''Yes Minister'' is a British
political satire
Political satire is satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where su ...
sitcom
A sitcom, a Portmanteau, portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troup ...
written by
Antony Jay
Sir Antony Rupert Jay, (20 April 1930 – 21 August 2016) was an English writer, broadcaster, producer and director. With Jonathan Lynn, he co-wrote the British political comedies '' Yes Minister'' and '' Yes, Prime Minister'' (1980–88). He ...
and
Jonathan Lynn
Jonathan Lynn (born 3 April 1943) is an English stage and film director, producer, writer, and actor. He is known for directing the comedy films such as '' Clue'', '' Nuns on the Run'', '' My Cousin Vinny'', and '' The Whole Nine Yards''. He al ...
. Comprising three seven-episode series, it was first transmitted on
BBC2
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream ...
from 1980 to 1984. A sequel, ''Yes, Prime Minister'', ran for 16 episodes from 1986 to 1988. All but one of the episodes lasted half an hour, and almost all ended with a variation of the title of the series spoken as the answer to a question posed by Minister (later, Prime Minister) Jim Hacker. Several episodes were adapted for
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
; the series also spawned a 2010 stage play that led to a new television series on
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
in 2013.
Set principally in the private office of a
British cabinet
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the senior decision-making body of His Majesty's Government. A committee of the Privy Council, it is chaired by the prime minister an