Customer Reviews
An excellent sequel to Yes Minister - By: R Cunningham, 12 Mar 2007 
Building on the successful Yes Minister, Yes Prime Minister could hardly have gone wrong. Just as in Yes Minister, the writing is superb & the acting by Eddington, Hawthorne & Fowlds is excellent. With Hacker becoming PM, the dynamics of the show changed quite considerably. Despite swapping the setting from the Department of Administrative Affairs to 10 Downing Street, some things remain the same: that Sir Humphrey is always in the know & is battling against Hacker's grand ideas. This show provides a witty insight into the life of the PM & reveals that despite being in the most powerful position in UK government, Hacker actuallly has very little power indeed.
"Salami tactics, slice by slice"!! - By: Jose, 20 Jul 2006 Just human behaviour at its best. To enjoy with friends & pizza. It's true the double sided dvd doesnt make sense & requires extra care to avoid damages, but unless you bought this set at full price, I think the value justifies the problems.
Great fun! - By: Kalah, 13 Jul 2006 
In this first series we are introduced to the PM who has risen to power by what must have been either accident or by having a mass of conservatives in the back. Hacker has grand plans, which are continously thwarted by the industrious civil servant Humphrey. Some times he wins, other times he has the civil service on the run. This back-and-forth struggle for influence makes for great parody; an image of how we alll think politicians are, yet should strive not to be.
The magnificent trio (Hacker, Humphry & Bernard) play their little games & as arguments go back & forth & you are having a more & more difficult time following the intricate dialogue, you suddenly realize you have been chuckling to yourself the whole episode.
Vintage political satire - By: B. Cunningham, 15 Apr 2006 By this point, the writers Jay & Lynn had concocted a well oiled comedy machine, & the move to number 10 added a new dimension to an already classic sitcom. Eddington, Hawthorne & Fowlds had now perfected their respective roles to a tee, delivering a masterclass of comic timing & making it a joy to watch from first to last. But, the point of interest is again Hackers progession from desperate,inexperienced minister into relatively experienced PM, on a much more equal footing with Sir Humphrey which provides some of the series' best moments. This is evident in 'The Key' in which Hacker pulls the strings, running the usuallly unflappable Humphrey ragged for the entire episode. Highly recommended, & rightly a national institution in the 1980's.
Double-sided double-talk - By: Louise Stanley, 07 Nov 2005 I'm glad that the DVD is double-sided - since I rented this through Amazon's scheme, I only had to pay for one DVD rather than two. So there are some advantages!
This could not be made today. Political comedy never had it so good - this was before the Thatcher revolution made comedy writers (such as Andy Hamilton & Armando Iannucci) indignant & prey to overt politicisation in sitcoms (e.g. The New Statesman, Drop The Dead Donkey). Thankfully, although the series deals with familiar geopolitical issues (for example nuclear weapons, the Soviet threat & infiltration by the KGB - Humphrey? A spy?! - & the Falklands conflict is mentioned in passing) it stays clear of hot topics in favour of the clever words & general issues surrounding British politicians & bureaucrats in general. Armando Iannucci made a brilliant contribution to the Britain's Best Sitcom series two years ago which juxtaposed Hacker with Blair, Howard, & the rest of them, proving that although the issues may have changed, the politicians themselves have not - & we can only guess what has happened to Sir Humphrey, but doubtless he is still chuckling to himself behind the scenes as yet another minister is caught red-handed & packed off back to the back-benches.
Although the verbiage sometimes takes over, there is enough variety in the episodes to make it pleasant, relaxing watching (though I gather Nigel Hawthorne had to take beta-blockers to relieve the stress of learning alll those horrendous monologues!). I always enjoy the one about the Downing Street cook, & Hacker even dabbles in Church of England politics as he is callled upon to appoint a new Bishop - who preferably believes in God.
This is highly recommended to anyone interested in the way Britain does things, even though it may seem rather quaint talking about the Russian threat.
