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Vale Yes Minister's Sir Antony Jay, April 1930 - August 2016. The Smiths will miss you terribly.

There's a very fond spot in my heart for Sir Antony and his co-author Jonathon Lynn.

I know most of our readers feel the same way.

Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister were compulsory viewing at 14 Gloucester Street Rockdale - the Smith's Sydney ancestral seat.

Whenever they could dad would be there with his brother Pat the NSW rozzer and Sister #1 (on diplomatic service overseas mostly), Sister #2 (head of nursing for NSW Prisons), Sister #3 (chief of staff to AMA head Bruce Shepherd) and Sister #4 (doing battle daily with Anthony Abbott and Joseph Hockey in 4th class, St Aloysius).

The world is a little bit heavier today.

Vale Sir Antony.

 

From the Telegraph in the UK

 

 

Sir Antony Jay, co-author of Yes Minister – obituary

 
Antony Jay
Antony Jay CREDIT: GERAINT LEWIS

Sir Antony Jay, who has died aged 86, was a writer, broadcaster and director, and co-author, with Jonathan Lynn, of Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, the political comedies which kept the nation laughing through the Thatcherite 1980s.

The guiding principle of Yes, Minister, which first aired on BBC2 in 1981, was a gentle satire on a governing system in which elected politicians are outmanoeuvred by their more worldly, unelected officials. The series starred Paul Eddington as Jim Hacker, the hapless, publicity-hungry but risk-averse minister for administrative affairs engaged in constant wrangles with the Civil Service in the form of his Machiavellian permanent secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne). The minister was aided  and abetted (sometimes) by his private secretary, Bernard Woolley, played by Derek Fowlds.

With such gems as Sir Humphrey’s alarmed response to Hacker’s suggestion of an official enquiry: “A basic rule of government, minister, is never set up an enquiry unless you know in advance what its findings will be,” and Hacker’s perennial aversion to “courageous” decisions, the series became compulsive viewing, not least for the politicians and bureaucrats it satirised, including Margaret Thatcher herself.

Despite not being renowned for her sense of humour, the Prime Minister claimed that Yes, Minister was her favourite programme and once turned up at the BBC studios with her own script. The stars of the show, no admirers, had to be cajoled into acting out a slightly awkward scene, broadcast on the evening news bulletins, in which Mrs Thatcher was seen ordering Hacker and Sir Humphrey to '’abolish economists’’ as a first step toward cutting the budget. '

Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds in Yes Minister
Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds in Yes Minister 

Yes, Minister ran for three series, before the advancement of Jim Hacker’s career (due to his valiant defiance of a new Euro directive redefining the British banger as an “emulsified offal tube”), led to its relaunch as Yes, Prime Minister, with the same cast (Sir Humphrey promoted to Cabinet Secretary), in 1986. The series ran until 1988.

 Jay felt that some politicians laughed through gritted teeth, and certainly there were dissenters. Nicholas Ridley, in his time as Transport Secretary, turned down a Foreign Office suggestion that he should take a set of Yes, Minister videos to present to his hosts during an official visit to India, objecting that the programme gave a false and damaging impression of the true relationship between ministers and their civil servants. But Ridley was no Jim Hacker.

Yet the comedy had an international resonance and clones of the series appeared in numerous different languages, including Hindi. In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe was said to be a No 1 fan.

However, not many, perhaps, were aware that the serial was commissioned with a serious political purpose: to popularise public choice theory. It is because it succeeded spectacularly that Jay received a knighthood in 1988.

Antony Rupert Jay was born on April 20 1930 and educated as a scholar at St Paul’s School, London. He won another scholarship to Magdalene College, Cambridge, from which he graduated with Firsts in Classics and Comparative Philology.

After National Service in the Royal Signals, Jay joined BBC Television in 1955, and was a member of the team that launched the current affairs programme Tonight, which he edited from 1962 to 1963. After a further year as head of Television Talk Features, he left the BBC to work as a freelance writer and producer.

Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn in 2010
Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn in 2010 

It was Jay’s growing interest in public choice theory that helped to shape Yes, Minister, an interest that after he became a partner with John Cleese and two others in Video Arts, a company that makes comedy training films for business managers and campaigners.

 In economics public choice theory assumes that all economic actors – businessmen, consumers, politicians and bureaucrats – are motivated primarily by individual gain. Thus, politicians pursue re-election and bureaucrats pursue budget-maximisation, while voters and interest groups chase free lunches. The trick is to know your enemy and exploit his self-interest to your own advantage.

Jay incorporated the public choice lessons implicit in Yes, Minister in a series of guides, including Management and Machiavelli (1967); Effective Presentation (1970); Corporation Man (1972); The Householder’s Guide to Community Defence Against Bureaucratic Aggression (1972); and How to Beat Sir Humphrey (1997). In 1996 he edited the Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations.

In later life Jay turned against his former employers at the BBC, condemning its anti-establishment mindset, and in a highly controversial report, How to Save the BBC, written for the Centre for Policy Studies in 2008, he branded the corporation “bloated, biased and creaky”.

