NO, PRIME MINISTER
Paul Eddington (Miles Jupp) and the cast of TV’s Yes, Minister, are cajoled into performing a comedy sketch with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Fenella Woolgar).
A comedy drama, based on real events.
It’s 1984, and ‘moral campaigner’ Mary Whitehouse, as President of the National Viewers & Listeners Association, honours the creators of BBC TV’s popular situation comedy, Yes, Minister, with an award ‘for exemplifying wholesome television’.
Yes, Minister actors, Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne are decidedly unenthusiastic at the prospect of receiving an award from Mrs. Whitehouse.
But there is worse to come: Mary Whitehouse manages to persuade the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher to present the award – as it’s her favourite TV programme.
When Eddington hears this news, his fury knows no bounds. The last thing he wants to do is to appear on stage with Mrs Thatcher.
There is, however, still more bad news: Thatcher’s Press Secretary, Bernard Ingham, suggests to the PM that, as part of the ceremony, she could appear in a comedy sketch with the cast of Yes, Minister.
She thinks this is a marvellous idea – it will show the public her ‘softer, more human side’ – and decides that she and her advisers will write the sketch themselves. Rehearsals begin at No 10 in earnest, with civil servants standing in for Eddington & Hawthorne – who, until the night before the awards ceremony, know nothing of this plan.
Our play follows the progress of these rehearsals, intercut with scenes showing the full horror dawning on left-leaning Eddington, as he learns, bit by bit, what is in store for him at the ceremony.
The sketch is finally performed, and broadcast live on BBC Radio 4’s World at One.
[Fenella Woolgar, who plays Margaret Thatcher, received the Sunday Times Culture Award for Stage Performance of the Year for playing Mrs T in Handbagged in the West End, in 2014]
No, Prime Minister
by Mark Burgess
Margaret Thatcher….Fenella Woolgar
Paul Eddington………..Miles Jupp
Nigel Hawthorne……..Richard Attlee
Derek Fowlds…………..James Joyce
Mary Whitehouse……Karen Ascoe
Bernard Ingham……....Geoff Leesley
Sir Robin Butler………..Zeb Soanes
Ronald Millar…………….Nigel Anthony
Patricia Eddington…….Jane Arden
Taxi Driver…………………Julian Parkin
Producer/Director David Blount
Sound Design by David Thomas
Production Co Coordinators: Dawn Williams and Nina Semple
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
On radio
Broadcast
- Tue 18 Aug 202614:15BBC Radio 4
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