Prestwich_Blue
Well-Known Member
I started watching Yes Minister again recently and one of scenes in the early episodes, when he first gets in office, was lifted almost word-for-word from Richard Crossman's diaries, where his Private Secretary (his real life Bernard) instructs him on how to manage his in-tray. The writers admitted they lifted loads of stuff from Crossman's diaries, which were the first to reveal some of the inner workings of the Civil Service.
Also my old school pal Martin Sixsmith was, I believe, a consultant on The Thick Of It. He moved into the Civil Service from the BBC (where he was their Washington & Moscow correspondent) as Director of Communications at the Dept of Transport. In that role, he had to deal with the 'Good day to bury bad news' incident, which ended with the sacking of Steven Byers' SPAD, Jo Moore.
Unfortunately his head also rolled in revenge for that and when I saw him a few years ago he told a funny story about that. Apparently he had a meeting with his Permanent Secretary but had to put it back due to an emergency dentist visit. Unknown to him, the meeting was to arrange his departure and the Whitehall press machine had been briefed to put out the news (or it had been leaked). Unfortunately no one thought to tell the press office that his meeting had been delayed so the news went public while he was at the dentist.
He said that he got in his car, turned on the radio, to hear the news that he'd "resigned" despite not having had the meeting with his Permanent Secretary. He then said "I sat in the car thinking 'That's funny. I'm sure I'd remember doing something like that'".
I wonder if @gordondaviesmoustache has an amusing Martin Sixsmith anecdote?