}
Jim Hacker ,
Bernard Woolley and
Jim Hacker The Right Honourable Jim Hacker MP (
Paul Eddington), eventually elevated to the
House of Lords as Lord Hacker of Islington, was the editor of a newspaper called
Reform before going into politics. He spent a good deal of time in Parliament on the Opposition benches before his party won a general election, including serving as the Shadow Secretary for Agriculture. In
Yes Minister, he is the minister for administrative affairs (a fictitious ministry of the British government) and a cabinet minister, and in
Yes, Prime Minister he becomes the
prime minister of the United Kingdom. Hacker received his degree from the
London School of Economics (graduating with a
Third), for which he is often derided by the Oxford-educated Sir Humphrey (who attended "Baillie College", a thinly veiled reference to the real
Balliol College, graduating with a First in Classics). His early character is that of a gung-ho, but naïve, politician, bringing sweeping changes to his department. Before long, Hacker begins to notice that Civil Service tactics are preventing his planned changes being put into practice. As he learns, he becomes more sly and cynical, using some of the Civil Service ruses himself. While Sir Humphrey initially held all the aces, Hacker now and again plays a trump card of his own and thus scores the occasional victory over Sir Humphrey. Throughout
Yes Minister, Hacker, at his worst, is portrayed as a publicity-seeking bungler who is incapable of making a firm decision. He is prone to potentially embarrassing blunders, and is a frequent target of criticism from the
press and stern lectures from the
Chief Whip. However, he is also shown to be relatively politically savvy, and he slowly becomes more aware of Sir Humphrey's real agenda. In
Yes, Prime Minister, Hacker becomes more statesmanlike. He practises more grandiose speeches, dreams up his "Grand Design" and hones his diplomatic skills. Nearly all of these efforts land him in trouble. In a
Radio Times interview to promote
Yes, Prime Minister, Paul Eddington stated, "He's beginning to find his feet as a man of power, and he's begun to confound those who thought they'd be able to manipulate him out of hand."
Sir Humphrey Appleby Sir Humphrey Appleby (
Nigel Hawthorne) serves throughout the series as
permanent secretary under his minister, Jim Hacker at the Department of Administrative Affairs. He is appointed Cabinet secretary just as Hacker's party enters a leadership crisis, and is instrumental in Hacker's elevation to prime minister. He is committed to maintaining the
status quo for the country in general and for the
Civil Service in particular.
Bernard Woolley Bernard Woolley,
MA (Oxon) (
Derek Fowlds) is Jim Hacker's
Principal Private Secretary. His loyalties are often split between his Minister and his Civil Service boss, Sir Humphrey. Whilst in theory he is personally responsible to Hacker, in practice it is Sir Humphrey who writes his performance reviews and influences his Civil Service career. He usually handles these situations well, and maintains his reputation in the Civil Service as a "high flier" as opposed to a "low flier supported by occasional gusts of wind." Woolley is always quick to point out the physical impossibilities of Sir Humphrey's or Hacker's
mixed metaphors, with almost obsessive
pedantry. He can occasionally appear rather childlike, by making animal noises and gestures or by acting out how such an analogy cannot work, which sometimes annoys his Minister. Woolley tends to side with Hacker when new policies are announced, because they seem radical or democratic, only for Sir Humphrey to point out the disadvantages to the status quo and the civil service in particular. To sway Bernard, Sir Humphrey uses phrases such as "barbarism" and "the beginning of the end". At times when Sir Humphrey fails to get his way, Woolley can be seen smiling smugly at him over his defeat. As Hacker awaits confirmation of his elevation to Prime Minister, he asks Woolley to join him in Downing Street as his principal private secretary, which Sir Humphrey endorses, thus keeping the trio together. In a 2004 retrospective,
Armando Iannucci commented that Fowlds had a difficult task because he had to "spend most of his time saying nothing but looking interested in everyone else's total and utter guff" but "his one line frequently had to be the funniest of the lot." Iannucci suggests that Woolley is essential to the structure of the show because both Hacker and Appleby confide in him, "which means we get to find out what they're plotting next."
