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* DirtyOldMan: Sir Gregory is after young women of the Ministry, especially Ms. Daphney Bentwater rom the typing pool.
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* DirtyOldMan: Sir Gregory is after young women of the Ministry, especially Ms. Daphney Bentwater rom from the typing pool.
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Changed line(s) 13 (click to see context) from:
* AccidentalMisnaming: At one point Sir Gregory, [[ItMakesSenseInContext thinking his in grave danger in an inoperable underwater submarine]], calls Lennox-Brown "Frederik." In the Finnish version he calls him (in this case Hamilton Jones) "Attila."[[note]] As mentioned below, Hamilton Jones' first name in the Finnish version is Hannibal.[[/note]]
to:
* AccidentalMisnaming: At one point Sir Gregory, [[ItMakesSenseInContext thinking his he's in grave danger in an inoperable underwater submarine]], calls Lennox-Brown "Frederik." In the Finnish version he calls him (in this case Hamilton Jones) "Attila."[[note]] As mentioned below, Hamilton Jones' first name in the Finnish version is Hannibal.[[/note]]
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* CriticalResearchFailure: In-Universe, in ''The Big Big Big Ben Bungle'' Lamb refers to the "Hunchback of [[Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Amsterdam]]"
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* CriticalResearchFailure: In-Universe, in ''The Big Big Big Ben Bungle'' Lamb refers to the "Hunchback of [[Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Amsterdam]]"
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* HypocriticalHumour: When planning on giving a petition about the poor quality of Ministry's bathrooms Mr. Crawley says that they have to stand up to Sir Gregory. After the exchange with him about it:
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* HypocriticalHumour: When planning on giving a petition about the poor quality of Ministry's bathrooms Mr. Crawley says that they have to stand up to Sir Gregory. After the exchange talking with him about it:
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* HypocriticalHumour: When planning on giving a petition about the poor quality of Ministry's bathrooms Mr. Crawley says that they have to stand up to Sir Gregory. After the exchange with him about it:
-->'''Mr. Crawley''': I said we just have to stand up to him.
-->'''Lennox-Brown''': You can come out from under the desk now.
-->'''Mr. Crawley''': I said we just have to stand up to him.
-->'''Lennox-Brown''': You can come out from under the desk now.
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* AccidentalMisnaming: At one point Sir Gregory, [[ItMakesSenseInContext thinking his in grave danger in an inoperable underwater submarine]], calls Lennox-Brown "Frederik." In the Finnish version he calls him (in this case Hamilton Jones) "Attila."[[note]] As mentioned below, Hamilton Jones' first name in the Finnish version is Hannibal.[[/note]]
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* ComicallyMissingThePoint: After Lamb scolds Mildred over the typos on a recent memo, this exchange occurs:
-->'''Mildred''': It's Mr. Lennox-Brown's dictation, I can't hear him properly through a mouthful of biscuits.
-->'''Lamb''': Well you shouldn't eat biscuits when he's dictating.
-->'''Mildred''': It's Mr. Lennox-Brown's dictation, I can't hear him properly through a mouthful of biscuits.
-->'''Lamb''': Well you shouldn't eat biscuits when he's dictating.
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-->'''Mr. Lamb''': Er, there's been a slight typing error sir.
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Deleted line(s) 24 (click to see context) :
* DubNameChange: The Finnish version has a lot of these. Most notably from Sir Gregory to Sir Henry, Roland to Hannibal and Derryck to Roland. in addition, many of the episodes originally featuring Lenox-Brown were aired with Hammilton-Jones in his place, and the change was only made due [[AuthorExistenceFailure due the actor Kauko Helovirta's death in 1997]].
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* DubNameChange: The Finnish version has a lot of these. Most notably from Sir Gregory to Sir Henry, Roland to Hannibal and Derryck to Roland. in addition, many of the episodes originally featuring Lenox-Brown were aired with Hammilton-Jones in his place, and the change was only made due [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim due the actor Kauko Helovirta's death in 1997]].
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* TyopOnTheCover: Mildred is bound to make these
-->'''Lennox-Brown''': (reading the memo) The festival was intended by the Minister for the Arts and other very [[TheLoinsSleepTonight impotent]] people.
-->'''Lennox-Brown''': (reading the memo) The festival was intended by the Minister for the Arts and other very [[TheLoinsSleepTonight impotent]] people.
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* TyopOnTheCover: Mildred is bound to make these
-->'''Lennox-Brown''': (readingtypos, leading to this:
-->'''Sir Gregory''': Now where's thememo) The festival was intended by arts-council report, I expected my copy yesterday.
-->'''Mr. Lamb''': Er, there's been a slight typing error sir.
