With Diana Hoddinott (Annie Hacker), John Fortune and Edward Jewesbury.
Produced and directed by Peter Whitmore.
The Middle-Class Rip-Off (23.12.1982)
With John Nettleton (Sir Arnold Robinson), John Barron, Patrick O’Connell, Derek Benfield and Joanna Henderson.
Produced and directed by Peter Whitmore.
SPECIAL (BBC1)
Untitled two-minute sketch in The Funny Side of Christmas (27.12.1982)
SPECIAL (BBC2)
Party Games (17.12.1984)
With John Nettleton (Sir Arnold Robinson), Diana Hoddinott (Annie Hacker), James Grout, Peter Jeffrey, Philip Stone, André Maranne, Ludovic Kennedy, Anthony Pedley, David Warwick, Laura Calland, Roger Davidson, David Howey, Bernard Losh, Roger Ostime, John Pennington, Martyn Read and Rex Robinson.
Produced and directed by Peter Whitmore.
YES, PRIME MINISTER (BBC2)
Main regular credits: written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn; drawings by Gerald Scarfe; theme music by Ronnie Hazlehurst.
Main regular cast: Paul Eddington (Jim Hacker), Nigel Hawthorne (Sir Humphrey Appleby), Derek Fowlds (Bernard Woolley).
SERIES 1
The Grand Design (09.01.1986)
With Diana Hoddinott (Annie Hacker), Barry Stanton (Malcolm Warren), Frederick Treves, Oscar Quitak, Jonathan Stephens and Miranda Forbes.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
The Ministerial Broadcast (16.01.1986)
With Barry Stanton (Malcolm Warren), John Wells, Brian Gwaspari and Carolyn Lyster.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
The Smoke Screen (23.01.1986)
With Peter Cellier (Sir Frank), John Barron, Clive Merrison, Bill Wallis and Brian Hawksley.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
The Key (30.01.1986)
With Deborah Norton (Dorothy Wainwright), Peter Cellier (Sir Frank) and Victor Winding.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
A Real Partnership (06.02.1986)
With Diana Hoddinott (Annie Hacker), John Nettleton (Sir Arnold), Peter Cellier (Sir Frank) and Deborah Norton (Dorothy Wainwright).
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
A Victory for Democracy (13.02.1986)
With Clive Francis, Ronald Hines, Donald Pickering and David de Keyser.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
The Bishop’s Gambit (20.02.1986)
With Diana Hoddinott (Annie Hacker), Ronnie Stevens, Frank Middlemass, William Fox and Donald Pickering.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
One of Us (27.02.1986)
With John Nettleton (Sir Arnold), Diana Hoddinott (Annie Hacker), Michael Aldridge, John Normington, Miranda Forbes and Martin Muncaster.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
SERIES 2
Man Overboard (03.12.1987)
With John Nettleton (Sir Arnold), Frederick Treves, Michael Byrne, Peter Cartwright, David Glover, David Conville, Philip Anthony, Philip Blaine, Geoffrey Cousins and Hilary Field.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
Official Secrets (10.12.1987)
With Antony Carrick, Jeffry Wickham, Denis Lill, Tom Bowles, Sadie Hamilton, James Newall and Michael Shallard.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
A Diplomatic Incident (17.12.1987)
With Diana Hoddinott (Annie Hacker), Christopher Benjamin, Alan Downer, Robert East, Mansel David, Nicholas Courtney, Bill Bailey, David King, Raymond Brody and William Lawford.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
A Conflict of Interest (23.12.1987)
With Deborah Norton (Dorothy Wainwright), Peter Cellier (Sir Frank), Richard Vernon, Louis Mahoney and Miranda Forbes.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
Power to the People (07.01.1988)
With Deborah Norton (Dorothy Wainwright), John Nettleton (Sir Arnold), Diana Hoddinott (Annie Hacker), Gwen Taylor, Jonathan Adams and Miranda Forbes.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
The Patron of the Arts (14.01.1988)
With Deborah Norton (Dorothy Wainwright), Diana Hoddinott (Annie Hacker), John Bird, Antony Carrick, Geoffrey Beevers, Martin Milman, Myfanwy Talog, David Rose and Guy Standeven.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
The National Education Service (21.01.1988)
With Deborah Norton (Dorothy Wainwright), John Nettleton (Sir Arnold), Diana Hoddinott (Annie Hacker), Peter Cartwright and Jerome Willis.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
The Tangled Web (28.01.1988)
With Ludovic Kennedy and Geoffrey Drew.
Produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby.
YES, PRIME MINISTER (GOLD)
Main regular credits: written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn; drawings by Gerald Scarfe; theme music by Ronnie Hazlehurst.
Main regular cast: David Haig (Jim Hacker), Henry Goodman (Sir Humphrey Appleby), Chris Larkin (Bernard Woolley), Zoe Telford (Claire Hutton).
SERIES 1
Crisis at the Summit (15.01.2013)
With Tim Wallers, Chandrika Chevli, Sophie Raworth and Chris Fawkes.
Produced and directed by Jonathan Lynn and Gareth Gwenlan.
The Poisoned Chalice (22.01.2013)
With Pip Torrens, Sevan Stephan, Sam Dastor and Sara Carver.
Produced and directed by Jonathan Lynn and Gareth Gwenlan.
Gentleman’s Agreement (29.01.2013)
With Edward Baker-Duly.
Produced and directed by Jonathan Lynn and Gareth Gwenlan.
A Diplomatic Dilemma (05.02.2013)
With Sam Dastor.
Produced and directed by Jonathan Lynn and Gareth Gwenlan.
Scot Free (12.02.2013)
With Robbie Coltrane, Tim Wallers and Ilan Goodman.
Produced and directed by Jonathan Lynn and Gareth Gwenlan.
A Tsar is Born (19.02.2013)
With Tim Wallers and Sam Dastor.
Produced and directed by Jonathan Lynn and Gareth Gwenlan.
Acknowledgements
This book was Sam Harrison’s courageous decision. He believed in it, and in me, enough to wait a remarkably long time until I was available to write it, and I am so grateful to him for his faith, his patience and his support.
I must thank Sir Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, of course, for their cooperation and insights. It was a pleasure to spend so much time reflecting on their extraordinary achievement.
I am also pleased to thank Kathryn Ferguson for ensuring that all of our various communications reached the right destinations. Her courteousness was as impressive as her competence.
Derek Fowlds could not have been more helpful, or more encouraging. It is always a delight to find that someone is as decent and kind as he is talented.
Sydney Lotterby was similarly enlightening. Probably the greatest producer/director of British sitcoms, his modesty is as notable as his talent.
Lord Donoughue was an invaluable, and very entertaining, interviewee. He is proof of the fact that the writers were as shrewd in their choice of ally as they were in their choice of opponent.
I am also grateful to all of the other people who provided assistance, advice and insights from within Westminster, including David Blunkett, Laurence Mann and Chris McCarthy, along with those who preferred to remain anonymous. The fact that several of my former students are now working within Whitehall was also rather welcome.
I must thank Lord Kinnock for the use of his and Patricia Hewitt’s Yes Minister sketch, and Sir Bernard Ingham for Margaret Thatcher’s Yes Minister routine. No complementary Liberal, SDP or Lib-Dem sitcom skit, alas, was available for inclusion.
Valerie Warrender proved a fascinating source of information regarding the remarkable work that went into transforming bare studio sets into uncannily accurate replicas of the rooms inside Nu
mber Ten. She epitomises the brilliance of the team behind the scenes.
A number of friends, now sadly departed, deserve to be acknowledged here for the many insights they gave me about television, sitcoms and the BBC: John Ammonds, Eddie Braben, Richard Briers, Jonathan Cecil, Sir Bill Cotton, David Croft, John Howard Davies and Eric Sykes. They were genuinely kind and generous people, as well as expert in their arts, and I remain indebted to all of them.
I must also record my thanks to the staff of the following institutions: the Office of Black Rod; the BBC Written Archives Centre (especially Jessica Hogg); the National Archives; the British Library, Newspaper Library and Sound Archive; the British Film Institute Library; the Albert Sloman Library, the University of Essex; the Churchill College Cambridge Archive; and the University of Cambridge Library.
My agent, Mic Cheetham, was as helpful as ever. She made the whole process so much easier than it might have been.
My mother, as always, was a constant source of encouragement. There is no adequate way to express it, but my gratitude is immense.
