Jonathan Lynn

Video - Meet the author: Jonathan Lynn

Jonathan Lynn, best known as the co-writer of Yes Minister, talks to Nick Higham about his book Comedy Rules.

His latest work acts as both a guide and memoir of working in entertainment.

Yes, Minister: Sir Humphrey has all the solutions

As the classic political sitcom takes to the West End stage, Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn imagine what Sir Humphrey would make of Whitehall today.

Yes, Prime Minister is back as a West End show

Whitehall's most adversarial couple, the Rt Honourable Jim Hacker MP and Sir Humphrey, his Permanent Secretary, immortalised by Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne, are back - this time on the stage, thanks to their original creators Jonathan Lynn and Sir Antony Jay.

Yes, Prime Minister, at the Chichester Festival Theatre

Twenty-three years after they wrote the final episode of Yes, Prime Minister, the show's creators Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn have put their characters into a stage play. Is that what Sir Humphrey Appleby might term "a brave decision"?

Yes, Prime Minister (BBC2) is a slight variation of the Bertie Wooster and Jeeves format. The servant rules the roost, and the rooster and the Wooster. Bertie will never wear that gaudy tie, amaze his friends on the banjo, never grow a moustache or marry Bobbie or Stiffie or Nobby or Corky. A shadow no bigger than a butler hangs over all these small attempts to brighten Mayfair life. They would not suit Jeeves.

The more you watch Yes, Prime Minister (BBC2), the more the pigs look like men and the men like pigs.

I was about to say (for I am basically kind and constructive) that it was not the fault of the actors but the scriptwriters. I see, however, that the scriptwriters were the actors. I cannot but feel that this is a false economy. The audience were not all there and I don't blame them. I'd have left early too.