Yes Minister Special Sketch(Christmas at the ministry)-1982

[IzabelParis]

Excellllent!!!

[Isospinsymmetries]

Completely brilliant.

[capricious71]

Just for once I think Sir Humphrey was reading off cue cards.

One of the best sitcoms ever.

[TheOmegajuice]

Their scripts must have been really large for a half hour programme. So many long speechs!

[jeremyfitzroy85]

Yes yes

[giocchino1515]

It clearly looks like Hawthrone is reading off cue cards.

[daviddalbylive]

Ministerial Gobbledygook ... Brilliant ;-)

[KingDT2007]

@MerseySky this american does not

[pistachioguy]

Extraordinary!

And to think the British presented him 4 BAFTAs in the '80s, all in the Best Light Entertainment Performance category.

If this is what passes for Light Entertainment in Britain, I shudder to think what Heavy must be like.

[YoungIvyScholar]

ROTFL

[fidget177]

I love this clip so much, and yet my Fridge Logic (see tv tropes for details) keeps jumping up and shouting "But *Why* does Bernard have a party squeaker?!" ...Then I start giggling and I have to watch it again. It's a vicious circle, really. :D

[VigilanteAgumon]

Bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo can really suck the fun out of any holiday.

[nyc999]

sounded more like Happy New Year to me..

[InvisiblerApple]

@nyc999 Week 51 remember.

[leftcoast67]

Happy Christmas and a great 2011!

[bulbadox]

he really improves your attention span...good old Humphrey

[gayhurst]

I wonder if I might crave your momentary indulgence in order to discharge a by no means disagreeable obligation which has, over the years, become more or less established practice as we approach the terminal period of the year — calendar, of course, not financial

[gayhurst]

— in fact, not to put too fine a point on it, Week Fifty-One and submit to you, with all appropriate deference, for your consideration at a convenient juncture, a sincere and sanguine expectation — indeed confidence — indeed one might go so far as to say hope —

[gayhurst]

that the aforementioned period may be, at the end of the day, when all relevant factors have been taken into consideration, susceptible to being deemed to be such as to merit a final verdict of having been by no means unsatisfactory in its overall outcome and, in the final analysis, to give grounds for being judged on mature reflection to have been conducive to generating a degree of gratification which will be seen in retrospect to have been significantly higher than the general average.

[AnimatedCrime]

A happy Christmas to you too Humpy! And I love the final noisemaker from Bernard.

[simplecoffee]

Oh, Sir Humphrey. I take my hat off to you, sir. In fact, in the final analysis, at the risk of sounding undignified, I think it might be reasonably true to say...that I rather love you. XD <3

[lillkutty007]

brillant!beauty of the english language

[richardgwyn]

Brilliant, they don't make 'em like this anymore.

[sirenbrian]

Compare the way he delivers this speech to the way he does the long speeches in the show. His eyes don't move. He's reading this off cue cards, but he memorized the ones given in the show. This was a one-off sketch for a Xmas telethon or something, so wouldn't have had much rehearsal times.

One of my favourite characters, no doubt, and Nigel Hawthorne played him so well.

[videoloopproject]

my favorite

[icecrystal2k]

I'm putting all that on my Christmas cards this year.

I adore this show.

[kellybundy1000]

WONDERFUL!!! SIR HUMPHREY IS THE GREATEST!!! DECEMBER 27TH IS MY BIRTHDAY AND I GOT THE SWEETEST GIFT!!! THANK YOU FOR PLACING THIS VIDEO! I STILL KEEP LAUGHING! IT MADE ME VERY, VERY HAPPY. THANK YOU!

[AEilleenH]

Gotta love the Brit sense of humor !

[sford605]

Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister are unrivaled masterpieces!

[1979LITTLEMISS]

Brilliant! Top marks to Sir Nigel for memorising this speech, and also, don't forget, to the writers who created this masterpiece in the first place.

[BubblesPothowari]

Fantastic !!!!!

Reminds me of the line from One who flew over the Cuckoo's nest,

"Cut the BS, get to the point."

[davidjohan99]

In tears of laughter as I write this!! Just sooooo brilliant & wonderfully funny :-)

[Archangel3583]

Good Lord! Brilliant!

[leeyuiwah]

... and submit to you, with all appropriate deference, for your consideration at a convenient juncture, a sincere and sanguine expectation — indeed confidence — indeed one might go so far as to say hope — that the aforementioned period may be, at the end of the day, when all relevant factors have been taken into consideration, susceptible to being deemed to be such as to merit a final verdict of having been by no means unsatisfactory in its overall outcome and, ...

[AliceTRoyal]

@leeyuiwah When I first saw this I thought it was so brilliant that I typed it out so I could send it to my friends when christmas rolled around and pass it off as something I'd come up with....

....and then I realized you'd already typed out the whole thing and I could have just copy-pasted. Damn.

[131pavel]

@AliceTRoyal

Don't know whether all you guys know this, But Nigel Hawthorne AKA Sir Humphrey Appleby actually did most of these long rhetorical speeches in one take. AMAZING

[leeyuiwah]

I wonder if I might crave your momentary indulgence in order to discharge a by no means disagreeable obligation which has, over the years, become more or less established practice in government service as we approach the terminal period of the year — calendar, of course, not financial — in fact, not to put too fine a point on it, Week Fifty-One — ...

[dharmaseed]

Un- BeLIEVEable!!!

[tfan68]

Brilliant bit

Don't forget that Nigel actually MEMORIZED this stuff

[1958plymouth440V8]

Yeah, he's absolutely FANTASTIC.

[CurtHowland]

@tfan68 No, he didn't. Not all of it, anyway.

Look at his eyes at :37 and before while he's leaning on the desk, he is clearly looking directly under the camera at cue cards. At :45, after blinking, he shifts his eyes directly to the Minister, a distinctly different angle.

I don't mean to belittle Nigel Hawthorn's spectacular performance as Applebee, just that this is a weekly comedy, not Shakespeare. There is no -purpose- served by memorizing something that is only done once.

[KittyKattyYukiLvr]

@CurtHowland This was a one-off, not the weekly show.

[CurtHowland]

@KittyKattyYukiLvr Then take what I said and look at the WEEKLY EPISODES of Yes, Minister.

Yes, this particular episode is a one-off. Yes, Minister, Yes, Prime Minister and Yes, My Lord were not one-offs.

[jinXeD546933]

@tfan68 Well he could as well read it.