"Very special episodes" of sitcoms

[Theoretical Dentist]

Bernard Ingham, Thatcher's devoted press secretary, said that he came up with the idea of her liking the series as a way to boost her image - and would later dream up the idea of Thatcher doing the sketch. Yes, Minister was starting to be a very popular show and liking something popular looks good - and the fact that it makes fun of politicians, even more so. However, he also said she couldn't stand the way that politicians were portrayed or came off second best again the civil service - she didn't actually care for the show.

All very interesting. I agree it's plausible that Thatcher (or any politician) would pretend to like a popular TV show. But if she really hated it wouldn't it be easy enough to pretend to like a different show, one she didn't hate? And if it was all about making her seem human I think a non-political show would work better. If she had no sense of humour that wouldn't necessarily preclude her liking a political comedy if it was the politics not the comedy she liked.

Also interesting to hear from Jonathan Lynn and about his political views – I was aware Antony Jay was a right-winger but didn't know anything about Lynn's views (by which I mean there isn't anything about them in his Wikipedia article).

The Telegraph is behind a paywall but I've read that after papers were released into the public domain, there was an instance where Thatcher said she would have to pass to Jay. Whether she did or not, I have no idea and even if she did, I suspect she wasn't a great arbiter for knowing what comedy gold was...

It isn't paywalled for me (probably because I have various bits of JavaScript disabled, ad blockers, etc). Here's the article:

Clickwall

Margaret Thatcher provided material for Yes Minister

Mrs Thatcher said she would hand a "bureaucratic gem" to Antony Jay, having seldom "received a more unsatisfactory letter", files released by National Archives show

By Edward Malnick
30 December 2014 • 12:10am

It was the archetypal television political satire, known for its deadly accurate send-up of the civil service.

Now it has emerged that even the most powerful politician in the country was helping to supply the writers of Yes Minister with tales of Whitehall inefficiency.

Thoroughly dissatisfied with a civil servant's response to her enquiries about seemingly inadequate kit supplied to soldiers in Northern Ireland, Margaret Thatcher said she would pass on the "bureaucratic gem" to Antony Jay, the programme's writer.

Files released by the National Archives show that Mrs Thatcher initially took up the issue during a Christmas visit to Northern Ireland in 1982.

During the trip she heard complaints from members of the Coldstream Guards that their overboots were not up to the job. Robin Butler, her principal private secretary, wrote to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) with her concerns.

On Feb 4 1983, however, the department's Jane Ridley replied that the complaints were "rather surprising". No concerns of poor durability had been raised before the Prime Minister's visit, she said, claiming that "if this were a real problem reports to this effect would have emerged before now".

Miss Ridley explained that overboots were only required for patrols, so were not issued to every soldier as part of their personal kit, and that checks led them to be "assured that the boots are quite satisfactory".

The reply drew a sharp response from Mrs Thatcher. At the top of the letter she wrote: "Seldom have I received a more unsatisfactory letter. A bureaucratic gem. I will show it to Antony Jay."

She added: "Send the letter back. The answer won't do."

A second letter from the MoD explained that the overboots were used by soldiers in close observation platoons and were supplied as needed, rather than to every man as part of their personal kit. The battalion's end-of-tour report said the overboot "proved its worth and was excellent for keeping feet dry and warm".

Mrs Thatcher's concerns appeared to be allayed by this reply. However she remained unimpressed by the MoD's approach to the issue, writing on a memo from Mr Butler: "May we have a word? The slackness revealed by this incident is appalling."

[close]

[Glebe]

Interesting, I had assumed Thatcher was a genuine fan. I've only really been watching it for the first time with the recent BBC4 reruns actually.

Apparently Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne were not keen to do the sketch she 'wrote' with Bernard Ingham. Anthony Jay apparently wrote speeches for the Tories.

[Famous Mortimer]

No, that's based on what Ingham had stated; he explained that Thatcher professing love for the series was a way of making her seem more human to the public and it worked very well. But she hated the way politicians were made to look on it.

Re: 'There seems lots of evidence that she did like it' - that was part of the point I was making. Thatcher talked about the show in a couple of interviews and appeared in the sketch, which gets cited repeatedly. That gives the impression there's a lot of evidence when it's actually a little amount referenced a lot.

But...your evidence she hated it is one quote from Ingham, right?

[Sebastian Cobb]

I realise it's not a sit-com but I think the episode of Morse where they go to an illegal rave falls under the 'very special' banner.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8m7cta

[Sebastian Cobb]

If the idea that Yes Minister's portrayal of civil servants really being the ones that run the country gave tory politicians a credible excuse for broken promises, then that'd mean that YM had as big, if not more pernicious side-effect as 70's shows like Love thy Neighbour, that unintentionally had bigots you were supposed to find ridiculous idiots getting turned into far-right mascots.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

If the idea that Yes Minister's portrayal of civil servants really being the ones that run the country gave tory politicians a credible excuse for broken promises, then that'd mean that YM had as big, if not more pernicious side-effect as 70's shows like Love thy Neighbour, that unintentionally had bigots you were supposed to find ridiculous idiots getting turned into far-right mascots.

laundering of american pappy odaniels "those fools in dc!!!!" type libertarianism, or as reagan put it - government is always the problem, government is never a solution

the problem with it is that it took a stupid worldview and make it actually sophisticated and nuanced. kind of the opposite to what a satire is supposed to do, whether that was the authorial intent or not. and add to that how bloody likeable and charming Eddington was as a performer. hawthorne was funny but he wasnt likeable in that way. eddington really is one of the best sitcom comedians ever, the perfect face for accidental thatcherite propaganda.