Other recurring characters The series featured a cast of recurring characters. • Frank Weisel (often deprecatingly pronounced
weasel) — played by Neil Fitzwiliam in the television series, whereas he is voiced by
Bill Nighy in the radio series adaptations — is Hacker's crusading, idealistic
political advisor in the first series. The less scrupulous Hacker finds him rather tiresome after a time, while Sir Humphrey finds him positively loathsome from the outset. In the final scene of the last episode of the first series, Weisel is sent on a deliberately lengthy worldwide fact-finding assignment to learn about
quangos to ensure a set of politically face-saving quango appointments and to prevent his publication of a quango reform white paper. He does not appear in and is not mentioned in any later series. • Dorothy Wainwright, special advisor to the prime minister, played by
Deborah Norton. Wainwright is rather more down-to-earth than Weisel, and rarely takes the bait when provoked. Also unlike Weisel, she knows Sir Humphrey's tricks and is able to give the Prime Minister instant and practical advice how to get past his manipulations. Sir Humphrey is aware of this and sees her as a genuine rival rather than a mere irritant. He usually condescendingly addresses her as "Dear Lady", rather than using her name. Earlier Prime Ministerial advisors had appeared from time to time in episodes of
Yes Minister, including Daniel Moynihan as Daniel Hughes in "The Writing on the Wall" (1980) and
Nigel Stock as Sir Mark Spencer in "Bed of Nails" (1982). In the later stage play and 2013 television revival, Hacker's young advisor, Claire Sutton, had a larger role than any of her predecessors. • Hacker also has a
Press Secretary, Bill Pritchard, played by Antony Carrick. Pritchard is seen in a total of five widely spaced episodes, spanning the run of both series. A second Press Secretary, Malcolm Warren (played by
Barry Stanton), appears in two episodes of the first series of
Yes Prime Minister. Meanwhile, Sir Humphrey's Civil Service colleagues were also regularly featured. They include: • Sir Arnold Robinson (played by
John Nettleton), Cabinet Secretary in
Yes Minister and later (after his retirement from the civil service) President of the
Campaign for Freedom of Information in
Yes, Prime Minister. The reserved, dignified Sir Arnold is a master manipulator, to whom Sir Humphrey often turns for counsel, even after he retires and has no reason to frequent Whitehall any more. In many ways, Sir Arnold acts as a mentor to Sir Humphrey, especially as the two men are evidently of the same social class and share many of the same political views and support the idea that it is really the Civil Service running the government, rather than the ministers themselves. Like Sir Humphrey, he is also seen wearing the tie of Balliol College, Oxford. He is generally able to be seen as everything one can read into Sir Humphrey himself, but taken to even further extremes. • Sir Frederick Stewart (played by
John Savident in the television series, whereas he is voiced by
Peter Cellier in the radio series adaptations), Permanent Secretary of the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, known as "Jumbo" to his friends. A friendly confidant of Sir Humphrey, but seen only during the first series. • Sir Ian Whitchurch (played by
John Barron), Permanent Secretary to the
Department of Health and Social Security. He is similarly detached from the realities of the world as most other high ranking civil servants in the series, evidenced by his acceptance that "it's possible" that a newly built hospital will cater to patients eventually - "certainly our present intention". • Sir Richard Wharton (played by
Donald Pickering), a later Permanent Secretary to the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It is not known whether or not he replaced Jumbo directly. Unlike many of Sir Humphrey's peers, Sir Richard is generally portrayed as both competent and realistic in his approach. • Sir Frank Gordon, who appears in both
Yes Minister and
Yes, Prime Minister as Permanent Secretary to the
Treasury (played by
