Humphrey Appleby
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Humphrey Appleby | |
|---|---|
 Sir Humphrey Appleby |
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| First appearance | "Open Government" |
| Last appearance | "The Tangled Web" |
| Statistics | |
| Occupation | Permanent Secretary |
| Title | Sir |
| Portrayed by | Nigel Hawthorne |
Sir Humphrey Appleby, GCB, KBE (April 5, 1929 – December 26, 2001)[1] is one of the three main characters of the 1980s British sitcom Yes Minister and its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. He was played by Nigel Hawthorne. In Yes Minister, he is the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Administrative Affairs (a fictitious department of the British government). In the last episode, "Party Games", he becomes Cabinet Secretary, the position he retains during Yes, Prime Minister. Hawthorne's portrayal won the BAFTA Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance four times: 1981, 1982, 1986 and 1987.
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[edit] Character and history
Sir Humphrey is the master of obfuscation and manipulation. He is committed to maintaining the status quo for the country in general and for the Civil Service in particular, and will stop at nothing to do so — whether that means baffling his opponents with technical jargon, strategically appointing allies to supposedly impartial boards, or setting up an interdepartmental committee to smother his Minister's proposals in red tape.
Sir Humphrey won a classical scholarship to Winchester College and then attended Baillie College, Oxford (a possible reference or allusion to Balliol College, Oxford). After National Service in the Army Education Corps he entered the Civil Service. From 1950 to 1956 he was the Regional Contracts Officer, an assistant principal in the Scottish Office, on secondment from the War Office (where he was responsible for a serious mistake that was revealed in "The Skeleton in the Cupboard"). In 1964 he was brought into the newly-formed Department of Administrative Affairs, where he has worked ever since. He is recommended for the KBE early on in the series in "The Official Visit".
Sir Humphrey represents, in many ways, both the ultimate British snob and gentleman. He is pompous, arrogant and elitist, and regards his lesser educated minister with some contempt. He frequently uses his mastery of the English language (and even his superb grasp of Latin and Greek grammar) to perplex his political master. He genuinely believes that the Civil Service knows best how to run the country and what is best for Britain — the joke being that not only is Sir Humphrey quite out of touch with the average person (believing largely that the fact that he went to Oxford and is a career civil servant equips him for deciding what is best for them), but that what is 'best for Britain' is usually translated into meaning what is 'best for the Civil Service'.
He still holds women to be the fairer sex, and is thus overly courteous, frequently addressing them as "Dear lady". Like Hacker, Sir Humphrey enjoys the finer things in life, and is regularly seen drinking sherry and dining at fine establishments, often with his fellow civil servant Sir Arnold Robinson, who was Cabinet Secretary throughout Yes Minister. Sir Humphrey is also on the board of governors of the Royal Opera House and attends many of its gala nights. His interests also extend to cricket, art and theatre.
According to the foreword (dated 2019), of the book The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister by the Rt. Hon. James Hacker MP, a novelisation of the series, he spent his last days in St Dympna's Hospital for the Elderly Deranged, after the "advancing years, without in any way impairing his verbal fluency, disengaged the operation of his mind from the content of his speech."
In a Radio Times interview to promote the first series of Yes, Prime Minister, Nigel Hawthorne stated, "He's raving mad of course. Obsessive about his job. He'd do anything to keep control. In fact, he does go mad in one episode. Quite mad."[2]
[edit] Relationships
In Yes Minister, Sir Humphrey maintains a friendly and deferent but adversarial relationship with his new minister, James Hacker. When keeping the Minister busy is not sufficient to prevent him from proposing new policy, Sir Humphrey is not above deceiving or even blackmailing him. He has a slightly more amicable relationship with his subordinate, the Minister's Principal Private Secretary, Bernard Woolley. He frequently lectures the naïve Woolley in the realities of political matters. When Woolley's loyalty to the Minister is inconvenient to Sir Humphrey's plans, he readily makes oblique threats about Woolley's job security. However, he is equally quick to defend Woolley from outsiders. His closest on-screen friendships are with Sir Arnold Robinson, Cabinet Secretary during Yes Minister; Sir Frederick "Jumbo" Stewart, Permanent Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office; and the banker Sir Desmond Glazebrook. He is married, although his wife plays virtually no role in either series and is only seen once, next to him in bed in the Series One episode "Big Brother".
[edit] Real-life references
Sir Humphrey has become a stereotype associated with civil servants, and the phrase "Bowler-hatted Sir Humphreys" is sometimes used when describing their image. In many instances, British newspapers even print a photo of him to accompany a story about the civil service. Remarks such as "This would make even Sir Humphrey proud" are also made.
Humphrey the cat lived at 10 Downing Street and its associated buildings from 1989 to 1997, from the days of Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair. He was named after the fictional mandarin.
A spoof obituary for Sir Humphrey appears in Politico's Book of the Dead, written by his creators Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. This is the source for some biographical details above, including the dates of birth and death which he shares with Nigel Hawthorne, the actor who portrayed him.