[Gurke and Hare]

The idea that Hacker was straightforwardly Thatcherite is a nonsensical position that can only be held by someone who's only seen a couple of episodes. Thatcher was  a unilateralist was she?

[dissolute ocelot]

Just watched The Simpsons episode Moaning Lisa (s1e06) which manages to deal with Lisa being depressed in a really brilliant way that still feels on point today. Not marketed as a very special episode as far as I'm aware, but probably managed to be both more moving and funnier than any on the list.

At the other extreme, there are a lot of US TV shows about how copyright piracy is evil: from the Simpsons with illegal cable (Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment), to iCarly where they get an evil teacher arrested for downloading songs onto an iPod... sorry, PearPod. I'm sure I read that there was money for putting this kind of message in shows, but I now can't find any evidence of this.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

The idea that Hacker was straightforwardly Thatcherite is a nonsensical position that can only be held by someone who's only seen a couple of episodes. Thatcher was  a unilateralist was she?

that's not what the argument about Yes Minister and Thatcherism usually is - if you see Yes Minister as Thatcherite then it doesn't matter what Hacker's opinions are. his personal convictions end up not mattering because the civil service is should be an apolitical, meddling force that ultimately keep government running in the way that it desires.

the wrong argument i think is the way its often represented as Hacker being a vain fool and the civil servants being intelligent and outwitting him. Hacker was smart and his positions were complex. I think the point of the program is how little it ultimately mattered, the futility of government. that's where the "thatcherite" criticism comes in. 

[jamiefairlie]

The idea that Hacker was straightforwardly Thatcherite is a nonsensical position that can only be held by someone who's only seen a couple of episodes. Thatcher was  a unilateralist was she?

Hacker was exactly the kind of limp Tory wet that Thatcher and her fascist bully boys detested. You couldn't have written this later on the 80s as she'd got rid of everyone like him and it wouldn't be believable

[ThaBiggPaybacc]

Apparently Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne were not keen to do the sketch she 'wrote' with Bernard Ingham.

Derek Fowlds was (I think) unavailable at the time, and so had a huge amount of fun needling them for selling out and working with the establishment, man.

[Des Wigwam]

I realise it's not a sit-com but I think the episode of Morse where they go to an illegal rave falls under the 'very special' banner.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8m7cta

I used to love Morse and was so bored by that episode. Think I would have been about 16 when it was on and it felt like being lectured by someone much older but trying to talk like my peer.

[Des Wigwam]

I've recently watched all 5 series of The Conners as an elongated binge session. After series 1 almost every other episode is like a stealth Very Special episode.

For information I stuck with it out of some misplaced nostalgia for Roseanne 1-8, John Goodman, and the theme tune.

[Glebe]

Derek Fowlds was (I think) unavailable at the time, and so had a huge amount of fun needling them for selling out and working with the establishment, man.

And yet Fowlds hypocritically joined the constabulary in later life, and enjoyed wielding power over simple local folk like Greengrass!

[A Hat Like That]

I think Branded, the Dad's Army episode broadcast today on BBC Radio 4 Extra, qualifies as a very special episode about conscienscious objectors. (It's a radio episode obviously, but adapted from a TV episode of the same title, which happens to have been the first episode in colour, making it special in another way).

In it Godfrey is revealed to heve been a conscientious objector in the First World War, and the reactions of Mainwearing and the rest of the platoon are initially very negative, regarding COs as cowards. Later Godfrey courageously saves Mainwearing during an exercise, and it turns out he volunteered as a medical orderly in the First World War and received a medal for bravery under fire, forcing the other characters to reevaluate their opinion of Godfrey and presumably COs in general.

It's in Series 3 of Dad's Army but its nearer the end of that run.

It's great, one of the very best. Arnold Ridley fought on the Somme, got dreadfully injured.

Copied the final lines below ...

Capt. George Mainwaring:  There's still one thing I can't understand, Godfrey.
Pte. Charles Godfrey: What's that, sir?
Capt. George Mainwaring: Why didn't you wear your medals?
Pte. Charles Godfrey: Somehow I thought they looked rather ostentatious, sir
Capt. George Mainwaring: Ostentatious... but good Lord, man - If I'd have won the Military Medal, I'd have worn it proudly on my chest for the world to see.
Pte. Charles Godfrey: Yes, sir, and that would have been all right - because somehow you look like a hero.

[Glebe]

There's a bit of grimness beneath all the farce in Yes, Minister, I mean it is actually about the people who make the rules and regulations and decide how society should be run... Sir Humphrey and his cohorts always restore the status quo and couldn't give a flying fuck about the general public as long as they retain their cushy jobs.