Peter Cellier). Due to his position, he is occasionally recognised by Sir Humphrey as a genuine threat to his own career ambitions, Sir Frank is a smooth, confident, well-mannered manipulator out for his own ends. • Sir Humphrey also has an old acquaintance, Sir Desmond Glazebrook (played by
Richard Vernon), who is Board member, then chairman, of Bartlett's Bank. Glazebrook is an amiably vague fellow of impeccable respectability, very little actual financial knowledge, and no fixed opinions on anything. Hacker appointed him Governor of the
Bank of England in the
Yes, Prime Minister episode "
A Conflict of Interest", in order to avoid a financial collapse of
the City. Hacker's family: • His wife, Annie Hacker (played by
Diana Hoddinott), who appears in multiple episodes on both series. • His daughter, Lucy (played by
Gerry Cowper), who only appears on-screen in one episode ("
The Right to Know") as an environmental campaigner, but who is mentioned intermittently throughout. By the time of
Yes, Prime Minister, she is a student at the
University of Sussex (which Hacker likens to a
kibbutz). • In "
Party Games", Hacker implies that he and Annie have more than one child, though there is no mention of this anywhere else. Others: • Lady Appleby, Sir Humphrey's wife, is mentioned on occasion, seen only briefly from behind (in an uncredited, non-speaking appearance) in "
Big Brother", and never given a first name. • Various
Chief Whips, usually acting in
Yes Minister as a "gatekeeper" to the unseen prime minister. The first Chief Whip, Vic Gould, was played by
Edward Jewesbury in two episodes of
Yes Minister. Gould was initially intended to be a more prominent character in the series, as the writers thought he would continually force Hacker to pursue policies unappealing to Sir Humphrey, and thus lead to greater conflict. They quickly found that Gould's character was largely unnecessary, and that the Hacker/Sir Humphrey conflicts worked just as well without him. In "Party Games", a later Chief Whip, played by
James Grout and identified as "Jeffrey", conspires with Sir Humphrey to ensure that Hacker becomes prime minister. In two episodes of
Yes, Prime Minister, Jeffrey is now played by
Peter Cartwright. (In the novelizations, the character is given the full name of Jeffrey Pearson.) Jeffrey is clueless about an alleged Cabinet plot against the prime minister ... because there is none, and Hacker is pursuing a false trail laid by Sir Humphrey. • Hacker's chauffeur, George (
Arthur Cox), appeared in five episodes. He is a character who is always more in touch with current events than is the minister – anything from empty
NHS hospitals to
Cabinet reshuffles. This often irritates Hacker who, when he asks George where the information came from, is usually told that it is common knowledge among the Whitehall drivers. • Tom Sargent (
Robert Urquhart), Hacker's predecessor as Minister for Administrative Affairs in the previous government, made one appearance in the episode "
Big Brother". He told Hacker about the Civil Service's five-step stalling technique and a white paper drafted for the introduction of safeguards for an integrated government database. • Dr. Richard Cartwright (played by
Ian Lavender) is a civil service under-secretary in the Department for Administrative Affairs who shows a great expertise in the affairs of local government, and shares that expertise with Hacker—much to Sir Humphrey's displeasure. Hacker seeks out Cartwright's advice directly in "
The Challenge" and "
The Skeleton in the Cupboard", with such potentially disastrous consequences (at least for Sir Humphrey) that Sir Humphrey hints at Cartwright's being moved to another job as a result. • Eileen (Miranda Forbes) is a secretary in Sir Humphrey's office, usually seen ushering guests in. She is seen in four episodes of
Yes, Prime Minister. • Well-known broadcasters who played themselves included
Robert McKenzie,
Ludovic Kennedy and
Sue Lawley.
Robert Dougall regularly played a newsreader, which was his own real-life profession. Among other newscasters,
Nicholas Witchell can be heard reporting on Hacker's visit to a school in "
The National Education Service" and
Sophie Raworth is seen on television in the 2013 revival. ==Production==