-->'''Sir Gregory''': Yes, I can see it from here. On theMinister cover it says, "A report for the Arts and other very [[TheLoinsSleepTonight impotent]] people.[=HoMo=] secretary."[[note]]For those that don't get it, should say H.M. "Her Majesty's"[[/note]]
-->'''Lennox-Brown''': (reading
-->'''Sir Gregory''': Now where's the
-->'''Mr. Lamb''': Er, there's been a slight typing error sir.
-->'''Sir Gregory''': Yes, I can see it from here. On the
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* SpotOfTea: One and Two love tea beyond anything as the British gentleman's they are.
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* SpotOfTea: One and Two love tea beyond anything as the British gentleman's gentlemen they are.
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Changed line(s) 74 (click to see context) from:
** Mr. Crawley always forgets names of basic everyday things and call them "Whats-It's-Names."
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** Mr. Crawley always forgets names of basic everyday things and call calls them "Whats-It's-Names."
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* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Episode ''Bare Necessities'' has One and Two stripping down in order to negotiate with the owner of a Nudist colony about buying the land, but since they do it in the night they keep going into wrong houses in the dark,
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* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Episode ''Bare Necessities'' has One and Two stripping down in order to negotiate with the owner of a Nudist colony about buying the land, but since they do it in the night they keep going into wrong houses in the dark,dark.
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-->''Sir Gregory''': (''completely calm'') Lamb, in all my years in the public service I have never encountered such asinining incompetence...
to:
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-->''Sir Gregory'': (''completely calm'') Lamb, in all my years in the public service I have never encountered such asinining incompetence...
-->''Lamb'': Don't try to hide it Sir Gregory, you're crossed out.
-->''Sie Gregory'': Crossed? ''Crossed?'' '''[[SuddenlyShouting I'll murder you!]] I'll shake you 'til the sawdust runs out of your ears!'''
-->''Lamb'': Don't try to hide it Sir Gregory, you're crossed out.
-->''Sie Gregory'': Crossed? ''Crossed?'' '''[[SuddenlyShouting I'll murder you!]] I'll shake you 'til the sawdust runs out of your ears!'''
to:
-->''Sir Gregory'': Gregory''': (''completely calm'') Lamb, in all my years in the public service I have never encountered such asinining incompetence...
-->''Lamb'': -->'''Lamb''': Don't try to hide it Sir Gregory, you're crossed out.
-->''Sie Gregory'': -->'''Sir Gregory''': Crossed? ''Crossed?'' '''[[SuddenlyShouting I'll murder you!]] I'll shake you 'til the sawdust runs out of your ears!'''
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-->''Sie Gregory'': Crossed? ''Crossed?'' '''[[SuddendlyShouting I'll murder you!]] I'll shake you 'til the sawdust runs out of your ears!'''
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-->''Sie Gregory'': Crossed? ''Crossed?'' '''[[SuddendlyShouting '''[[SuddenlyShouting I'll murder you!]] I'll shake you 'til the sawdust runs out of your ears!'''
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* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: April Adams, General Assistance Department's second secretary, disspeared without a word after the first series, [[AdaptedOut and was replaced by Mr. Crawley/Wilkins and other characters in the 1980 re-recordings and the Finnish translations.]]
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* DubNameChange: The Finnish version has a lot of these. Most notably from Sir Gregory to Sir Henry, Roland to Hannibal and Derryck to Roland. in addition, many of the episodes originally featuring Lenox-Brown were aired with Hammilton-Jones in his place, and the change was only made due [[AuthorExistenceFailure due the actor Kauko Helovirta's death in 1997]]
to:
* DubNameChange: The Finnish version has a lot of these. Most notably from Sir Gregory to Sir Henry, Roland to Hannibal and Derryck to Roland. in addition, many of the episodes originally featuring Lenox-Brown were aired with Hammilton-Jones in his place, and the change was only made due [[AuthorExistenceFailure due the actor Kauko Helovirta's death in 1997]]1997]].
* DirtyOldMan: Sir Gregory is after young women of the Ministry, especially Ms. Daphney Bentwater rom the typing pool.
* DirtyOldMan: Sir Gregory is after young women of the Ministry, especially Ms. Daphney Bentwater rom the typing pool.
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* HatDamage: Something happening to bowler hats is bit of a RunningGag in the show.
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* INeedAFreakingDrink: What's Lennox-Brown's reaction after finding out that they've not only destroyed Sir Gregory's house, but also put a Victorian Era Convinience in it's place?
--> ''Get the brandy from the first aid cabinet.''
--> ''Get the brandy from the first aid cabinet.''
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* NeverMyFault: When something goes wrong, One will sometimes blame Two for what has happened, even when he is just as (or even ''solely'') responsible.
