The classic political satire Yes Minister is being remade by a Dutch TV company, nearly 30 years after it first appeared on British screens – and the central role of Sir Humphrey (originally played by the late Sir Nigel Hawthorne) has been re-cast as a woman! The very idea.
Surely the point of the original was to showcase the behind-the-scenes, all-male bluff and bluster of political manoeuvring – the fusty boys' club where political advancement came with mandatory brandy and backslapping. Most political comedies (see also The Thick of It and The New Statesman) seem to rely on the male protagonists tripping over their own insufferable bravado as they compete for primacy. With the addition of a Machiavellian woman (Sir Humph was always the brains of the operation), it'll reduce the dynamic to one very clever woman perpetually rolling her eyes at the laughable antics of those darn "men", won't it?
For all the talk by the Dutch producer, S&V Fiction, about updating the show for a 21st-century audience, Yes Minister feels like a programme very much rooted in its time. It belongs in the early 1980s, when Thatcherism took hold and greed was good. Launching a new version into these times of global economic gloom feels like bad timing.
Old shows can provide a rich seam of ideas for broadcasters, some more successful than others. An American fondness for remaking our successful series has had mixed results. (Coupling – very bad.) Perhaps the most successful transfer to date has been The Office, in which Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's original was arguably improved (a tall order) by giving it the US treatment.
Perhaps the other most notable remake of the last 10 years, either side of the Atlantic, is Battlestar Galactica. Bearing almost no resemblance to the original (and also re-casting one lead character, Starbuck, as a woman), it plays as a kind of West Wing in space, reaching heights of success and box-set devotion not seen since, well, The West Wing itself.
And still the remakes keep coming. The Americans have finally started work on Absolutely Fabulous, with 3rd Rock from the Sun's Kristen Johnston, and they are also reportedly in talks to do Gavin & Stacey. From Barry Island to Baltimore, perhaps? And in this country we can look forward to the return of Reggie Perrin on ITV1, now played by jug-eared funnyman Martin Clunes, and The Prisoner in a new version for ITV1 starring Jim Caviezel. Bad idea or good idea? Only time will tell.
Which remakes did you think worked or even improved on the original? And which ones need locking in a lead box and dropping to the bottom of the ocean?
