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When Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington), minister for Administrative affairs,
is questioned on the lack of waste cuts made in his department by a select
committee, he turns to his permanent secretary Sir Humphrey (Nigel
Hawthorne), exactly the man who blocked each and every of his efforts to
stop waste in his department. Sensing the minister's helplessness and
dependence on him, Humphrey thinks he has the minister right where he
wants him, and by appealing to his sense of loyalty, he persuades the
minister to do what's best for the department - duck questions, stall and
evade straight answers. The minister agrees to each and every of his
words, and Humphrey has won at last ... or so he thinks ...
Turns out that the prime minister himself is not too happy about Hacker
anymore, because Hacker is too friendly to his own civil servants, even
Sir Humphrey has referred to him as "a pleasure to work with".
So the PM's advisor Spencer (Nigel Stock) appeals to his loyalty to
gouvernment ... and in the end, at the select committee, Hacker stabs
Humphrey in the back when he not only announces to make big savings but
makes Humphrey himself responsible for it. And as a result, Hacker is back
in the PM's favour.
Even if the satire in the later episodes of the series is less biting
and more character-driven than before, this is still great political
comedy, featuring great actors and a sometimes extremely sharp dialogue.
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