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* TranquilFury: After Lamb accidentally buys thousand pounds worth of light stilton cheese, Sir Gregory is pretty much this.
-->''Sir Gregory'': (''completely calm'') Lamb, in all my years in the public service I have never encountered such asinining incompetence...
-->''Lamb'': Don't try to hide it Sir Gregory, you're crossed out.
-->''Sie Gregory'': Crossed? ''Crossed?'' '''[[SuddendlyShouting I'll murder you!]] I'll shake you 'til the sawdust runs out of your ears!'''
** Even more so in the Finnish version, where he delivers the death threat with complete serenity.
-->''Sir Gregory'': (''completely calm'') Lamb, in all my years in the public service I have never encountered such asinining incompetence...
-->''Lamb'': Don't try to hide it Sir Gregory, you're crossed out.
-->''Sie Gregory'': Crossed? ''Crossed?'' '''[[SuddendlyShouting I'll murder you!]] I'll shake you 'til the sawdust runs out of your ears!'''
** Even more so in the Finnish version, where he delivers the death threat with complete serenity.
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* CompositeCharacter: The Finnish version combined the characters of Mr. "Whizzer" Wilkins and Mr. "Creepy" Crawley ([[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute who were pretty much the same one already]]) into "Vinku" Wilkins, taking the former's stuttering, absent-mindedness as well as the name and the latter's VerbalTic.
to:
* CompositeCharacter: The Finnish version combined the characters of Mr. "Whizzer" Wilkins and Mr. "Creepy" Crawley ([[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute who were pretty much the same one already]]) into "Vinku" Wilkins, taking the former's stuttering, name, stuttering and absent-mindedness as well as the name and the latter's VerbalTic.
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** There is also Mr. Rudge from another office ([[NewJobAsThePlotDemands exactly what keeps changing]]), who's a subject of many [[NoodleIncident Noodle Incidents]].
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* CompositeCharacter: The Finnish version combined the characters of Mr. "Whizzer" Wilkins and Mr. "Creepy" Crawley ([[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute who were pretty much the same one already]]) into "Vinku" Wilkins, taking the former's stuttering, absent-mindedness as well as the name and the latter's VerbalTic.
* InsultToRocks: In one of the episodes written exclusively for YLE has Mildred's boyfriend comparing Lamb's mind to a sieve. Mildred protests, as something actually sometimes stays in sieve.
* NotSoDire: One episode opens with One and Two talking about a alarming national catastrophe that's threatening entire nation's pride. Then we find out they're talking about losing a cricket match to West Indies.
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** Mr. Crawley always forget names of basic everyday things and call them "Whats-It's-Names."
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** Mr. Crawley always forget forgets names of basic everyday things and call them "Whats-It's-Names."
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* DubNameChange: The Finnish version has a lot of these. Most notably from Sir Gregory to Sir Henry, Roland to Hannibal and Derryck to Roland. in addition, many of the episodes originally featuring Lenox-Brown were aired with Hammilton-Jones in his place, and the change was only made due [[AuthorExistenceFailure due the actor Kauko Helovirta's death in 1997]]
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Changed line(s) 5,6 (click to see context) from:
The show is set on the Ministry's “General Assistance Department,” an office that is designed to help other offices when they are overloaded with too much work. Typical episodes are centered around one or two assigments given by other offices. The staff of General Assistance Department are lazy and incompetent people determent to tangle in every bureaucratic thing, and HilarityEnsues: Assigments are mixed up, there are memos and letters that end up to the wrong people and misunderstandings resulting from communication problems. The result is usually complete chaos, ranging from traffic warden's ending up with ballerina outfits to the whole Britain losing all physical currency.
to:
The show is set on the Ministry's “General Assistance Department,” an office that is designed to help other offices when they are overloaded with too much work. Typical episodes are centered around one or two assigments given by other offices. The staff of General Assistance Department are lazy and incompetent people determent to tangle in every bureaucratic thing, and HilarityEnsues: Assigments are mixed up, there are memos and letters that end up to the wrong people and misunderstandings resulting from communication problems. The result is usually complete chaos, ranging from traffic warden's wardens ending up with ballerina outfits to the whole Britain losing all physical currency.
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** Mr. Crawley/Mr. Wilkins always forget names of basic everyday things and call them "Whats-It's-Names."
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** Mr. Crawley/Mr. Wilkins Crawley always forget names of basic everyday things and call them "Whats-It's-Names."
* WentToTheGreatXInTheSky: Dying is often used with an euphemism of "Going to the Great Ministry in the Sky."
* WentToTheGreatXInTheSky: Dying is often used with an euphemism of "Going to the Great Ministry in the Sky."
