The Right Honorable James Hacker has landed the plum job of Cabinet Minister to the Department of Administration. At last he is in a position of power and can carry out some long-needed refo... Read allThe Right Honorable James Hacker has landed the plum job of Cabinet Minister to the Department of Administration. At last he is in a position of power and can carry out some long-needed reforms, or so he thinks.The Right Honorable James Hacker has landed the plum job of Cabinet Minister to the Department of Administration. At last he is in a position of power and can carry out some long-needed reforms, or so he thinks.
- Won 5 BAFTA Awards
- 6 wins & 3 nominations total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe writers had advisors who worked within the government and many of the stories were based on real situations. For example, in season three, episode four, "The Moral Dimension", they go to an Arab country where alcohol is not allowed, and so they set up a "communications room" in the embassy where they keep a stash of booze so they could slip out and have a drink. This really happened.
- GoofsDuring the train sequence in "The Official Visit", a close-up shows that the warning notice on the wall is written in gibberish.
- Quotes
Bernard Woolley: It makes me feel rather downcast. If it's our job to implement Government Policies, shouldn't we believe in them?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: What an extraordinary thing to say.
Bernard Woolley: Why?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Bernard, I have served 11 Governments in the last 30 years, if I believed in all their policies, I would have been passionately commited to keeping out of the Common Market and passionately committed to going into it, I would've been utterly convinced of the rightness of Nationalising Steel, and of denationalising it, and renationalising it. On Capital Punishment I would have been a fervent retentionist and an ardent Abolitionist, I would have been a Keynesian and a Friedmanite, a Grammar School Destroyer and Preserver, a Nationalisation Freak and a Privatisation Maniac, but above all, I would have been a stark, staring, raving Schizophrenic!
- Alternate versionsThe pilot version of the first episode, "Open Government", was released on the UK DVD release of Series 1. It differs from the broadcast version in having different, cheaper-looking titles and different theme music (composed by Max Harris with Sidney Margo).
- ConnectionsFeatured in Zomergasten: Episode #8.4 (1995)