Sir Antony Jay, co-writer of the iconic Yes, Minister satire on the civil service – one of Margaret Thatcher’s favourite TV shows – has died at the age of 86.
He passed away on Sunday evening after a long illness, surrounded by his wife and family.
Sir Antony began his career at the BBC’s current affairs unit, where he was a founding member of the Tonight team. He went on to write scripts for documentaries about the Royals and was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order for personal services to the Royal Family.
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The writer also worked on speeches for senior Conservative politicians including Geoffrey Howe, Nigel Lawson and Margaret Thatcher.
Among those paying tribute to Sir Antony today were his writing partner Jonathan Lynn. He described how the two men never had a cross word in more than 30 years and admitted that he thought the notion of a comedy centred on the civil service was a “dull idea to start with".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, he said the satire was “about officialdom” and was inspired by the diaries of former cabinet minister Richard Crossman.
He paid tribute to his friend: “Tony was somebody I was immensely fond of,” and said that if Sir Antony “had gone into the civil service he would definitely have ended up as a permanent secretary".
The 1980s BBC television series Yes, Minister starred Paul Eddington, as hapless minister James Hacker, and Sir Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey Appleby.
Its success prompted a spin-off, Yes, Prime Minister, which charted the progress of Hacker after entering No 10. Decades after it was written, Yes, Minister is still used as shorthand for describing the culture of the civil service.
Lord Dobbs, the author of House of Cards and a former Conservative government minister, described the comedy as a “programme that could actually engage the attention of Margaret Thatcher. She never watched television, she didn’t have time, yet Yes, Minister was one of her extraordinary favourites".
Sir Antony Jay and Richard Lynn “really got to the heart of so much of what goes on in Whitehall and Westminster and yet managed to do so without cynicism but with a great sense of humour,” he added.
"A genuinely original thinker"
The relevance of the comedy has endured through successive generations of politicians. Former prime minister David Cameron, speaking in 2012, remarked; “I can tell you, as prime minister, it is true to life.”
In the wake of Britain's vote to leave the European Union, Lynn and Jay wrote a new Yes, Minister sketch, which was published in The Guardian newspaper. It portrays the first meeting between a new minister and Sir Humphrey.
The civil servant asks if the minister is a lawyer. “Unfortunately not,” they reply.
Sir Humphrey says: “On the contrary, that is most fortunate. The civil service has always opposed the appointment of anyone with specialised knowledge.”
When the minister asks why, they are told: “Their preconceived ideas may not be compatible with government policy.” When the minister persists, asking: “What if the ideas are good?” Sir Humphrey replies: “Most good ideas are incompatible with government policy.”
"Tony was a fascinating paradox: though part of the establishment, he remained an iconoclast who was willing to make a joke about almost anything" – Jonathan Lynn
In a moving tribute posted on his Facebook page earlier today, Lynn described seeing his old friend for the final time.
“By chance, my wife Rita and I went to visit him on Saturday and saw him before he was taken to the hospital for what turned out to be the last time. He was in pain but when he saw me he smiled and immediately offered me a drink – as he always did. Rita told him that we loved him and he smiled, and then he lapsed into unconsciousness. I am profoundly sad.”
He added: “Tony was a genuinely original thinker, and a very funny writer…Tony was a fascinating paradox: though part of the establishment, he remained an iconoclast who was willing to make a joke about almost anything.”
Reflecting on his decades of working with Sir Antony, Lynn said it was “a perfect partnership and it changed my life...I learned more from him than I could ever explain. He was erudite, witty, full of funny thoughts and new ideas, and utterly easy to work with. His death is, for me, the end of an era.”