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Changed line(s) 58 (click to see context) from:
** Mr. Crawley/Mr. Wilkins always forget names of basic everyday things and call them "Whats-It's-Name."
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** Mr. Crawley/Mr. Wilkins always forget names of basic everyday things and call them "Whats-It's-Name."Whats-It's-Names."
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Changed line(s) 58 (click to see context) from:
** Mr. Crawley/Mr. Wilkins always forget names of basic everyday things and call them "What's-It's-Name."
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** Mr. Crawley/Mr. Wilkins always forget names of basic everyday things and call them "What's-It's-Name."Whats-It's-Name."
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** Mr. Crawley/Mr. Wilkins always forget names of basic everyday things and call them "What's-It's-Name."
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'''The Men from the Ministry''' is a radio Sitcom and a political satire produced by Creator/TheBBC which ran from 1962 to 1977, with one additional series made of re-recordings produced by BBC Transcription Services in 1980, which was never aired. This sort-of radio forerunner to the ''Series/YesMinister'' was created by Edward Taylor and starred Wilfrid Hyde-White and Richard Murdoch as civil servants Roland Hamilton-Jones (“One”) and Richard Lamb (“Two”), with the former leaving after two series and being replaced by Deryck Guyler's Deryck Lennox-Brown (Also referred to as “One”). Other characters of the show are the duo's secretary Mildred Murfin (Norma Ronald) and their rather tyrannical, self-centered boss and Permanent Under-secretary, Sir Gregory Pitkin (Roy Dotrice on the first two series, Ronald Badley third series onward).
to:
'''The Men from the Ministry''' is a radio Sitcom and a political satire produced by Creator/TheBBC which ran from 1962 to 1977, with one additional series made of re-recordings produced by BBC Transcription Services in 1980, which was never aired. This sort-of radio forerunner to the ''Series/YesMinister'' was created by Edward Taylor and starred Wilfrid Hyde-White and Richard Murdoch as civil servants Roland Hamilton-Jones (“One”) and Richard Lamb (“Two”), with the former leaving after two series and being replaced by Deryck Guyler's Deryck Lennox-Brown (Also referred to as “One”). Other characters of the show are the duo's secretary Mildred Murfin (Norma Ronald) and their rather tyrannical, self-centered boss and Permanent Under-secretary, Sir Gregory Pitkin (Roy Dotrice on the first two series, Ronald Badley third series onward).
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Changed line(s) 5,6 (click to see context) from:
The show is set on the Ministry's “General Assistance Department,” an office that is designed to help other offices when they are overladen with too much work. Typical episodes are centered around one or two assigments given by other offices. The staff of General Assistance Department are lazy and incompetent people determent to tangle in every bureaucratic thing, and HilarityEnsues: Assigments are mixed up, there are memos and letters that end up to the wrong people and misunderstandings resulting from communication problems. The result is usually complete chaos, ranging from traffic warden's ending up with ballerina outfits to the whole Britain losing all physical currency.
to:
The show is set on the Ministry's “General Assistance Department,” an office that is designed to help other offices when they are overladen overloaded with too much work. Typical episodes are centered around one or two assigments given by other offices. The staff of General Assistance Department are lazy and incompetent people determent to tangle in every bureaucratic thing, and HilarityEnsues: Assigments are mixed up, there are memos and letters that end up to the wrong people and misunderstandings resulting from communication problems. The result is usually complete chaos, ranging from traffic warden's ending up with ballerina outfits to the whole Britain losing all physical currency.
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* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Constant source of comedy: wehnever One and Two oversee in the businesses of others, they tend to attach into the smallest of regulations and orders no matter how irrelevant they are. The two also often create forms full of questions that A) have nothing to do with the thing the form is about, and B) are impossible to answer.
to:
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Constant source of comedy: wehnever One and Two oversee in the businesses of others, they tend to attach into the smallest of regulations and orders no matter how irrelevant they are. The two also often create forms full of questions that A) have nothing to do with the thing the form is about, and B) are impossible to answer.
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* BatmanGambit: Several times the plan to hide the non-existence of an accidentally made-up Super-Ship or British astronaut hinges on the fact that anyone who'd normally know about it won't admit that they've never heard about it out of fear of missing the information of it's development.
to:
* BatmanGambit: Several times the plan to hide the non-existence of an accidentally made-up Super-Ship or British astronaut hinges on the fact assumption that anyone who'd normally know about it won't admit that they've never heard about it out of fear of missing the information of it's development.
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* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The ChristmasEpisode ''The Christmas Spirit'' ends this way; the episode features One upsetting Santa and the main duo travelling to Christmas Land and escaping eventually on an magic carpet. The episode ends with [[AllJustADream Two awakening One from a sleep,]] but the carpet has appeared on Twos room...
