This is a great little dialogue. I have trouble picking my favorite line, but I suspect it will come from the woman in the discussion, not because she is a woman, but because they have given her several of the best lines. For example, "Why do we need 2,000 civil servants to funnel money from A to B?" "Two thousand private schools deal with these sorts of problems every day of the week."
Mind you, I'm not advocating publically funded education--not in an ideal world. But you have to walk before you can run, and lampooning stuffy people who think parents are not qualified even to choose their child's school is a good way to start.
What's perhaps a tad frightening is the thought that there are people (British people, especially?) who actually believe that parents are not qualified to raise their children. I notice that at one point where Humphrey says that, there is no laugh track. Let's hope it was an oversight.
I know nothing about this show and had never heard of it until I received this link by e-mail. Perhaps my readers are better informed.
Comments (11)
I don't watch too much British TV any more but I'm fairly certain that a distinguishing factor of British TV is the absence of a laugh track. I remember they added it to one season of "CHEF!" and it was terribly out of place.
Posted by Todd | August 5, 2008 11:56 AM
Well, there's a laugh track all through this. It doesn't sound like a live audience, that's for sure. It was just that one line where I expected a laugh and didn't hear one.
Posted by Lydia | August 5, 2008 12:03 PM
This is from "Yes, Prime Minister." Persistently brilliant.
Posted by SteveJ | August 5, 2008 1:17 PM
Guess I should have waited until I got home and could watch it. Interesting. My guess would be it was intentional, then.
Posted by Todd | August 5, 2008 1:34 PM
The clip is from the show Yes, Prime Minister, which is not only the funniest TV shows ever made about politics, but also the most insightful.
Posted by Blackadder | August 5, 2008 4:09 PM
The man playing Humphrey is the late Nigel Hawthorne, who did a great job as George III in the film "The Madness of King George." The other gentleman is also deceased, who plays the prime minister, though I can't recall his name.
Posted by alypius | August 5, 2008 4:50 PM
The late, great Paul Eddington! What a fabulous comic actor. And definitely, Yes, Minister and Yes Prime Minister are classics and as good as a graduate seminar in political science. There is a novelistic treatment of the series available that was pretty good, too.
Posted by Lily | August 5, 2008 6:11 PM
The three seasons of "Yes, Minister" (where Paul Eddington plays the Minister for Administrative Affairs) followed by the two seasons of "Yes, Prime Minister," (where he plays the title role) are just about the best & most insightful stuff ever put on TV.
If memory serves, this particular scene is from the second season of YPM.
Throughout, Nigel Hawthorne's portrayal of the quintessential "civil servant," Humphrey Appleby (eventually *Sir* Humphrey) is just beyond brilliant.
It is said that this was Margaret Thatcher's favorite show, ever. And I can well believe it.
Posted by steve burton | August 5, 2008 8:02 PM
I can't get over how fabulous it was to see this clip. Nigel Hawthorne's portrayal of Humphrey Appleby was, as you say, beyond brilliant and yet he had the perfect foil in Paul Eddington. I have been sometimes amazed over the years to find people of every conceivable political persuasion agreeing that this program was brilliant.
Now, that my memory has been stirred, I am going to have to see if I can buy the series on DVD. Thanks! (I think.)
Posted by Lily | August 5, 2008 9:31 PM
As they say in Britain, "Brilliant!"
Posted by Letitia (The Damsel) | August 6, 2008 1:45 AM
Thank you, thank you!!
I am a school choice grassroots organizer in Texas. This video is brilliant!!
FYI there is an hour-long documentary entitled "Stupid in America" by John Stossel. It is a withering critique of the socialistic government school system in the USA. You can find it at my website, http://letschooseschools.com/ or YouTube.
From a "Texas cowboy" who is smart enough to pick a good school for his kid.
Posted by Bob Schoolfield | August 6, 2008 2:37 PM