2 min read
The wit and sparkle of the 1980s TV comedy classic is still there. But the sad truth is that it does not translate well into two hours on stage.
Yes, Prime Minister has been revived for the new millennium. The political landscape has changed, global warming is on the agenda, and there is a coalition government in power.
But the same PM is clinging nervously to power, his Cabinet Secretary is still practising dark arts to block his every move, and Westminster and Whitehall remain as morally bankrupt as they ever were.
All credit to Anthony Jay and Jonathan Lynn who jointly created these brilliant characters for their original BBC sitcom, Yes Minister, and its Number 10-based sequel.
The stage spin-off is amusing, but disappointingly flawed. The dialogue is sharp, the satire still biting, but it really does have the feel of a half-hour show that has been stretched almost to breaking point to fill the expanded format.
Jay and Lynn have joined forces again on a script that is good fun, with some truly hilarious one-liners, but they have had to concoct an utterly ridiculous plotline to hold it all together.
It is as though they have collected all the best bits of dialogue from over the years, honed and updated them, and then found they do not have the glue to stick them together.
What they have come up with is a plot in which the president of a fictional oil-rich nation is staying at Chequers and requests an under-age schoolgirl for his pleasure on the night before a crucial deal is to be signed. If the PM does not oblige the deal will collapse, and if he does . . . well, it is not an entirely prime ministerial way to behave and if the press got to hear of it, the consequences would be catastrophic.
This might have worked as a fanciful aside, but it is not strong enough to hang the whole play on.
Not only that, but as the clock ticks away and the president becomes increasingly impatient, an entirely different and unrelated plotline begins to unfold.
Any tension that may have been mounting is swept aside by the arrival of the BBC Director-General for a showdown on funding. It felt like an extra scene had been bolted on.
If the criticism sounds harsh, it is probably because the play falls so short of high expectations.
In spite of everything this West End production, directed by Lynn and now on a 20-week UK tour, still has enjoyable elements. Simon Williams, as the scheming Sir Humphrey, delights in pedantry and obfuscation, and wins applause as he rattles through a breathtaking, Just a Minute-style delivery of a monologue.
Richard McCabe as PM Jim Hacker bounces between statesman - with a couple of amusing nods to Churchill - and quivering wreck, literally cowering under the desk of his oak-panelled office on the brink of resignation. Or, even more improbably, turning to prayer to get him out of a tight fix.
Chris Larkin was Bernard the bag carrier and Charlotte Lucas was a new addition to the all-male trio as a special policy advisor.
If you were a fan in the original TV shows, it will be a pleasant evening, but more "maybe, Prime Minister", than an overwhelming "yes, Prime Minister".
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