Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay's BAFTA award-winning political comedy YES MINISTER first aired on BBC2 in 1980 and ran until 1984 (3 series). The sequel, YES PRIME MINISTER ran from 1986 until 1988 (2 series).

 

Lynn and Jay also wrote three novels, THE COMPLETE YES MINISTER and YES, PRIME MINISTER, Volumes 1 and 2, which cumulatively sold more than a million copies in hardback, were on the British top-ten bestseller list for three years and have been translated into numerous languages.

 

A huge critical and popular success at the time, YES MINISTER continues to be recognised as one of the nation's favourite and most influential British comedy series. Issues that were raised by the programme are still timely now - identity papers and computer databases of the population, university funding, arms sales and oil politics being just a few. In a 2004 documentary, Armando Iannucci compared it to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four in how it has influenced the public's view of the state.

​