#100days - '80: Yes, Minister makes its TV debut

The wonderful political sitcom Yes Minister made its TV debut in 1980 - on BBC2, which seems odd in retrospect. It ran for several series before getting reinvented as Yes Prime Minister.

Despite being nearly 40 years old, the show remains timeless. Hapless government ministers, a weak and unstable PM, the British political classes obsessed with Europe - any of that sound familiar?

There's a stage version of Yes Prime Minister too, by the original writers. Biggar Theatre Workshop plans to stage that in May, and I find myself pondering whether I should audition.

The chance to enunciate one of Sir Humphrey Appleby's most grandiloquent soliloquies may prove beyond my capacities to circumvent, no matter how circumspect and - some might say - sagacious such a course of inaction might be...