Men from the Ministry policital film / show

Men from the Ministry
(1962, United Kingdom)

Language: English

Locations: the story takes place in London City of London, England United Kingdom

The General Assistance Department was formed to help with the workload in other departments of the United Kingdom government, no matter if it has something to do with the army, transport, health or culture - you name it, they will help with it. Well, "help" could be too strong word for what they actually do. Deryck Lennox-Brown and Richard Lamb are two civil servants, who, with a little help (usually very little help) from their secretary Mildred Murfin, try to deal with the things other departments can’t handle at that time. Unfortunately, Lennox-Brown and Lamb are the typical representatives of the Civil Service - not exactly competent, not exactly keen to work and not exactly gifted at dealing with complicated matters. That is why their boss, Sir Gregory Pitkin, spends most of his time on correcting their mistakes. That is, if he wanders into his office and actually spends some time working, instead of chasing after another secretary.

Classic British radio sitcom about the fictional General Assistance Department and its incompetent staff, who in each episode try to correct their mistakes and usually create even more chaos in the process. Well written and well acted, the stories cover a wide range of things the government has to deal with, and usually, they are great fun to listen to. In some episodes, they tackle the rhubarb crisis, in another, they prepare plans for a motorway, try to fix their own World War 2 mistake or boost sales of haggis to Canada. But no matter what they do, the plots are entertaining and the dialogues funny.

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Creators of Men from the Ministry

Edward Taylor

screenplay

Cast of Men from the Ministry

Deryck Guyler

as Deryck Lennox-Brown

Wilfrid Hyde-White

as Roland Hamilton-Jones

Ronald Baddiley

as Sir Gregory Pitkin

Richard Murdoch

as Richard Lamb

Norma Ronald

as Mildred Murfin

Men from the Ministry trivia

The show idea

Although Edward Taylor is the creator of the show, it was Richard Murdoch, who gave him the idea for radio comedy about incompetent civil servants (hoping of course to be one of the stars in the show). It worked well enough to give them both 18 years of work together during the original run of Men from the Ministry.

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Men from the Ministry quotes

Sir Gregory Pitkin: [after Richard Lamb sabotaged the computer] Computer makes no mistakes! It’s the man behind it!
Richard Lamb: There’s a man behind it? This box must be bigger than I thought...

Mrs Livingstone: We must fight those counselors who want to pull down our older buildings.
Deryck Lennox-Brown: Mind you, some of them are crumbling and rather dirty.
Mrs Livingstone: Then they shouldn’t be on the council!

narrator: The Civil Servants are always ready and willing - few are ready to work and the rest is willing to let them.

Watch Men from the Ministry

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