Yes Minister - Other Characters

Other Characters

The series featured a cast of recurring characters.

• Frank Weisel (often deprecatingly pronounced weasel), played by Neil Fitzwiliam, was Hacker's political adviser in the first series. The less scrupulous Hacker eventually found him rather tiresome (and Mrs. Hacker wondered why he " just move in") and he was sent on a worldwide fact-finding assignment from which he did not return to the cast.
• It was not until Yes, Prime Minister that another such character appeared regularly: Dorothy Wainwright, special adviser to the Prime Minister, who was played by Deborah Norton. Earlier Prime Ministerial advisers had appeared from time to time in episodes of Yes Minister, including Daniel Moynihan as Daniel Hughes in "The Writing on the Wall" (1980) and Nigel Stock as Sir Mark Spencer in "Bed of Nails" (1982).
• Hacker also had a Press Secretary, Bill Pritchard, played by Antony Carrick.

Meanwhile, Sir Humphrey's civil service colleagues were regularly featured.

• They included Sir Arnold Robinson (played by John Nettleton), Cabinet Secretary in Yes Minister and later President of the Campaign for Freedom of Information;
• Sir Frederick Stewart (played by John Savident), Permanent Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, known as "Jumbo" to his friends;
• Sir Ian Whitchurch (played by John Barron), Permanent Secretary to the Department of Health and Social Security
• Sir Richard Wharton (played by Donald Pickering), Permanent Secretary to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
• Sir Frank Gordon, who appeared in both series of Yes, Prime Minister as Permanent Secretary to the Treasury (played by Peter Cellier).
• Sir Humphrey also had an old acquaintance: Sir Desmond Glazebrook (played by Richard Vernon), who was Board member, then Chairman, of Bartlett's Bank. He became Governor of the Bank of England in the Yes, Prime Minister episode "A Conflict of Interest". (This was to avoid, as one possibility, Britain's expulsion from the Commonwealth.)

Hacker's family:

• His wife, Annie Hacker (played by Diana Hoddinott), who appeared in several episodes, and
• His daughter, Lucy (played by Gerry Cowper), who only appeared on-screen in one episode ("The Right to Know") but who is mentioned intermittently throughout.
• At one point (in "Party Games") it is stated that the Hackers have more than one child.

Others:

• Lady Appleby, Sir Humphrey's wife, is mentioned on occasion and seen only briefly in "Big Brother".
• Various Chief Whips, usually acting in Yes Minister as a "gatekeeper" to the unseen Prime Minister, the first of whom, Vic Gould, was played by Edward Jewesbury.
• Hacker's chauffeur, George (Arthur Cox), appeared in five episodes. He is a character who is always more in touch with current events than the Minister—anything from empty NHS hospitals to Cabinet reshuffles. This often irritates Hacker who, when he asks George where the information came from, is usually told that it is common knowledge among the Whitehall drivers.
• Tom Sargent (Robert Urquhart), Hacker's predecessor as Minister for Administrative Affairs in the previous government, appeared in the episode "Big Brother".
• Basil Corbett is a rival politician who, though he is not seen, is central to the plot of "The Devil You Know".
• Well-known broadcasters who played themselves included Robert McKenzie, Ludovic Kennedy and Sue Lawley. Robert Dougall regularly played a newsreader, which was his own real life profession. Another newscaster, Nicholas Witchell, can be heard reporting on Hacker's visit to a school in "The National Education Service".