The Best Episodes of Yes, Prime Minister
Last Updated: May 17, 2019
Yes, Prime Minister is the sequel to the popular British series Yes Minister. It aired from 1986 to 1988 and is the story of the continuing battles between Jim Hacker, who is now Prime Minister, and Sir Humphrey, who has been promoted to Cabinet Secretary.
#1 - The Key
Season 1 - Episode 4
Office politics take precedence over national issues when Sir Humphrey and Bernard fall out with each other after Jim tries to restrict Sir Humphrey's access to No 10.
8.67 
#2 - A Real Partnership
Season 1 - Episode 5
Sir Humphrey tries to get his scheduled pay raise even though increases for MPs have been put on hold for budgetary reasons.
8.48 
#3 - The Grand Design
Season 1 - Episode 1
After talking with his military advisers, Jim comes up with the idea of cancelling trident and reintroducing conscription. He also gets what no other Prime Minister has gotten, a cook / housekeeper.
8.46 
#4 - One of Us
Season 1 - Episode 8
Hacker threatens to place Sir Humphrey on leave while a security inquiry looks into why he cleared a confessed Soviet spy many years earlier, so Sir Humphrey retaliates with a dog in distress on Salisbury plain.
8.44 
#5 - The Ministerial Broadcast
Season 1 - Episode 2
Jim is coached in the world of show business as he prepares to address the nation on his defence policy.
8.36 
#6 - The Bishop's Gambit
Season 1 - Episode 7
Jim has to choose a new bishop but doesn't like either the Church or Sir Humphrey's choices.
8.35 
#7 - A Victory for Democracy
Season 1 - Episode 6
Jim must take action to avert a Marxist takeover of a Commonwealth island nation despite the efforts of the Foreign Office to keep him ignorant.
8.19 
#8 - The Tangled Web
Season 2 - Episode 8
Sir Humphrey has to decide if he will support the PM or inform Parliament when Hacker denies knowledge of a wiretap authorized by his office without his knowledge.
8.15 
#9 - The Smoke Screen
Season 1 - Episode 3
Jim favors abolishing smoking through heavy taxation but runs into strong opposition from the tobacco lobby and the Treasury department.
8.09 
#10 - Official Secrets
Season 2 - Episode 2
Jim considers approving the publication of his predecessor's memoirs, but it becomes a plumber's nightmare as a series of leaks spring up.
8.06 
#11 - A Diplomatic Incident
Season 2 - Episode 3
Jim uses the occasion of his predecessor's state funeral to negotiate with the French over the conditions of the channel tunnel.
8.06 
#12 - The Patron of the Arts
Season 2 - Episode 6
Sir Humphrey works against Hacker over the issues of funding the National Theater when the PM asks for help containing criticism from the Theater's director.
8.05 
#13 - Man Overboard
Season 2 - Episode 1
Sir Humphrey makes Jim suspicious of the Minister of Employment when he needs the PM's support in opposing a plan to shift military personnel from the south to the north of England.
8.04 
#14 - The National Education Service
Season 2 - Episode 7
Sir Humphrey faces a conflict of interest when Hacker devises a plan to improve educational standards by abolishing the Department of Education and Science.
7.88 
#15 - Power to the People
Season 2 - Episode 5
Sir Humphrey makes a very strange ally out of the formidable Agnes Moorhouse, a radical political reformer from a London council, in his efforts to stop Hacker's plans to make local government more democratic.
7.82 
#16 - A Conflict of Interest
Season 2 - Episode 4
Hacker and Sir Humphrey clash over the appointment of the governor of the Bank of England and the cover up of a banking scandal in the City.
7.64