio]

@drattigan91 Exactly. Today it is the Campbells and Coulsons who have the PM's ear, not the civil service.

[CurtHowland]

5:17 "Call it National Service!"

Didn't the House and Senate just do that? Terrific. Yes Minister has come to America.

[Putzflek]

Where's sir Humphrey?

[Chaosmage42]

some were else its why hacker can actually come up with a good idea

[anus419]

The BBC needs to put this back on in a primetime slot. It's still as relevant (and genius) today as it was all those years ago.

[Myndir]

The BBC should have more political satire; however, since the director general "found himself in a position where he needed to resign" because one of his programmes told the truth while the government was telling untruths, the BBC has been pretty much cowered. Sad, really, but a modern Yes Minister could probably not be made.

[htershane]

You haven't seen the "The Thick of It" then?

[castlecolten]

@anus419 I agree.

[tkhushrenada]

@anus419

you made this comment 2 years ago and its still true. Thumbs up good sir

[DrCruel]

@anus419 The problem is that whether this show is on or not is decided by Sir Humphrey.

[alunesifistic]

such great humour! every every word, every gesture is meaningful. delicious!

[josatinho]

I like it

[grmkii]

Don't think I've ever seen such intelligent humor before. Now if only there was a way to get rid of the canned laughter.

[belisariusorb]

Actually not canned but live studio laughter, but irritating I agree. Typical of BBC comedies at this time.

[W77W]

A case of horses for courses.

Modern comedies tend to be dropping the laughter tracks and studio audiences, but they are structuring their comedies differently - focusing more on the comedy of observation rather than punch lines.

But Yes Minister is set-up to generate periodic huge laughs and it does it brilliantly over and over again (Hacker's reaction to a Humphrey monologue, or a priceless Bernard one-liner) ... It needs this explosive audience laughter.

[myndecho]

@grmkii It's in front of a live studio audience.

[xshadowx324]

he didnt even go to the lse lol!

[majamaja3333]

-Why didn't I think of this before??

-Because we've just met!

[Poejoy]

LOL! This is one of my favourite episodes.

[PHATSAM]

"Courageous? Oh my god is it?" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

[tomfromscotland]

..... its weird lol i found myself agreeing to the idea as he was sayin it lol

[cairo71]

one of my favourite yes prime minister scenes.