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* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The ChristmasEpisode ''The Christmas Spirit'' ends this way; the episode features One upsetting Santa and the main duo travelling to Christmas Land and escaping eventually on an magic carpet. The episode ends with [[AllJustADream Two awakening One from a sleep,]] but the carpet has appeared on Twos Two's room...
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-> ''"Time to meet the men from the ministry!"''
'''The Men from the Ministry''' is a radio Sitcom and a political satire produced by Creator/TheBBC which ran from 1962 to 1977, with one additional series made of re-recordings produced by BBC Transcription Services in 1980, which was never aired. This sort-of radio forerunner to the ''Series/YesMinister'' was created by Edward Taylor and starred Wilfrid Hyde-White and Richard Murdoch as civil servants Roland Hamilton-Jones (“One”) and Richard Lamb (“Two”), with the former leaving after two series and being replaced by Deryck Guyler's Deryck Lennox-Brown (Also referred to as “One”). Other characters of the show are the duo's secretary Mildred Murfin (Norma Ronald) and their rather tyrannical, self-centered boss and Permanent Under-secretary, Sir Gregory Pitkin (Roy Dotrice on the first two series, Ronald Badley third series onward).
The show is set on the Ministry's “General Assistance Department,” an office that is designed to help other offices when they are overladen with too much work. Typical episodes are centered around one or two assigments given by other offices. The staff of General Assistance Department are lazy and incompetent people determent to tangle in every bureaucratic thing, and HilarityEnsues: Assigments are mixed up, there are memos and letters that end up to the wrong people and misunderstandings resulting from communication problems. The result is usually complete chaos, ranging from traffic warden's ending up with ballerina outfits to the whole Britain losing all physical currency.
Outside of it's fifteen-year run in Britain the show had a version produced in Sweden by ''Svergies Radio'' (SR) in 1963-1971. From there a bunch of scripts ended up in the archieves of Finland's ''Yleisradio'' (YLE). A Finnish version was first produced in 1979 and [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff ended up being the third the most popular radio show of the country, lasting for 30 years.]]
----
!!''The Men from the Ministry'' contains examples of:
* AccidentalArt: Mr. Lamb's bicycle [[NoodleIncident apparently]] was ran over by a truck, and after leaving it on the Ministry's lobby it had been displayed the next day as modern art.
* TheAllegedCar: Lennox-Brown's car is this.
* BadBoss[=/=]MeanBoss: Sir Gregory tends to be rather huge JerkAss to One and Two and often hit them on his anger.
* BatmanGambit: Several times the plan to hide the non-existence of an accidentally made-up Super-Ship or British astronaut hinges on the fact that anyone who'd normally know about it won't admit that they've never heard about it out of fear of missing the information of it's development.
-->'''Lamb''': There are hundreds of people who'd know if a rocket had been fired, and as soon as they know they'll know they don't know.
-->'''Lennox-Brown''': Ah, but will they dare admit it? You didn't, I didn't, the Minister didn't. We were all afraid it was in some dispatch that we hadn't read. So we pretended we did know.
* BigApplesauce: America is visited on several episodes, and it's ''always'' New York, apart from one Wild West WholeEpisodeFlashback.
* BritishBrevity: The series in total had [[LongRunner 159 episodes made during over fifteen years]], with individual series' episode count ranging everywhere from 5th series' six episodes to 6th and 14th series' fourteen episodes.
* CriticalResearchFailure: In-Universe, in ''The Big Big Big Ben Bungle'' Lamb refers to the "Hunchback of [[Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Amsterdam]]"
* CircularReasoning: How does Lamb remember the to read the notes on the blotter? He has a notebook in which he writes notes to look a the blotter. How does he remember to look at the notebook? He has a reminder on the blotter.
* DashinglyDapperDerby: All civil servants wear nice, black bowler hats.
* EatingPetFood: When One and Two are hiding an animal in the office from Sir Gregory, Mr. Lamb is sometimes forced to eat the animal's food to fool Sir Gregory into thinking it's his breakfeast/medicine.
* EiffelTowerEffect: Every episode begins with the knell of Big Ben, establishing the setting as London.
* FailureGambit: In ''Conference trick'', Lord Stilton and Sir Gregory send Lamb, Lennox-Brown and Mildred to Paris' international conference to buy pieces of Venus in hopes that they'll screw up and end up with nothing (They can't afford to have landowning-rights on Venus you see). In this case it fails since the trio are so incompetent that they end up getting the whole planet, not to mention every other nation had the same idea.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Sir Gregory can sometimes be rather friendly when things go well, but it's always just a mask of his loathing of One and Two, and he'll make a 180 degree turn once things start to go downhill.
