User Reviews

Hacker receives a house call from a military commander with some alarming information.

This is an excellent episode that rather disturbingly shows how governments avoid tackling even the most serious issues.

The story involves Hacker being presented with something very serious involving a British connection to international terrorism and this makes the stakes feel much higher than usual. It implies there is no way the politicians and civil service can avoid dealing with this issue, however what follows is quite staggering but not in the least bit surprising.

As ever with 'Yes Minister' there are a number of brilliant sequences of dialogue, the best of which comes when Hacker raise the issue with Humphrey and they discuss the implications of opening such a 'can of worms'.

Probably funniest dialogue is a monologue from Humphrey about not believing in government policy whilst he has spent his entire career executing it.

There are some truly excellent philosophical perspectives presented throughout the episode and a typically civil service strategy is applied with Bernard's suggestion of the Rhodesia solution.

As usual, careers and political ambition reign supreme and by the end I felt about as dejected as Hacker as he opens his second bottle of whiskey.

Performances from all cast are brilliant, especially Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne.

Essentially it follows a standard 'Yes, Minister' formula but the subject matter feels far more disturbing than usual. I rate it just shy of perfect with 9.5/10, but like to round upwards.