Yes Prime MInister Joins The 21st Century

Yes Prime Minister Joins The 21^st Century

Famed for its masterful lampooning of the inner workings of British government, Yes, Prime Minister captured the obfuscation of Whitehall mandarins to a tee.

Now, nearly a quarter of a century on, the much-lauded satirical sitcom is set to return to our screens for a new series seemingly based on the current Coalition government.

This time around the Rt. Hon Jim Hacker, previously played by the late Paul Eddington, will be confronting “the greatest economic crisis in a generation”.

And to give the new series a further contemporary twist, Number 10 will also face issues over MP’s expenses, a Scottish referendum on independence and the European Union.

Antony Jay, 81, who co-wrote the original series with Jonathan Lynn, revealed the pair had come together again to pen the new series.

He described a plot which included “fiddles at high level” as well as insights into the “realities of politics”.

The television shows came in two series, the first Yes Minister  was transmitted by BBC between 1980 and 1984 with the sequel Yes Prime Minister running from 1986 to 1988. Several episodes were adapted for radio and a stage play was produced in 2010.

Essentially the sit com takes place in the private office of a British Government Cabinet Minister in the Department for Administrative Affairs ( fictional department ) with the sequel set in the PM’s offices at 10 Downing Street. The series follows the senior ministerial career of the Rt Hon Jim Hacker MP. Hacker was played by Paul Eddington. It centres on his various struggles to formulate or enact legislation and the way in which is efforts to effect departmental changes are opposed bu the will of the British Home Civil Service, most specifically his Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby ( played by Nigel Hawthorne ) with his Principle Private Secretary Bernard Woolley  ( played by Derek Fowlds ) usually ending up being caught between Hacker and Appleby.

The TV show won a plethra of awards and was said to be a favourite of the then Prime Minister of the UK Margaret Thatcher.  At Stort Books we have copies of both books from the original series :-

YES PRIME MINISTER : THE DIARIES OF THE RIGHT HON JAMES HACKER VOLUME I

YES PRIME MINISTER : THE DIARIES OF THE RIGHT HON JAMES HACKER VOL II

Email us for full details on stortbooks@sky.com. We also have a newly revamped politics section contact us for full listings .

SCOTT

Captain Robert Falcon Scott

Born on 6^th June 1868 in Devonport , Robert Falcon Scott became a Naval Cadet at the age thirteen and during the 1880’s and 1890’s he served on a number of Royal Navy ships.

He was appointed to command the National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904. The expedition - which included Ernest Shackleton - reached further south than anyone before them and Scott returned to Britain a national hero. He had caught the exploring bug and began to plan an expedition to be the first to reach the South Pole and he spent years raising funds for the trip.

In June 1910 the whaling ship Terra Nova left Cardiff with the expedition setting off from base in October1910, with mechanical sledges, ponies and dogs. It quickly became apparent that sledges and ponies were unable to cope with the conditions and the expedition carried on without them and by the middle of December the dog teams turned back, leaving the rest to face the ascent of the Beardmore Glacier and the polar plateau.

By January of 1912, only Scott, Wilson, Oates, Bowers and Evans remained. On 17 January, they reached the pole, only to discover Roald Amundsen and a Norwegian party had beaten them to it. They began the long return journey, some 1500 km journey back. By then the men were shattered, Evans died in mid-February. By March, Oates was suffering from severe frostbite and it is widely suggested that knowing that he was slowing down his companions, he uttered the famous words  that "I am just going outside and may be some time". ... and walked out into the freezing conditions never to be seen again.   The remaining three men died of starvation and exposure in their tent on 29 March 1912, their camp and bodies were discovered in November of the same year.

Ironically the trio were in fact only 20 km from a pre-arranged supply depot. Eight months later, a search party found the tent, the bodies and Scott's diary.  Only this month a moving farewell letter written by polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott in the last few days of his life was sold at auction for £163,250 , it was amongst the items found with his camp and the bodies of Scott , Bowers and Wilson ( to read an article on the auctioned items click on this link http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16199892 ).

We have a number of books relating to Captain Scott , his expedition and the race for the Antarctic including:-

SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC

For this biography of Scott, author Reginald Pound has drawn on wholly fresh material. He has researched important collections and archives in New Zealand and London and has been granted access to the private papers and letters of Scott's family

EDWARD WILSON OF THE ANTARCTIC

This is the biography of a member of Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole who, even in the company of heroic men, stood out because of his quiet courage and stalwart faith.

SOUTH WITH SCOTT

The book tells the story of the 1910 British Antarctic Expedition

Contact us at stortbooks@ky.com or call on 07979 450871 for more details.