EVEN THE POLITICIANS HAVE TO LAUGH : ‘YES, MINISTER’ STARTS WITH THE FACTS

“In Britain, it’s terribly damaging to a politician to say he has no sense of humor,” chuckles Anthony Jay, co-writer of the BBC sitcom “Yes, Minister.” “So politicians watch our program, grit their teeth and laugh.”

“Yes, Minister,” currently airing Friday nights at 11 on KCET Channel 28, has been the talk of Britain for five years. The series deals with the behind-the-scenes running (some would say mis-running) of the British government.

“I remember when the chancellor of the exchequer phoned and asked to see some of the tapes,” Jay says. “We told him he was third in the queue. The queen and the prime minister got them first. As for other MPs, it’s rumored that no one is in the House of Commons during the 30 minutes our show is on the air.”

Like other popular British sitcoms, “Yes, Minister” may yield an American version.

“I don’t see why the setting couldn’t be changed to the United States,” observes Nigel Hawthorne, who plays chief bureaucrat Sir Humphrey Appleby. “I see your President making a statement and then having to retract it; you wonder who allowed him to say it. I think with an astute American writer, you could have a really good series on your hands--if you’re brave enough to tell the truth.”

In order to Americanize the series, Jay acknowledges that some major changes would have to be made. “You don’t have a permanent Civil Service at the high level that we do,” he says. “However, there must be a level of civil servants that stay when politicians leave.”

The conflict between these two groups is what gives “Yes, Minister” its bite.

“In Britain, these two groups have totally different ambitions and motives,” Jay explains. “The civil servants want everything to continue placidly, but they need the politicians to get a high profile for their department and to get a budget. The politicians are good at getting attention, but they depend on civil servants to give them all sorts of facts. It’s like some sort of ghastly marriage.”

However, in this particular case the marriage proved so successful that one of the show’s characters, Cabinet Minister James Hacker, was elevated last year to prime minister. Thus the series now being taped at the BBC’s Television Centre in London carries the title “Yes, Prime Minister.”

“Our program is extremely carefully researched, and not just in obvious ways,” Jay says. “We’ve tried to get all the background right. For instance, we find out who calls who by their first name or surname. We ask politicians and civil servants what they would do in certain situations. If they say, ‘You couldn’t do that,’ we stop.

“It’s the kind of research you can’t publish. However, we can publish it as long as we call it fiction. ‘Where did you get that story from?’ a politician might demand. ‘Oh, it’s just a joke,’ we say.

“Politicians are extremely open and wonderfully indiscreet. They start out cagey, but, once they find out you’ve got something to their detriment, they’ll tell you their side of the case. Civil servants don’t tell you an awful lot you couldn’t find out otherwise. However, we’ve had a number of leads from renegades who’ve left the Civil Service in anger and spilt the beans.

“We never disclose anything about people we’ve talked to,” Jay adds. “If you ask me if Maggie Thatcher has been a major source, I won’t deny it. But I won’t confirm it either.”

Despite his deftness with words, Jay denies any political ambitions (and is unrelated to Peter Jay, the former British ambassador to Washington). He heads Video Arts, a company that makes comedy training films. Jay’s partner in the venture is John Cleese.

“It was through those training films that I met Jonathan Lynn (co-writer of “Yes, Minister”). We needed intelligent actors who would delay their fees until we got some money. Jonathan started with Cleese and me as an actor. Then he began writing training films, and that’s how we got onto ‘Yes, Minister.’

“I’ve spent all my TV life with documentaries, current affairs and politics, and I know quite a lot of politicians. I’d had the idea for ‘Yes, Minister’ years ago, Jonathan knew how to write performance comedy, and between us we wrote the series.

“What surprised me was the way people caught on to the accuracy of it. They’re always trying to spot who our characters are based on, but we’re not satirizing particular individuals. Our belief is that if we found ourselves as cabinet members we’d behave in the same way. The job structures you into the behavior. We’ve had no threats of lawsuits because none of our characters resembles anyone! It’s all fiction.”

When “Yes, Minister” started on the BBC in 1980, the public immediately laughed its way through the absurd conflicts between Cabinet Minister Hacker and his Civil Service assistant Appleby. Gradually, however, Jay reports, “Politicians and civil servants started saying, ‘This is very close to the truth.’ Now, 75% of Britain believes this is how the country is run.”