Paperback edition of the best-selling collection of the funniest sketches, anecdotes, interviews, lists of interesting facts, character and actor profiles, and personal recollections from the timeless comedy series. This brilliantly funny little book includes lists of interesting and little-known facts about the series, Sir Humphrey s finest obfuscations, Jim Hacker s speeches, the service s best acronyms, famous fans and their reflections, profiles and obituaries of the characters and the actors who played them, the Department for Administrative Affairs guide to using creative inertia , important dates, classic scenes, the entire legendary Margaret Thatcher sketch, and interviews with those in the know . This is the perfect Christmas gift for fans of British comedy.

Jonathan Lynn's credits include creating and co-writing the long-running comedy series Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, as well as hit films Clue, My Cousin Vinny, Nuns on the Run and The Whole Nine Yards. With experience as a comedy actor, writer and director, here Jonathan Lynn shares valuable and hilarious lessons in all aspects of creating great comedy, all illustrated with brilliantly insightful and revealing anecdotes about his work and the legedary actors, writers and comedians he's worked alongside.

Yes, Minister, and the equally successful sequel Yes, Prime Minister captured a niche in the political consciousness of the nation. First broadcast thirty years ago, the original writers of these classic series have reunited to create a bang up to date Yes, Prime Minister for the stage. Spin, blackberries, sexed-up dossiers, sleaze, global warming and a country on the brink of financial meltdown form the backdrop to mayhem at Chequers as the Foreign Minister of Kumranistan makes a seriously compromising offer of salvation. Prime Minister Jim Hacker remains in power with his coterie of close advisors including Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby and Principal Private Secretary Bernard Woolley, but for how long? They govern a whole new world. Yes, Prime Minister premiered in the Festival Theatre, Chichester, in May 2010.

本書是譯自Jonathan Lynn和Antony Jay合編的Yes Prime Minister；英文原著于1987年在英倫出版。
全書共十七章，主要內容是環繞一位虛構的政要人物，記述他在任英國首相期間種種發生在他身上和身邊的事情，旨在諷刺政客的愚昧無能、政府官員的官僚作風，以及揭露官場中的各種丑行；本書是用日記形式記載，情節精彩百出，對白妙語連珠，讀后令人不禁發出會心的微笑。

We have had diaries from other Cabinet Ministers, but none I think which have been quite so illuminating... It is a fascinating diary... It is shorter than Barbara Castle's... and although it is rather more accurate than Dick Crossman's, it is distinctly funnier' - Lord Allen of Abbeydale (formerly Permanent Secretary at the Home Office) in The Times 'It has an entertainment and educational value which is unique. It is uproariously funny and passes the acid test of becoming more amusing at every subsequent reading... I will go so far as to claim that in the characters of Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby, Messrs Lynn and Jay have created something as immortal as P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster and Jeeves' - Brian Walden in The Standard

书籍描写主人公内阁成员海克尔在上任时第一个职位时，面对着一群在整个部门内的低效的工作人员、和每日做着浪费时间的简报的事情。于是他想寻求爵士汉弗莱爵士的支持和建议，但他遇到的却是善意的阻挠、灵巧的回避和对这一过程的控制，等对汉弗莱爵士的一些性惯用计俩。
而汉弗莱爵士目睹了十多位大臣的来来去去，认为自己的任务是维护根深蒂固的文官或者说包括他自己在内的高级成员的影响。因此他说话时带着老练的口气，因为不管是执政的是哪个党，作为常务次官总的他总是在掌权。
在书籍中汉弗莱·阿普比尔爵士(Sir Humphrey Appleby)把他运用得炉火纯青的智慧，传授给了这位年轻英国文官同事海克尔。
在书籍中，汉弗莱·阿普比尔爵士表示，一般而言，大臣愿意采纳含有简单、迅速、受欢迎，以及便宜等字眼的建议。 同时大臣们会否决含有复杂、冗长、昂贵，及有争议等字眼的建议。最重要的是，如果你把可能被大臣否决的一个建议描述得完整，这样或许让大臣们感觉到此人有胆量。
在BBC电视连续剧《遵命大臣》(Yes Minister)中行政事务部常务次官汉弗莱爵士以这个方式以及其他一百种方式控制他自己的大臣詹姆斯·海克尔(James Hacker)。[1]

Scalpel-sharp in observation, deceptively simple in construction... at its frequent best Yes Prime Minister exhibits the classical perfection of a Mozart sonata' - Richard Last in The Times 'Its closely observed portrayal of what goes on in the corridors of power has given me hours of pure joy' - Rt Hon. Margaret Thatcher MP ' Yes Prime Minister ... is not only a continuing marvel of editing by Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay but also a collector's must' - John Coldstream in the Daily Telegraph ' Yes Prime Minister is a comedy in a class of its own' - Celia Brayfield in The Times