The Men From The Ministry

Notes and transcripts
compiled by Gary Schajer, Vancouver, Canada.

This parody of the British Civil Service was popular with both domestic and international audiences. Thirteen series of radio programs totalling 147 episodes were broadcast in the UK by the BBC from 1962 to 1977. Most episodes were also transmitted internationally by the World Service. A further series of 14 episodes was produced for the the BBC Transcription Service, but not broadcast in the UK.

The stereotypical image of haughty Government officials, complete with pin-stripe suits, bowler hats and umbrellas provides the basis for this comedy series. On the surface, these Establishment figures are all-knowing and confident. However, behind the scenes, they are revealed to be all-too-human. They are selfish and are incompetent almost without limit. Yet the parody is done with a light touch, and the unlikely heroes of the stories are always warm and likeable.

The storyline of The Men From The Ministry is centred on the General Assistance Department of an unnamed Government ministry in Whitehall. The function of this department, to assist any other Government department that is overloaded, gives ample opportunity for a wide range of hilarious excapades. The main staff in the department comprises the senior executive, code-named "One", the junior executive, code-named "Two", and their faithful secretary and tea provider, Mildred Murfin. Their domineering and philandering boss, the Under-Secretary Sir Gregory Pitkin, is the main villain of the stories, and is as inept as the others.

In the first two series (1962-65), "One" (Roland Hamilton-Jones) was played by Wilfrid Hyde White, and Sir Gregory Pitkin by Roy Dotrice. In the subsequent series (1966 onwards), Deryck Guyler played "One" (Deryck Lennox-Brown), and Ronald Baddiley played Sir Gregory Pitkin. Throughout all series, "Two" (Richard Lamb) was played by Richard Murdoch, and secretary Mildred Murfin by Norma Ronald. In addition to his script contributions, John Graham played many of the supporting characters. Over the years, several distinguished actors made guest appearances, including Clive Dunn, Patricia Hayes, June Whitfield and Kenneth Horne.

The scripts for The Men From The Ministry were written by Edward Taylor, variously in collaboration with John Graham, Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke. Edward Taylor produced all the episodes. The final Transcription Service series was reworked by Edward Taylor, mostly from the early Wilfrid Hyde White episodes.

The success of The Men From The Ministry extends beyond the BBC programmes. Over 900 episodes were produced and broadcast by Springbok Radio and Radio South Africa from the late 60s to the late 90s. These shows featured the same characters as the BBC episodes, but played by local actors. A few early shows were remakes of BBC episodes, but most were original stories.

A second adaptation of The Men From The Ministry is produced and broadcast by Radio YLE in Finland. Knalli ja sateenvarjo ("Bowler and Brolly") is a popular Finnish language programme with a loyal and appreciative domestic audience. The premise of bowler-hatted twittery within the conservative confines of the British Civil Service is evidently a popular one beyond the English-speaking world. The Finnish version now exceeds the original BBC series both in terms of longevity and number of episodes produced. Most shows are adaptations of the BBC episodes, but the recent episodes are from new scripts written by Edward Taylor.

 
 
Broadcast Schedule

The broadcast schedule gives details of the original thirteen series of BBC episodes of The Men From The Ministry, plus an additional series remade from some of the earlier episodes for the BBC Transcription Service. The titles are those printed in the Radio Times. The Radio Times also gave short introductions to some episodes, but unfortunately only to a few.

In the broadcast schedule, the links to the individual series give transcripts of the opening and closing announcements of most of the episodes. These can be helpful for the identification of undated recordings. For convenience, an alphabetical list of third sentences of the opening announcements is also provided. The transcripts and third sentence list are incomplete because some recordings are truncated or missing from this collection. The author would appreciate being informed of any errors or additions, or the availability of recordings of non-listed episodes.