Woolley is the Principal Private Secretary to the Minister for Administrative Affairs (a fictional office), and later Prime Minister, Jim Hacker. However, his loyalties are split between his Minister and his Civil Service boss, Sir
Humphrey Appleby. Whilst he is theoretically accountable to Hacker personally, it is Sir Humphrey who writes his performance reviews and apparently wields influence over Bernard's future in the Civil Service, leading to difficult situations for the young civil servant. When Hacker asks his Private Secretary where his loyalty would lie when the chips were down, Woolley replies, "Minister, it's my job to see the chips stay up." His background is not revealed to any great extent, though it is revealed that he, like Sir Humphrey, is an
Oxford graduate. In Episode 4 of Series 3 of
Yes Minister, and Episode 5 of Series 1 of
Yes, Prime Minister, Woolley is shown wearing a
Magdalen College, Oxford tie, suggesting that he attended that college. (The novelisation, in an apparent mistake, refers to Bernard at one point as a graduate of
Cambridge, but later follows the series in confirming that he attended Oxford. There is, however, no problem in suggesting that he attended both.) In addition, several areas of specialist knowledge surface from time to time: one example arises in "
The Greasy Pole" where, while discussing the possible political dangers of building a chemical facility in
Liverpool (to manufacture the fictional compound "metadioxin"), Woolley is quick to remind Sir Humphrey that
Greek, unlike
Latin, has no
ablative case. (Bernard may, like Sir Humphrey, have read
Literae Humaniores, but equally a basic knowledge of Greek and Latin may merely suggest a standard classical schooling.) As with the other principal characters in the series, both actor and character have the same date of birth. This means that Bernard is in his mid- to late-forties during the series. Bernard is also married: in the
Yes, Prime Minister episode "
The Key", he declares that he does not give the key to his house to his mother-in-law. However, his wife never appears in the series. Woolley, like the Minister and Sir Humphrey, progresses through the series, especially in his understanding of political mastery. In the last scene of "
The Tangled Web", the final episode of
Yes, Prime Minister, Woolley, of his own accord, both saves Sir Humphrey from public embarrassment and gives Hacker a lasting weapon to use against him, by acquiring a tape of Sir Humphrey describing the British public in many unpleasant ways, spoken off the record after a radio interview. This act of service to the Prime Minister can be seen as the final result of many series' wrestling between the two competing loyalties. Throughout both series, Bernard is the only civil servant portrayed with any sense of conscience, seeking constantly to justify his actions to himself. In the final episode, therefore, he realises that his principal loyalty must be to Hacker, and his intervention in the crisis is crucial in saving Hacker's political reputation and in ensuring that the Cabinet Secretary, like any other civil servant, remains a "humble functionary".
Later career In the
novelisations of the series, it is stated that Bernard eventually rises to the post of Head of the Home Civil Service and is appointed a
Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (GCB). The novels take the form of diaries written by Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby's personal papers (said to have been donated to Oxford University after his death). Bernard himself contributes in interviews with the authors, suggesting that he lives to at least 2024, the supposed publication date of the fifth and final book. However, in the 2023 stage play "I'm Sorry, Prime Minister, I Can't Quite Remember...", it states that Bernard died three years before the events of the play, which take place in 2023, putting his death in 2020 - the same year as Derek Fowlds' death. ==Character==