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When Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington), Minister for Administrative Affairs,
grows a bit too bold in trying to make decisions, his permanent secretary
Humphrey (Nigel Hawthorne), suggests to HAcker's permanent secretary
Bernard (Derek Fowlds) that he gives the minister something to do, lest he
thinks Hacker runs the department - which Humphrey is convinced he does
& has been doing so for 25 years, while the average lifespan of a
minister is only 11 months. In his opinion, ministers are just there to
make policy, get legislation enacted & secure the department's budget,
but by no means have ideas of their own, which is why information is often
withheld from ministers, & they are instead swamped with insignificant
agendas.
So soon enough the minister is thrown into some ecological debate about
the threatening of some badger population somewhere in the countryside -
nothing serious, as Humphrey thinks ... until Lucy (Geraldine Cowper), the
Minister's daughter, sociology student & therefore a bit of a lefty,
gets wind of it, & plans to go protesting for the badgers ... in the
nude. Confronted with that, Hacker suddenly has to rely on Humphrey's help
... & Humphrey promptly comes up with a big real estate scam & a
rat population that promptly discourages Lucy from her protest, as she
doesn't want to play in the hands of unscrupulous real estate agents.
Thing is, it was all a giant lie, & suddenly the minister no longer
wants to know.
With lines like "It's only the middle class who worries about the
preservation of the countryside - because they don't have to live in
it", and "If they [the ministers] have all the facts instead of
just the options, they might even start to think for themselves",
delivered by the always dependable Nigel Hawthorne, how can this be
anything but great political satire ?
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