* TheGhost: Mr. Lamb's landlord Mrs. Bardby is talked a lot, but never physically appears on the series.
* HappilyMarried: Hamilton-Jones/Lennox-Brown is happily married to a loving wife.
* HerrDoktor: Ministry's psychiatrist is a man called Dr. Schwein who speaks with a heavy german accent.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: One and Two, wile having the occasional arguments, are closest friends each other has.
* InsaneTrollLogic: Episode ''Wool Over Their Eyes'' has Lennox-Brown planning to chop down the parks' trees to prevent wind and cold, since wind is caused by the brenches waving.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Sir Gregory's one in and out.
* LazyBum: The staff of General Assistance Department tends to avoid work at all costs, only completing it on the last minute.
* LiteralMinded: Mr. Lamb is prone to these.
-->'''Mr. Youngblood''': These accident figures. Have you noticed that in greater London a man breaks his leg every fifteen minutes?
-->'''Lamb''': He must be getting sick of it by now.
* MagicalComputer: In episode ''The Trouble with Cecil'' a computer named CECIL ([[FunWithAcronyms Central Electronic Computer Information-Liaison]]) can talk and solve any logical problem, accurately predicting eight draws on the sports betting.
* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: By WordOfGod, the "General Assistance Department" was created so that episodes wouldn't be dependent on work of only one type of State Administration.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The ChristmasEpisode ''The Christmas Spirit'' ends this way; the episode features One upsetting Santa and the main duo travelling to Christmas Land and escaping eventually on an magic carpet. The episode ends with [[AllJustADream Two awakening One from a sleep,]] but the carpet has appeared on Twos room...
* MoustacheDePlume: In-Universe GenderFlip occurs in episode ''A Problem Shared'', where Lennox-Brown uses a pen name "Aunt Eveling" when answering an agony cloumn on staff magazine, since he and the editor agreed that [[WomenAreWiser woman's advice are more acceptable.]]
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Episode ''Bare Necessities'' has One and Two stripping down in order to negotiate with the owner of a Nudist colony about buying the land, but since they do it in the night they keep going into wrong houses in the dark,
* NoodleIncident: Never-seen bunglings and events of General Assistance Department and other offices are often referenced.
* NotInFrontOfTheParrot: In episodes ''A Bird in the Hand'' and ''Health and Deficiency'' the parrot that's in the office repeats the insults that One and Two had said about Sir Gregory when he's in the room.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Constant source of comedy: wehnever One and Two oversee in the businesses of others, they tend to attach into the smallest of regulations and orders no matter how irrelevant they are. The two also often create forms full of questions that A) have nothing to do with the thing the form is about, and B) are impossible to answer.
-->'''Lamb''': A letter from the Ministry of Housing, One. They say that their "Permission refused"-stamp has worn out, and they want to borrow ours.
-->'''Hamilton-Jones''': Well they can't have it. Stamp their letter "Permission refused" and [[ImplausibleDeniability tell them we haven't got one.]]
* QuintessentialBritishGentleman: One and Two fit this trope to a T, with their bowler hats, pin-striped trousers and umbrellas.
* ReadingTheStageDirectionsOutLoud: In episode ''Getting it Taped'' Mr. Lamb appears in an amateur play:
-->'''Lamb''': ''(In character)'' All this work and worry, and what do I get? Runs offstage!
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Since civil servants can't be fired, Sir Gregory frequently threatens to reassign One and Two onto Outer Hebrides due to their constant bunglins.
* RefugeInAudacity: One and Two are masters of this when it comes to explaining their huge screw-ups as official "government experiments" etc.
* SpeakFriendAndEnter: In the episode ''Cheesed Off'' offices are faced with an infestation of mice. Lennox-Brown suggests poisoning them (and in the Finnish version using [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill high tech methods to get rid of them such as laser beams or ultrasonics]]). Mildred suggests a cat.
* SpotOfTea: One and Two love tea beyond anything as the British gentleman's they are.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Hamilton-Jones and Lennox-Brown are practically the same character with just different names and voice-actors.
* ToMakeALongStoryShort: Mr. Lamb often ''tries'' to do this when forced to explain a complicated situation. However, he always just takes random segments from the events that [[EpicFail don't make any sense at all when combined.]]
* TyopOnTheCover: Mildred is bound to make these
-->'''Lennox-Brown''': (reading the memo) The festival was intended by the Minister for the Arts and other very [[TheLoinsSleepTonight impotent]] people.
* VerbalTic: Mildred has a habit of saying "righty-ho" in the place of "right away", which annoys One greatly.
* {{Whitehall}}: The setting of the show.