Finally, my heartfelt thanks go to Silvana Dean, whose friendship is such a privilege. This book is for her.
Graham McCann
Cambridge 2014
Notes
Prologue
Frontispiece quotations:
Thomas Paine: The Age of Reason (New York: Dover, 2004), Chapter XVII, p. 76
Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution (London: Fontana, 1993), p. 251
Harold Macmillan: Letter to Reginald Bevins, the Postmaster General, 10 December 1962
1 Although microphones were added to the new Commons Chamber when it reopened in 1950 (after bomb damage during the war), it would take another thirty-eight years before they were used on a regular basis. In 1975, MPs backed the idea of public radio broadcasting and a month-long experiment began on 9 June of that year (television broadcasts were rejected by a margin of twelve votes). Following a report from the Services Committee on the experiment, MPs debated it on 8 and 16 March 1976, and voted for radio broadcasting on a permanent basis. Radio recording of proceedings within the House of Commons commenced on 3 April 1978, although only isolated occasions, such as Prime Minister’s Questions or the Budget, actually went out live on the BBC and commercial radio stations, with the BBC broadcasting a summary of proceedings at the end of each day. In 1983, the House of Lords voted to allow television to broadcast live debates from its chamber. The first regular live television broadcasts from the House of Commons began on 21 November 1989. A channel dedicated exclusively to live broadcasts from both Houses was launched in 1992: called The Parliamentary Channel, it started as a cable-exclusive channel (operated by United Artists Cable and funded by a consortium of British cable operators) but was purchased by the BBC in 1998, retitled BBC Parliament and relaunched under its new name on 23 September 1998.
2 Michael Marshall, Under-Secretary of State, Hansard, HC Deb. 25 February 1980, vol. 979 cc. 936–8.
3 Sir Keith Joseph, Secretary of State for Industry, Hansard, HC Deb. 25 February 1980, vol. 979 cc. 938–41.
4 William Whitelaw, Home Secretary, Hansard, HC Deb. 25 February 1980, vol. 979 c. 397W.
5 Lord Campbell of Croy, Hansard, HL Deb. 25 February 1980, vol. 405 cc. 1000–4.
6 The Lord Bishop of Blackburn, Hansard, HL Deb. 25 February 1980, vol. 405 cc. 1010–36.
7 Richard Crossman, ‘The Real English Disease’, New Statesman, 24 September 1971, p. 1.
8 Walter Bagehot, ‘Physics and Politics’ (1867), in Norman St John-Stevas, ed., Walter Bagehot (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1959), p. 446.
9 Ibid. p. 456.
10 Mary Whitehouse, quoted in The Times, 29 April 1965, p. 8. See also my Spike & Co. (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2006), the chapters on Johnny Speight and Till Death Do Us Part.
11 Anthony Trollope, Can You Forgive Her? 1864 (New York: Random House, 2012), Chapter LII, pp. 349–50.
12 Anthony Trollope, Phineas Finn, 1869 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977), p. 68.
13 Anthony Trollope, Phineas Redux, 1874 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 227.
14 Anthony Trollope, The Prime Minister, 1876 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 145.
15 Winston Churchill, ‘Cartoons and Cartoonists’, Thoughts and Adventures (London: Odhams Press, 1947), pp. 11–12, 13, 15 and 17.
16 Thomas Carlyle, letter to C.G. Duffy, dated 29 August 1846. Source: The Carlyle Letters Online, vol. 21, pp. 33–4, ed. Brent E. Kinser, Duke University Press, 14 September 2007.
17 BBC Variety Programmes Policy Guide for Writers and Producers (aka ‘The Green Book’), (London: BBC, 1948), p. 11.
18 Peter Cook, ‘TVPM’, Beyond the Fringe, Fortune Theatre, London, 1961. See Tragically I Was an Only Twin, edited by William Cook (London: Century, 2002), p. 51.
19 See Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit 1857 (Ware: Wordsworth Editions, 1996). Dickens used the Barnacle family to mock the nepotism, incompetence and inertia that he felt characterised the Civil Service in the nineteenth century: ‘The Barnacles were a very high family, and a very large family. They were dispersed all over the public offices, and held all sorts of public places. Either the nation was under a load of obligation to the Barnacles, or the Barnacles were under a load of obligation to the nation. It was not quite unanimously settled which; the Barnacles having their opinion, the nation theirs’ (pp. 103–4).
