Anything offering a return visit to the world of the wonderful TV series Yes Minister is always welcome, and Jonathan Lynn’s new play, billed as the ‘final chapter’ for these beloved characters, offers much to enjoy.
Nostalgia aplenty there certainly is, but since former PM Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby are now older (although perhaps not wiser?) men attempting to navigate the modern world, there’s much potential for misunderstanding and inevitable generational clashes.
OUR VERDICT
Johan Persson
Lee Newby’s evocative set beautifully conjures Hacker’s changed horizons, a comfortable, cluttered home with book-lined shelves and windows offering a glimpse of Oxford spires and the changing seasons. In the background, a stairlift reflects his physical limitations.
Hacker is now head of Hacker College, Oxford, his tenure teetering on the brink as some politically incorrect comments have left him vulnerable to being evicted from the college.
Resentful, weary and panic-stricken, Hacker calls on the only person who can possibly help- and definitely confuse- the situation, namely former Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby, his old sparring partner.
The perpetual duel between naked political ambition and labyrinth civil service obstruction is what fuelled much of the comedy for the original television programme, and of course, much of this has gone as Hacker is now an outdated politician and Appleby has been ignominiously dropped into a care home for the ‘elderly deranged’ by his son.
These two once-powerful men now have to confront a very different, rather ‘woke’ world, in which contemporary attitudes are principally voiced by the character of Sophie, Hacker’s care worker, capably played by Princess Donnough.
Sometimes aspects of this approach work, as it’s good to see the older men’s rigid beliefs challenged, but other times it can feel dangerously close to being didactic.
The script feels somewhat underpowered, but the performances are certainly good- Simon Rouse suitably baffled and vain (but with underlying, redeeming vulnerability) and Clive Francis excellent as the witty and interminably loquacious Humphrey who could make the simplest of proposals utterly unintelligible.
One yearns for the original cast- given due tribute at the play’s end-but it’s great to spend a little time in the company of these characters, even if a sharper, more nuanced script would be wholly welcome.
