"Yes, Prime Minister" The Smoke Screen (1986)

User Rating:

8.7/10   

Director:

Sydney Lotterby

Writers:

Antony Jay (writer) &
Jonathan Lynn (writer)

TV Series:

"Yes, Prime Minister" (1986)

Original Air Date:

23 January 1986 (Season 1, Episode 3)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Sir Humphrey opposes P.M. Hacker's plan to cut taxes, so Hacker steers the Minister for Health into campaigning against smoking as a diversion. |

Plot Keywords:

Prime Minister | Political | 10 Downing Street | House Of Commons | Punctuation In Title

Cast

Paul Eddington	...	James Hacker
Nigel Hawthorne	...	Sir Humphrey Appleby
Derek Fowlds	...	Bernard Woolley
John Barron	...	Sir Ian Whitworth - DHSS Secretary
Clive Merrison	...	Dr. Peter Thorn - Minister of State at the DHSS
Peter Cellier	...	Sir Frank Gordon, Permanent Secretary of the Treasury
Bill Wallis	...	Leslie Potts - Minister for Sport
Brian Hawksley	...	Gerald - Chairman British Tobacco Group

Quotes:

Sir Frank Gordon: But let's be clear about this, Humphrey. The entire system hinges on you as Cabinet Secretary controlling the PM and on me as Permanent Secretary at the Treasury controlling the Chancellor. Right?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Right.
Sir Frank Gordon: And on both of us keeping an agreeable tension between them, mistrust, hostility.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Mind you, I think they'd manage that all right even without us. The Chancellor will never forgive the Prime Minister for beating him to Number 10 and the Prime Minister will never trust the Chancellor. After all, one never trusts anyone one has deceived.