* WholeEpisodeFlashback: Majority of the episodes ''A Back-dated Problem'' and ''The Fastest Brolly in the West'' are spent on the two pairs of One and Two's ancestors, [[GenerationXerox who worked on the General Assistance Department]] during the Elizabethan era and the Wild West era, respectively.
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'''The Men from the Ministry''' is a radio Sitcom and a political satire produced by Creator/TheBBC which ran from 1962 to 1977, with one additional series made of re-recordings produced by BBC Transcription Services in 1980, which was never aired. This sort-of radio forerunner to the ''Series/YesMinister'' was created by Edward Taylor and starred Wilfrid Hyde-White and Richard Murdoch as civil servants Roland Hamilton-Jones (“One”) and Richard Lamb (“Two”), with the former leaving after two series and being replaced by Deryck Guyler's Deryck Lennox-Brown (Also referred to as “One”). Other characters of the show are the duo's secretary Mildred Murfin (Norma Ronald) and their rather tyrannical, self-centered boss and Permanent Under-secretary, Sir Gregory Pitkin (Roy Dotrice on the first two series, Ronald Badley third series onward).
The show is set on the Ministry's “General Assistance Department,” an office that is designed to help other offices when they are overladen with too much work. Typical episodes are centered around one or two assigments given by other offices. The staff of General Assistance Department are lazy and incompetent people determent to tangle in every bureaucratic thing, and HilarityEnsues: Assigments are mixed up, there are memos and letters that end up to the wrong people and misunderstandings resulting from communication problems. The result is usually complete chaos, ranging from traffic warden's ending up with ballerina outfits to the whole Britain losing all physical currency.
Outside of it's fifteen-year run in Britain the show had a version produced in Sweden by ''Svergies Radio'' (SR) in 1963-1971. From there a bunch of scripts ended up in the archieves of Finland's ''Yleisradio'' (YLE). A Finnish version was first produced in 1979 and [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff ended up being the third the most popular radio show of the country, lasting for 30 years.]]
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!!''The Men from the Ministry'' contains examples of:
* AccidentalArt: Mr. Lamb's bicycle [[NoodleIncident apparently]] was ran over by a truck, and after leaving it on the Ministry's lobby it had been displayed the next day as modern art.
* TheAllegedCar: Lennox-Brown's car is this.
* BadBoss[=/=]MeanBoss: Sir Gregory tends to be rather huge JerkAss to One and Two and often hit them on his anger.
* BatmanGambit: Several times the plan to hide the non-existence of an accidentally made-up Super-Ship or British astronaut hinges on the fact that anyone who'd normally know about it won't admit that they've never heard about it out of fear of missing the information of it's development.
-->'''Lamb''': There are hundreds of people who'd know if a rocket had been fired, and as soon as they know they'll know they don't know.
-->'''Lennox-Brown''': Ah, but will they dare admit it? You didn't, I didn't, the Minister didn't. We were all afraid it was in some dispatch that we hadn't read. So we pretended we did know.
* BigApplesauce: America is visited on several episodes, and it's ''always'' New York, apart from one Wild West WholeEpisodeFlashback.
* BritishBrevity: The series in total had [[LongRunner 159 episodes made during over fifteen years]], with individual series' episode count ranging everywhere from 5th series' six episodes to 6th and 14th series' fourteen episodes.
* CriticalResearchFailure: In-Universe, in ''The Big Big Big Ben Bungle'' Lamb refers to the "Hunchback of [[Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Amsterdam]]"
* CircularReasoning: How does Lamb remember the to read the notes on the blotter? He has a notebook in which he writes notes to look a the blotter. How does he remember to look at the notebook? He has a reminder on the blotter.
* DashinglyDapperDerby: All civil servants wear nice, black bowler hats.
* EatingPetFood: When One and Two are hiding an animal in the office from Sir Gregory, Mr. Lamb is sometimes forced to eat the animal's food to fool Sir Gregory into thinking it's his breakfeast/medicine.
* EiffelTowerEffect: Every episode begins with the knell of Big Ben, establishing the setting as London.
* FailureGambit: In ''Conference trick'', Lord Stilton and Sir Gregory send Lamb, Lennox-Brown and Mildred to Paris' international conference to buy pieces of Venus in hopes that they'll screw up and end up with nothing (They can't afford to have landowning-rights on Venus you see). In this case it fails since the trio are so incompetent that they end up getting the whole planet, not to mention every other nation had the same idea.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Sir Gregory can sometimes be rather friendly when things go well, but it's always just a mask of his loathing of One and Two, and he'll make a 180 degree turn once things start to go downhill.
* TheGhost: Mr. Lamb's landlord Mrs. Bardby is talked a lot, but never physically appears on the series.
* HappilyMarried: Hamilton-Jones/Lennox-Brown is happily married to a loving wife.