In 2011, Jay and Jonathan Lynn got together again to write an anniversary stage production of Yes, Prime Minister, updated for the era of spin, blackberrys and “sexed up” dossiers, and set in a country in financial meltdown. Starring Simon Williams as Sir Humphrey Appleby and Richard McCabe as Jim Hacker, the show was staged at the Theatre Royal in London, winning a Whatsonstage award for Best New Comedy.

In 2013 the two writers joined forces with UKTV’s Gold channel to create a six-part remake of Yes, Prime Minister, updated for the era of coalition, with David Haig as Hacker  opposite Henry Goodman’s suave Sir Humphrey. The satire was as sharp as ever.

Jay also wrote the BBC TV documentaries Royal Family and Elizabeth R, for which he was appointed CVO in 1993 for personal services to the Royal Family. 

Antony Jay married, in 1957, Rosemary Hill, with whom he had two sons and two daughters.

Sir Antony Jay, born April 20 1930, died August 21 2016

Comments

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Bill Thompson

40 years later, I still LMAO watching those shows on cable. I may have emailed you that I recently watched an episode (perhaps from the 1980's?) where the PM was going to cancel the contract for new Trident nuclear missiles & bugger me, the next day on the actual BBC News there was a report that the then Cameron Govt had decided to renew a Trident contract! Talk about being ahead of their time!

Gerard Flood

Thanks for presenting this, Michael!

I saw the stage production in Melbourne, where Sir Humphrey exposed the mendacity of the Global Warming/Climate Change scam.

My regret over the years was that the show hardly ever exposed the real consequences for real people who are the needy victims of moral and political corruption of authority.

May succeeding generations receive similar education and entertainment, rather than the wholesale lies currently force-fed via unscrupulous scribblers.

Mycroft

Indeed

PM RAMADAN TURNBULLSHIT

Australians will BREXIT in the next election.

ZK2A

Still brilliant

"Is there anyone who knows what goes on in the Foreign Office?"

"Yes, Prime Minister. Only the Kremlin!"

Madeira

If you have a little time watch this, you won't see it on our sanitised news, all Trump haters.

Full Event: Donald Trump Holds HUGE Rally in Austin, TX 8/23/16
https://youtu.be/64zgSMlcFHs

LKP

sorry to go off topic ( again )

I found this and wondered why it was not on the MSM

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-23/tasmania-to-host-first-national-transgender-camp/7776410

face book page has more details , including
Mental Health, Online Safety, Surgery 101, Safe Binding, Art Workshop, campfire, Coming Out to Family & Friends, Coming Out at Work/School, Free Clothes, Networking, Hormones 101, Self Defense + Heaps More! September 30 to October 2nd in Beautiful
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followed by
Hello! There's something we need to clarify.
The BDSM/Kink101 discussion/presentation will be 18+ and will be held well away from any minors.

TFPBOB

Aussies are lucky as we don't need actors to get the same laugh (or cry) We have overpaid real ones

Julie of Geelong

Agree 100% Michael.

They don't produce TV shows like that anymore unfortunately!!!

ZK2A

I saw the stage production in Perth - Brilliant, and as witty as ever.

BREXIT & AMEXIT

'Mr. Brexit' Nigel Farage Speaks at Donald Trump Rally in Jackson, MS
https://youtu.be/oj4K9fr_WgY

underminder

Some people still have a sense of humour...

http://static.infowars.com/politicalsidebarimage/obama-la1_large.jpg

shillo

Hurro! 4.30pm Thur 25 August,2016...anyone???

Old Rooster 📢🐓

Safe binding? Scrum techniques for rugger buggers?

Michelle Two

I'm sure this isn't a send off that Antony Jay would have but I can just imagine the spirit above looking down at his relatives having the greatest laugh, it was what he wanted to lighten the mood I guess at his funeral what a way to go..
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/man-orders-strippers-
funeral-give-8532675#ICID=sharebar_facebook

RIP Antony Jay thank you for your service in the entertainment field you brought much joy to many as you fulfilled your life purpose.. Artists and writers are very close to spirit with their work as it comes from the inner soul to create for others though some things that pass off as art these days are questionable about where the ideas came from some are ego based and all about the $$ value not so much about fulfilling passions.. love and light "Yes Prime Minister" over and out but never forgotten as we can see the work of a master in his field as it remains forever in the archives of history as Antony Jay has left his mark as we all do in our own way.. xx

TazSpinZone

Goes to show doesn't it - they knew what was going on
before the online world where people can leak this
stuff anonymously and hence rest of us find out.
Perhaps in a way, programs like that were meant to
warn us.
They're gracing youtube now so we got left with more
than just the memories.

Macca

The Truth About Hillary's 'Alt-Right' Speech
https://youtu.be/ufkHt8dgG8I

Tomo C.

I wish that Alex Jones comes to Australia and sorts out our corrupt politicians.

Alex Jones' Message To Hillary Clinton
https://youtu.be/GaYWWI4zMJY

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