Yes Minister, Series 1
by Antony Jay & Jonathan Lynn (BBC 2, 1980)
A slightly patchy satire, which in later series would become truly sublime in deriding British government and the Civil Service—both gleefully caricatured yet tellingly believable! The well-meaning but ductile Jim Hacker struggles to make headway against silver-tongued bureaucrat Sir Humphrey Appleby.
Yes Minister: Party Games
by Antony Jay & Jonathan Lynn (BBC 2, 1984)
Broadcast two years after Series 3 concluded, this Christmas special served first and foremost as a nostalgic coda, but also to test the waters for Yes, Prime Minister. Not as punchy as a regular episode, but suggestive of the programme’s ongoing appeal.
My Cousin Vinny
dir. Jonathan Lynn (1992)
Very few comedies hold up after 30+ years, but this one does! Adroitly scripted and impeccably directed, with bravura performances by Marisa Tomei (Oscar for best supporting actress), Joe Pesci and Fred Gwynne, My Cousin Vinny remains an eminently quotable courtroom classic.
Yes Prime Minister: The Diaries of the Right Hon. James Hacker, Volume I
ed. Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay (BBC, 1986)
A droll reworking (by the same writers) of the television series broadcast earlier that year. The machinations and absurdities of government are exposed with an equivalent cleverness but the humour is necessarily diminished, coming across in commonplace echoes of the original performances.