THE MOVIE

The final series of Yes Minister sees the Right Honourable Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington), the Minister for Administrative Affairs, become Prime Minister. This classic British comedy series also stars Derek Fowlds as Jim’s private secretary Bernard Woolley and Nigel Hawthorne as Secretary of State Sir Humphrey Appleby. This DVD contains all seven episodes from Series 3 (each running for approximately 28 minutes) along with the 60-minute Special ‘Party Games’. Here is a quick synopsis for each of the seven episodes.

DISC 1
Episode 1 - Equal Opportunities
After an interview with a student for a school newspaper, Jim Hacker ponders what he’s really achieved since he’s been in office. He plans to reform of the civil service, he believes it will be an excellent vote winner. Jim learns that there are no female permanent secretaries and only 4 female deputy secretaries so he decides to set a quota of 25% female in these positions within the next 4 years. Unfortunately, Sir Humphrey isn’t terribly enthusiastic about Jim’s plans for sexual equality.

Episode 2 - The Challenge
Jim Hacker goes on a crusade to reduce government bureaucracy. An Under Secretary informs him of a way to reduce local authority expenditure. All local government plans costing more than 10,000 pounds must be accompanied by failure standards. Sir Humphrey is worried that local government reform will bounce back and bite them, so convinces Jim that an area of local government needing urgent consideration is civil defence, so it’s fallout shelters for Thames Marsh, it’s a guaranteed vote winner.

Episode 3 - The Skeleton in the Cupboard
A reporter from the Mail informs the Right Honourable Jim Hacker that the government is about to hand over 40 million pounds to a private developer, all because of a cock up made some 30 years ago. Coincidentally, a 30 year law that sees government papers relevant to the monetary hand over will be released in just a few short weeks, and threatens to reveal the name of the young civil servant who made a mess of a defence contract. Suddenly Sir Humphrey seems very nervous.

Episode 4 - The Moral Dimension
Sir Humphrey and Jim visit Kumran in the Persian Gulf to negotiate a communications contract. Unfortunately Islamic law states that no alcohol is to be consumed. Jim doesn’t know how he’s going to get through five hour of discussions without a drink so they set up a communiqué room and smuggle in some booze. Suffice it to say, it isn’t long before the Minister has had just about as many urgent messages as he can take.

Episode 5 - The Bed of Nails
Before he can consult with Sir Humphrey, the Right Honourable Jim Hacker is talked into becoming the minister responsible for developing and implementing an Integrated National Transport policy. Sir Humphrey believes it’s a bed of nails, a policy in everybody’s interests except the minister developing it, in other words a ‘vote loser’. How are they going to get out of this one? They could always leak some inappropriate ideas to the press regarding transport changes in Prime Minister’s constituency and hope the job is given to someone else.

DISC 2
Episode 6 - The Whisky Priest
An army officer visits the Honourable Jim Hacker and provides him with some rather embarrassing information regarding illegal British arms deals. Apparently top secret British made bomb detonators are being sold to Italian terrorist groups. Jim believes it is his moral obligation to alert the Prime Minister, but both Bernard and Sir Humphrey try to convince him not to do anything foolish with the news.

Episode 7 - The Middle Class Rip Off
Jim plans to rescue the Aston-Wanderers, a struggling football club who are in dire need of 1.5 million pounds. The plan is to close an art gallery and sell it off to provide an interest free loan to the football club. However, Sir Humphrey is opposed to the idea. He argues that subsidies are not intended for what people want, football and movies, but they are to be used for what the people ought to have, that being art and culture.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

Yes Minister - Series 3 is presented in 1.33:1 full frame. This series was originally broadcast in England on 11 November 1982 and given its age it looks quite good. The level of detail is satisfactory in most scenes and there is only minimal film grain but this transfer does suffer from quite a bit of low level noise. This is most evident in the on location footage at the football club and outside the art gallery in episode 7. I also observed some minor aliasing and this transfer also has numerous incidences of highlight overload. Colours are also somewhat washed out. The first disc in this box set is a dual layer (RSDL) disc but the layer change was not evident.

Audio:

Like the other two series of Yes Minister, the final series also features a Dolby Digital 2.0 channel soundtrack. It is once again a satisfactory soundtrack. Dialogue by actors Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds is clearly audible during all episodes even with the quite loud laugh track. There weren’t any noticeable audio synch problems either. This DVD also comes with English subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

The second disc in this 2 disc box set features the 60-minute Special ‘Party Games’. In this bonus episode Sir Humphrey rushes away to an urgent meeting with the Cabinet Secretary. He is going to retire and Sir Humphrey sees this as a great opportunity to move up the ladder. Next comes the news that the Prime Minister is retiring so a urgent Cabinet meeting is called. There are two candidates for the top job, but many fear appointment of either could cause a split. What they need is someone flexible, malleable, likeable and with no bright ideas. Sir Humphrey knows someone who fits the bill… but doe she have the killer instinct?

SUMMARY

If you’re into classic British comedy, then you’ll love the final series of Yes Minister starring Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds. This is a must have for fans of this series who already own Series 1 and 2. This DVD features all seven episodes from Series 3 along with the 60-minute special ‘Party Games’. The DVD has a satisfactory visual and audio transfer, but the bonus episode above is the only extra.