20 See Anthony Trollope’s The Three Clerks 1858 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990). Trollope based the character of Sir Gregory Hardlines on that of Sir Charles Trevelyan, who, alongside Sir Stafford Northcote, had been charged with the task of transforming Whitehall’s bureaucracy from something amateurish and reliant on patronage into a modern professional organisation founded on proper examinations. Trollope wrote of Hardlines: ‘Great ideas opened themselves to his mind as he walked to and from his office daily. What if he could become the parent of a totally different order of things! What if the Civil Service, through his instrumentality, should become the nucleus of the best intellectual diligence in the country, instead of being a byword for sloth and ignorance!’ (p. 68).
21 See Max Weber, ‘Parliament and Government in Germany under a New Political Order’, 1918, in Peter Lassman and Ronald Spiers, eds, Max Weber: Political Writings (Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 159. See also his classic account of the phenomenon in his 1922 work Economy and Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).
22 William Haselden, ‘The Evolution of a Government Official’, Daily Mirror, 12 January 1918.
23 William Haselden, ‘The Public Money and the Public Man – 2’, Daily Mirror, 20 Mar 1919.
24 The original idea for the show’s title had been ‘M.U.G.’ – an abbreviation of ‘Ministry of Universal Gratification’ – but the increasingly common use by newspapers (beginning with the Daily Express, 2 May 1939, p. 1) of the phrase ‘It’s That Man Again!’ to signal yet another report about Adolf Hitler encouraged the show’s makers to adopt it as their title. The setting was originally a pirate radio ship, but this was changed to a Government Ministry early on during the show’s run.
25 This Whitehall setting was later replaced by a seaside location called ‘Foaming-at-the-Mouth’, with Whitehall’s civil servants replaced by local council bureaucrats.
26 Sir Edward Bridges, Portrait of a Profession: The Civil Service Tradition, the Rede Lecture, University of Cambridge, 1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950), p. 33.
27 A further fourteen episodes of The Men from the Ministry (consisting mainly of old plotlines slightly revised) were made by the BBC Transcription Service in 1980 for broadcast in other countries, and were only aired for British audiences on BBC 7 in 2012.
28 ‘Birmingham is Revolting’, The Men from the Ministry, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 24 August 1976.
29 See The Men from the Ministry, ‘The Big Rocket’, first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme, 30 October 1962; reprised as ‘Boots’, first broadca
st overseas, 13 April 1980.
30 See The Men from the Ministry, ‘The Great Footwear Scandal’, first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme, 6 November 1962; reprised as ‘Boots’, first broadcast overseas, 20 April 1980.
31 If It Moves, File It (a sitcom that lasted for only one series of six episodes) was broadcast by London Weekend Television from 28 August to 2 October 1970.
32 Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958), p. 128.
33 Walter Bagehot, ‘Physics and Politics’ (1867), in St John-Stevas, ed., Walter Bagehot, p. 449.
34 Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution (London: Fontana, 1993), Introduction to the 1872 Second Edition, p. 278.
35 Howerd’s 1963 routine, a recording of which is available on the CD Frankie Howerd At The Establishment And At The BBC (Decca 2007), revolved around the lingering controversy that dogged the then Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, following his dramatic decision, on Friday 13 July 1962, to carry out the most brutal reshuffle in British political history, known subsequently for that reason as the ‘Night of the Long Knives’. The embattled Macmillan, responding to the Conservative Government’s rapidly declining popularity among voters, had decided to radically change the composition of his Cabinet, removing those most associated with current unpopular economic policies and adding several younger, more dynamic ministers to revitalise the group as a whole. Spurred on by a script written mainly by Johnny Speight, Howerd gleefully eschewed the familiar analysis of the event and chose instead to discuss it as though it had been a domestic squabble largely between Macmillan’s wife, Dorothy, and some of Macmillan’s old colleagues, such as his Chancellor, Selwyn Lloyd. In an era when such irreverence towards political leaders was still deemed an audacious novelty, Howerd’s performance caused a sensation and inspired many similarly iconoclastic routines. See my Frankie Howerd: Stand-Up Comic (London: Fourth Estate, 2004), Chapter 10.
A Very Courageous Decision Page 39
