The Complete Yes Prime Minister: The Diaries of the Right Hon.James Hacker by Lynn, Jonathan, Jay, Sir Anthony (June 1, 1989) Paperback Paperback

This book covers the episodes of the TV series Yes Prime Minister and is a must for any fan. It highlights the comic genius of Jay & Lynn. Do yourself a favour and buy it. You won't be sorry

Taking the form of transcribed recordings, diary entries, private letters and explanatory footnotes, as well as a few news headlines from the series, it is a romp through the first year in office of well-meaning, slightly-baffled, fictional Prime Minister, Jim Hacker and his civil service advisors: the loquacious and long-winded smoothie, Sir Humphrey Appleby, and kindly, service-translator, Bernard Wooley.Having arrived at 10 Downing Street, Jim wants to maintain his popularity (no mean feat) in order to ensure his re-election, all the while learning that real power is not all it’s cracked up to be, and trying to understand the double-speak of high office.When I was growing up, Yes Minister and its sequel, Yes Prime Minister were repeated with some regularity on TV. Arguably a lot of the concepts and asides were far beyond me (I was about seven or eight years old), but I remember loving the way Sir Humphrey would explain something in terribly lofty language and the most beautiful speaking voice heard anywhere (Nigel Hawthorne was quite something), and Jim (the equally wonderful Paul Eddington) would be just as perplexed as I was.Many of us remember the “Probably” speech with much affection. It, and many other memorable moments are faithfully recreated here. I was delighted to find myself reading on my sofa and hearing the actors' voices in my head.A couple of typos but not enough to mar the reading of this tremendous book.“Humphrey’s enthusiasm for Trident knows no bounds. ‘But don’t you see, Prime Minister - with Trident we could obliterate the whole of Eastern Europe!’“I don’t want to obliterate the whole of Eastern Europe. I told him so. He nodded impatiently. He knew that. He thought I was missing the point. ‘It has to be an effective deterrent, Prime Minister.’“ ‘But it’s a bluff,’ I told him. ‘I probably wouldn’t use it.’“ 'They don’t KNOW that you probably wouldn’t use it,’ he argued.“ ’They probably do,’ I said.“ He was forced to agree. ‘Yes… they PROBABLY know that you probably wouldn’t. But they can’t CERTAINLY know.’“He’s right about that. But they don’t have to certainly know. ’They PROBABLY certainly know that I probably wouldn’t,’ I said.“ ‘Yes,’ he agreed, ‘but even thought they PROBABLY certainly know that you probably wouldn’t, they don’t CERTAINLY know that although you PROBABLY wouldn’t, there is NO PROBABILITY that you certainly would.’“Bernard was taking careful minutes. It’s lucky he does shorthand and was able to reconstruct this conversation for me in writing by the end of the day.”16% in, Chapter Two - The Grand Design, The Complete Yes Prime Minister by Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay

N.B. This review includes both “Yes, Minister” and “Yes, Prime Minister”.As an avid fan of the “Yes, Minister” and “Yes, Prime Minister” TV series, I was somewhat hesitant when it came to reading these books. I thought it was not possible for the books be as entertaining, complex and well-paced as was the series. But now that I have read them, I must say that they really are quite excellent. (Probably because the writers of the TV series also wrote the books, so the spirit and tone of the original work has been beautifully preserved.)My main concern before reading the books, was the fact that they were written from Minister Hacker’s point-of-view, but that turned out to be a very good choice, because he really is the one person who is as clueless as we readers are about the workings of the Civil Service – so who better to give voice to our confusion and questions. (And to be inside Sir Humphrey’s head the whole book, would have been, I think, quite scary.)But to those who like the clever Civil Service men best, there are some treats as well. Sir Humphrey’s memos and minutes, “The Appleby papers”, are there to clarify his thinking and the things that went on behind the Minister’s back. And every once in a while, even Bernard comments on the past events. So, in a way, we get all the witty banter form the original series, and also some new insight into the characters’ minds.And the books are not just the scripts of the episodes, though of course the main focus is to create the same situations as in the TV series. But it seems that the writers have had the chance to put in the books all the things that were cut from the series. So there are new jokes and further observations on issues there to amuse the readers.So if you liked the TV series, or like clever satirical political parodies, or just want a beginner’s course in the machinations of the British government, do read these books! They are a lovely addition to the original series.

For those of us who watched the television series (in the UK and the US), own the DVDs, and read the books, having the complete audio collection is a wonderful addition. I find the audio collection very relaxing nighttime listening, like "old time radio" even if only from the 1980s.Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister are very perceptive satire and perhaps political philosophy. Thirty years later, there's still relevance even if politics (and the world) have gotten much more cynical. While great television, very little, if anything, is lost listening to the audio. Some of the recordings are audios from the television, others are specialized BBC radio broadcasts. The latter are probably just a little better for listening as they add the odd extra word or description for the visual cue from the television.The packaging of this and other large CD sets as a bunch of CDs held in place by a rod and no other description is an unfortunate trend. However, this series does include on the first CD a PDF document you can print for details on each disk. This is helpful.

Finally released in digital form for Kindle. However a few "niggles" if you have an older kindle, all of the pages where there are notes such as the author has included, these are not centred - shifted right. This makes reading them difficult. Shame that this was missed during proof reading. Hope that this will be fixed for future updates.

maybe even better on the page

Brilliantly written displaying a deep knowledge on how the system actually works. When people accuse politicians of being out of touch, this helps explain why. The people who advise them tend to be living in a bubble of their own and in the genius creation of Sir Humphrey Appleby, the authors created a perfert example of this.

(Just to avoid confusion, this is about the "original" series back in 1986-1987, not the recent version.)I must admit that i bought the book just to see if my memories of the TV show were accurate. Where it really as good as i remembered it? I am happy to say that for me the answer were a resounding "Yes".The battles between a reform eager PM James Hacker usually staunchly opposed by the cabinet secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby with the PMs private secretary Bernard Wolley occasionally getting caught in the middle are all pretty much written and executed with pure brilliance.Even the Iron Lady herself, Margaret Thatcher, the actual British PM during the series run said that she enjoyed the show very much and it had quite a lot of similarities with the real thing. Somehow i expected that someone with a quote like; “You don’t tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.” would love this show.I admit i see this through nostalgic eyes, but as i read it i could see the story in my minds eye. I heartily recommend it if you like British humor.Here is a taste:James Hacker: I know exactly who reads the papers. The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country. The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country. The Times is read by people who actually do run the country. The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country. The Financial Times is read by people who own the country. The Morning Star is read by the people who think the country should be run by another country. And the Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.Sir Humphrey Appleby: Prime Minister, what about the people who read the Sun?Bernard Woolley: The Sun readers don't care who runs the country, as long as she's got big tits.

Un libro con un humor ingles inmejorable

Must read for all who are discerning