Yes, Prime Minister (TV Series)
The Key (1986)
Nigel Hawthorne: Sir Humphrey Appleby
Photos
Quotes
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Sir Humphrey Appleby : Prime Minister, I must protest in the strongest possible terms my profound opposition to a newly instituted practice which imposes severe and intolerable restrictions upon the ingress and egress of senior members of the hierarchy and which will, in all probability, should the current deplorable innovation be perpetuated, precipitate a constriction of the channels of communication, and culminate in a condition of organisational atrophy and administrative paralysis which will render effectively impossible the coherent and co-ordinated discharge of the function of government within Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Jim Hacker : You mean you've lost your key?
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[the PM is considering taking the joint headship of the civil service away from Humphrey and making Frank the full head]
Sir Humphrey Appleby : Oh, Frank.
Sir Frank Gordon : Yes?
Sir Humphrey Appleby : Good meeting with the PM?
Sir Frank Gordon : Yes, very good.
Sir Humphrey Appleby : Good. Any particular subject come up?
Sir Frank Gordon : Any particular subject you're interested in?
Sir Humphrey Appleby : No, not particularly. He didn't raise the issue of service appointments and so on?
Sir Frank Gordon : It may have cropped up.
Sir Humphrey Appleby : Did he foreshadow any redistribution of responsibility?
Sir Frank Gordon : Shall we say it was a wide-ranging discussion.
Sir Humphrey Appleby : Did it move towards any conclusion?
Sir Frank Gordon : There were arguments on both sides.
Sir Humphrey Appleby : Evenly balanced?
Sir Frank Gordon : Perhaps tending slightly more one way than the other.
Sir Humphrey Appleby : But nothing to worry about?
Sir Frank Gordon : Nothing for *me* to worry about. See you this afternoon.
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Jim Hacker : People can wait in the lobby. Or in the state rooms.
Sir Humphrey Appleby : Some people. But some people must wait where other people cannot see the people who are waiting. And people who arrive before other people must wait where they cannot see the people who arrive after them being admitted before them. And people who come in from outside must wait where they cannot see the people from inside coming in to tell you what the people from outside have come to see you about. And people who arrive when you are with people they are not supposed to know you have seen must wait somewhere until the people who are not supposed to have seen you have seen you.
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Bernard Woolley : My God!
Sir Humphrey Appleby : No, Bernard. It's just your boss.
