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It starts as usual, with Minister for Administrative Affairs Jim Hacker
(Paul Eddington) and the department's permanent secretary Humphrey (Nigel
Hawthorne) arguing about something, this time it's the EEC (the later EU).
While Hacker is decidedly Pro-Europe, but Anti-Brussels (because of all
the bureaucracy there), Humphrey, as a good English civil servant, is
Ante-Europe, but can't help admiring Brussels for all the bureaucracy.
Later, they learn about a cabinet reshuffle, which might mean a new
minister for the department ... and while Humphrey is delighted because
Hacker seems "to get a grip of his job" and "ministers who
get a grip of their job start to argue", Hacker is scared stiff that
he might be demoted ... or worse.
Then though, Hacker gets a call from Brussels that he might become a
commissioner there, and maybe all the luxury that comes with the job makes
it worth it, while Humphrey learns that Hacker's successor might very well
be his personal enemy ... so Humphrey manages to holod on to Hacker by
letting him have a little political success - and personal success over
himself.
While most of the dialogue is just great and true even today, and the
acting is of course flawless, what this episode lacks is an actual story
build-up. Somehow both Humphrey's actions and Hacker's decisions come too
much out of the blue to really convince ... but still, the episode is good
fun nevertheless.
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