Brighton Theatre Royal Review: I'm Sorry, Prime Minister

Rating: ★★★★

Running Dates: Tuesday 14th July-Saturday 18th July

Where to see it: Brighton Theatre Royal

Duration: 1 hour 55 minutes incl. interval

Review

I’m Sorry, Mr Prime Minister is an affectionate farewell to the beloved characters from the eighties sitcoms “Yes, Minister” And “Yes, Prime Minister”. It keeps the nostalgic sitcom style, with a singular setting, a limited cast, and a simple premise, with cutting dialogue taking centre stage.

Photography by Danny Kaan

We find the former Prime Minister Jim Hacker in his twilight years, past his physical and perhaps intellectual prime, amid the clutter of his rooms at Hacker College in Oxford University. Just as audiences remember him, he remains incapable of holding firm convictions and just as prone to spectacular blunders, which have now left him facing calls from university students to be removed and “cancelled".

Once again, Hacker is forced to call upon his old permanent secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, sharply dressed and comparatively sharp-witted, who is unable to grasp his own fall from power from an influential manipulator and verbose schemer to an abandoned, penniless old man.

The rest of the cast supports the play’s central themes: the decline of Hacker and Sir Humphrey’s relevance and influence. Sir David Knell, a High Court judge, represents the demands of the Oxford students who want Hacker removed from his post and effectively "cancelled." The generational divide is most clearly represented by Hacker's care worker, Sophie. She navigates a delicate balance between exasperation and affection for the two bumbling old men. Through her patience, frustration, and compassion, Sophie offers a more nuanced portrayal of youth than the students' uncompromising demands.

The set is dominated by stacks of files, a wall of the former prime minister’s past and faded importance, now left to gather dust. Hacker and Sir Humphrey are convinced the piles of documents will be valuable and meaningful one day, to a biographer, a prestigious academic institution, or a future historian. Sophie, tasked with sorting through them, finds nothing worth preserving.

The acting is excellent throughout, and the star of the show is Clive Francis as Sir Humphrey Appleby, with immaculate comic timing, effortless physical comedy and perfect delivery of the character’s famous convoluted speeches.

Although the play remains a political satire at heart, its real subject is ageing. Modern politics and culture wars provide plenty of jokes, but they are ultimately a backdrop to a more poignant story about declining influence, fading relevance and the uncomfortable realisation that the world has moved on without you.

The title’s journey from “Yes, Prime Minister” to “I’m sorry, Prime Minister” encapsulates Hacker’s fall from power and influence and serves as a fitting farewell to one of British television’s greatest political characters.

Written by Phoebe Simpson

We were kindly gifted these tickets in exchange for a review