Having access to Netflix's online selections recently, I've discovered the BBC's "Yes, Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister" series from the '80s. I had caught several episodes on the Rhode Island PBS station (WSBE) over the years, but that station hasn't been reliable since the digital broadcast switch last year, coupled with the fact that these shows are out of their so-called 'Brit-com' line-up.
Wikipedia has a nicely done entry on the series, which follows the rise of Jim Hacker MP (played by Paul Eddington) as Minister of the Administrative Affairs department --- and eventually to 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister of the U.K. At his side --- or many times, behind Hacker's back --- is Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne), the permanent secretary who makes the all-too-polite backstabbing, doublespeak and thirst for civil service bureaucratic control look so charming, is ready to wrap everything in red tape at a moment's notice. These two made for such a great acting team, and the script-writing of petty, absurd and Sgt. Shultz-like bureaucracy still has bite nearly 30 years later.
I was an avid watcher of "The West Wing" and I imagine that somewhere in between the style of these shows is how government really functions.
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