* HerrDoktor: Ministry's psychiatrist is a man called Dr. Schwein who speaks with a heavy german accent.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: One and Two, wile having the occasional arguments, are closest friends each other has.
* InsaneTrollLogic: Episode ''Wool Over Their Eyes'' has Lennox-Brown planning to chop down the parks' trees to prevent wind and cold, since wind is caused by the brenches waving.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Sir Gregory's one in and out.
* LazyBum: The staff of General Assistance Department tends to avoid work at all costs, only completing it on the last minute.
* LiteralMinded: Mr. Lamb is prone to these.
-->'''Mr. Youngblood''': These accident figures. Have you noticed that in greater London a man breaks his leg every fifteen minutes?
-->'''Lamb''': He must be getting sick of it by now.
* MagicalComputer: In episode ''The Trouble with Cecil'' a computer named CECIL ([[FunWithAcronyms Central Electronic Computer Information-Liaison]]) can talk and solve any logical problem, accurately predicting eight draws on the sports betting.
* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: By WordOfGod, the "General Assistance Department" was created so that episodes wouldn't be dependent on work of only one type of State Administration.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The ChristmasEpisode ''The Christmas Spirit'' ends this way; the episode features One upsetting Santa and the main duo travelling to Christmas Land and escaping eventually on an magic carpet. The episode ends with [[AllJustADream Two awakening One from a sleep,]] but the carpet has appeared on Twos room...
* MoustacheDePlume: In-Universe GenderFlip occurs in episode ''A Problem Shared'', where Lennox-Brown uses a pen name "Aunt Eveling" when answering an agony cloumn on staff magazine, since he and the editor agreed that [[WomenAreWiser woman's advice are more acceptable.]]
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Episode ''Bare Necessities'' has One and Two stripping down in order to negotiate with the owner of a Nudist colony about buying the land, but since they do it in the night they keep going into wrong houses in the dark,
* NoodleIncident: Never-seen bunglings and events of General Assistance Department and other offices are often referenced.
* NotInFrontOfTheParrot: In episodes ''A Bird in the Hand'' and ''Health and Deficiency'' the parrot that's in the office repeats the insults that One and Two had said about Sir Gregory when he's in the room.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Constant source of comedy: wehnever One and Two oversee in the businesses of others, they tend to attach into the smallest of regulations and orders no matter how irrelevant they are. The two also often create forms full of questions that A) have nothing to do with the thing the form is about, and B) are impossible to answer.
-->'''Lamb''': A letter from the Ministry of Housing, One. They say that their "Permission refused"-stamp has worn out, and they want to borrow ours.
-->'''Hamilton-Jones''': Well they can't have it. Stamp their letter "Permission refused" and [[ImplausibleDeniability tell them we haven't got one.]]
* QuintessentialBritishGentleman: One and Two fit this trope to a T, with their bowler hats, pin-striped trousers and umbrellas.
* ReadingTheStageDirectionsOutLoud: In episode ''Getting it Taped'' Mr. Lamb appears in an amateur play:
-->'''Lamb''': ''(In character)'' All this work and worry, and what do I get? Runs offstage!
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Since civil servants can't be fired, Sir Gregory frequently threatens to reassign One and Two onto Outer Hebrides due to their constant bunglins.
* RefugeInAudacity: One and Two are masters of this when it comes to explaining their huge screw-ups as official "government experiments" etc.
* SpeakFriendAndEnter: In the episode ''Cheesed Off'' offices are faced with an infestation of mice. Lennox-Brown suggests poisoning them (and in the Finnish version using [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill high tech methods to get rid of them such as laser beams or ultrasonics]]). Mildred suggests a cat.
* SpotOfTea: One and Two love tea beyond anything as the British gentleman's they are.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Hamilton-Jones and Lennox-Brown are practically the same character with just different names and voice-actors.
* ToMakeALongStoryShort: Mr. Lamb often ''tries'' to do this when forced to explain a complicated situation. However, he always just takes random segments from the events that [[EpicFail don't make any sense at all when combined.]]
* TyopOnTheCover: Mildred is bound to make these
-->'''Lennox-Brown''': (reading the memo) The festival was intended by the Minister for the Arts and other very [[TheLoinsSleepTonight impotent]] people.
* VerbalTic: Mildred has a habit of saying "righty-ho" in the place of "right away", which annoys One greatly.
* {{Whitehall}}: The setting of the show.
* WholeEpisodeFlashback: Majority of the episodes ''A Back-dated Problem'' and ''The Fastest Brolly in the West'' are spent on the two pairs of One and Two's ancestors, [[GenerationXerox who worked on the General Assistance Department]] during the Elizabethan era and the Wild West era, respectively.
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