The best of political humour

Politics may also not be an obvious choice for humourous literature, but some of us remember the series Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister, written by Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay, as highlights of television humour. The struggles between James Hacker, Minister and later Prime Minister, and his chief civil servant, Sir Humphrey Appleby, were hilarious but still left one with a feeling that reality was not very far away from what was portrayed. James Hacker had causes he wanted to realize, while for Sir Humphrey stability and protection of the Civil Service seemed to be the only cause.

The Complete Yes Minister contains the whole text of the first series.
The Complete Yes Prime Minister contains the whole text of the second series.

If the text is not what you want, but a chance to see the series again, they can be found on DVD:

As for video, here are some editions:

Another unforgettable character of political satire is Francis Urquhart, Chief Whip conspiring to become Prime Minister. Through tricks and violence he succeeds, in the triology by Michael Dobbs:

The trilogy has been made into three TV series. The whole trilogy on DVD; the parts in VHS: House of Cards; To Play the King; Final Cut

Michael Dobbs has also written a number of other books, notably Goodfellowe MP; The Buddha of Brewer Street and Whispers of Betrayal with his "hero" Tom Goodfellowe MP and numerous other books.

This page was last updated on 09.08.2008 .

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