“Official Secrets” is the tenth episode of the BBC comedy series Yes, Prime Minister and was first broadcast 10 December 1987.
The controversy over the publication of a former minister's memoirs (in this case, those of Hacker's predecessor as Prime Minister) is particularly similar to the legal proceedings that surrounded the posthumous publication of the memoirs of Labour minister Richard Crossman in 1974.
The theme of a civil servant leaking in...
more
“Official Secrets” is the tenth episode of the BBC comedy series Yes, Prime Minister and was first broadcast 10 December 1987.
The controversy over the publication of a former minister's memoirs (in this case, those of Hacker's predecessor as Prime Minister) is particularly similar to the legal proceedings that surrounded the posthumous publication of the memoirs of Labour minister Richard Crossman in 1974.
The theme of a civil servant leaking information which contradicts the version given by ministers (the unnamed official at the Energy department) and the desire of the civil servant for a "clear conscience" (Bernard Woolley) is similar to the case of Clive Ponting. Ponting was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act for leaking information which indicated that when the British sank the Argentine battleship General Belgrano during the Falklands War it did not actually constitute a threat to the British Task Force sent to retake the islands.
The expulsion of 76 Soviet diplomats...
less
