Who was this country's greatest Prime Minister? Winston Churchill? Margaret Thatcher? Liz Truss? Stop sniggering at the back. Or maybe Jim Hacker, the fictional star of classic 1980s BBC sitcom Yes, Minister who rose to take the highest office in the land in Yes, Prime Minister. And now Hacker is back. Onstage in I'm Sorry, Prime Minister, with the role originated by the late Paul Eddington played by Griff Rhys Jones.
It is another career swerve for the versatile 71-year-old comic and actor. Rhys Jones was famous for being half of a double act with Mel Smith, who died, aged 60, in 2013. In I'm Sorry, Prime Minister he is in a new double act, with Clive Francis as his smooth talking permanent secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby. "I adore Clive. The idea of forming a relationship with an actor is one of the greatest joys of doing a play together," says Rhys Jones.
This new satire, written and co-directed by original creator Jonathan Lynn, has a timely theme. Hacker is retired from politics and has a cushy senior position at Oxford. But after an inappropriate remark faces expulsion. Can master of double-speak Sir Humphrey work his old magic and extricate him from this woke-shaped hole?
The Wales-born, Essex-schooled all-rounder always sounds positively enthused by whatever he is doing, whether it is acting, comedy or travelogues, but he is particularly excited about this role: "This play is really quite elegiac in a nice of way. It's about two retired people whose power has gone. They attempt to see if they can exercise some of it only to find that all the levers are not connected anymore."
Jonathan Lynn has compared this final chapter in the life of Jim Hacker to King Lear, but funnier: "Well, that's possibly the only way I'll ever get close to playing King Lear, if that's the case," laughs Rhys Jones before agreeing. "Yes, it's got an element of that. About great men no longer being powerful anymore.
Nobody would dare to suggest that Jones isn't still at the height of his powers. In fact it struck me as odd that he has been cast as someone in his mid-eighties. In his last play in 2022, An Hour And A Half Late, he was middle aged, so he has aged two decades since then. Now that's range...
Although rehearsals are some way off, he has already given the matter considerable thought. "I can play older. I've already discussed this with colleagues and one very famous actor said to me 'don't do doddery'."
Rhys Jones didn't know Paul Eddington, even though their BBC careers overlapped. There's a grainy archive picture online of high-kicking light entertainment luminaries such as Terry Wogan and Les Dawson at a 1980 PR launch. Eddington and an impossibly young Rhys Jones are a few feet apart. "Unfortunately that's the closest we ever got. But I know so many people who worked with him and loved him."
In fact Jones has had a few near misses in his time. I wondered if he has met any of the recent Prime Ministers. "Not since Tony Blair. I once went to a Spectator thing and Boris Johnson came out and was sort of being harassed on all sides because of some article about the Queen Mother or something and I think that was probably the nearest I got..."
The political landscape has certainly changed since the 1980s. The fictional world of Jim Hacker seems benign compared to both the expletive-filled sitcom successor The Thick Of It and the modern reality. "Politics ought to be the art of the possible but it seems to be about is the art of the impossible," observes Rhys Jones. "One of the major problems is that government can't seem to do anything. That's one of the reasons why they are opening the door for people like Reform."
Interestingly we never quite know what party Jim Hacker led. The assumption is the Conservative Party, but Rhys Jones can't or won't confirm: "He is is a man whose views were shaped in the 1980s and he's now in a conundrum which he has to politick his way out, so he's hoping his old companion in arms can sort out this problem. The story is what political shenanigans they can do to extract him from this...but I'm not going to give away the ending."
I'm Sorry, Prime Minister is about contemporary politics but at heart is a poignant observation on ageing: "The way that the world closes in around you. It's a journey. What I love about the play is it addresses that journey."
Its star clearly doesn't appear to have any inclination to wind down..."I'm like John Gielgud at 96 asking why they weren't offering him more parts. You know when they say 70 is the new 50 it doesn't even occur to me, I've been touring, I've got a TV drama and, I believe, I'm doing another play after this play if I survive!"
As for working with Clive Francis, while nobody can ever replace Mel Smith, he adds that they are a good fit. "I've always had good fortune in the people that I've done plays with. I love working with somebody who is a giver you know. And that was the thing that was unbeatable about Mel. We had so many different personality traits, but once we were onstage we just adored acting together."
I'm Sorry, Prime Minister at at the Apollo Theatre from January 30 - April 25, 2026. Tickets on sale now from: www.imsorryprimeminister.com
