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Yes Chancellor
Saw this, was amused.
'When I was young, there was a very successful sitcom called "Yes,
Minister"/"Yes, Prime Minister", about a well-meaning but totally
incompetent politician who had to cope with various unbelievable
crises created by his civil servants.
Imagine my surprise to discover the BBC has secretly brought it back,
for a brand new series. The only difference is they've changed the
title again. Now it's called "The News", but it's still just as funny
and ridiculous as ever.
If anything, the new storylines are even more ridiculous than before.
No doubt, this is some sort of attempt to be bigger and better and
more controversial than the old series. But this latest episode
(where two discs of confidential information get lost in the post) is
just too far fetched even by sitcom standards. Perhaps the
scriptwriters should restrain themselves to crises that could
believably happen in real life...?
More unbelievability comes from the sitcom timescale. This latest
episode was broadcast just weeks after the episode with the Northern
Rock crash. In real life, it would be unthinkable that two such big
crises would hit any government in such quick succession. Only
sitcoms can just about get away with it due to their episodic style.
On the bright side, I like the new bungling politician character,
Alistair Darling, who's a worthy successor to Jim Hacker. I wonder if
the scriptwriters chose his name as a deliberate reference to Captain
Darling, the officious bungling bureaucrat in Blackadder?
Despite the occasional far-fetched story element, the new sitcom is
shaping up quite well, and I'm looking forward to the next
instalment...'
Saw this, was amused.
'When I was young, there was a very successful sitcom called "Yes,
Minister"/"Yes, Prime Minister", about a well-meaning but totally
incompetent politician who had to cope with various unbelievable
crises created by his civil servants.
Imagine my surprise to discover the BBC has secretly brought it back,
for a brand new series. The only difference is they've changed the
title again. Now it's called "The News", but it's still just as funny
and ridiculous as ever.
If anything, the new storylines are even more ridiculous than before.
No doubt, this is some sort of attempt to be bigger and better and
more controversial than the old series. But this latest episode
(where two discs of confidential information get lost in the post) is
just too far fetched even by sitcom standards. Perhaps the
scriptwriters should restrain themselves to crises that could
believably happen in real life...?
More unbelievability comes from the sitcom timescale. This latest
episode was broadcast just weeks after the episode with the Northern
Rock crash. In real life, it would be unthinkable that two such big
crises would hit any government in such quick succession. Only
sitcoms can just about get away with it due to their episodic style.
On the bright side, I like the new bungling politician character,
Alistair Darling, who's a worthy successor to Jim Hacker. I wonder if
the scriptwriters chose his name as a deliberate reference to Captain
Darling, the officious bungling bureaucrat in Blackadder?
Despite the occasional far-fetched story element, the new sitcom is
shaping up quite well, and I'm looking forward to the next
instalment...'
