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When Minister for Administrative Affairs Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington)
learns that during his time in opposition whe was under surveillance from
MI5, he's appalled. He's even mre appalled when he learns that his
department is responsible for supplying the bugging equipment these days.
And he's yet more appalled when his permanent secretary Humphrey (Nigel
Hawthorne) remains way too calm abo0ut the whole thing and seems to be
actually agreeing spying on citizens. So Hacker sets wheels into motion
that would make surveillance on citizens much more difficutl ... until he
learns he himself is on the deathlist of a terrorist organisation ...
All of a sudden, Hacker forgets everything he said before about
surveillance versus individual freedom, and he suddenly has six bodyguards
who follow him everywhere ... even to his second honeymoon with his wife
(Diana Hoddinott).
It's only when Hacker learns that he has been ommitted from the death
list (because he's too unimportant) that he finds his courage again to
fight for individual freedom ...
Most oif the political satire of this episode is still dead on even
today (with idiots like Bush the younger in the US trying to
sabotage/elimintate civil rights by the dozen), the actual story leaves a
lot to be desired: It starts out with the minister completely changing his
views once his own life is in danger, then turns into a slapstick comedy
about the minister and his wife and his bodyguards on secone honeymoon, to
then showing him finding his courage again, once the threat is over ...
but it's often not quite clear where this story leads to, and the
ending is rather unsatisfying - and not all that funny. Still, as a whole,
this is a rather entertaining episode nevertheless.
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