Brighton Year-Round 2026
I’m Sorry Prime Minister
Mark Goucher and Ivan Lewis present A Barn Theatre Production Co-Producers Clive Hayley and Gavin Kalin.
Genre: Comedy, Contemporary, Costume, Drama, LGBTQ, Mainstream Theatre, New Writing, Theatre
Venue: Theatre Royal, Brighton
Festival: Brighton Year-Round
Low Down
Jonathan Lynn revives what’s now I’m Sorry Prime Minister for one final time: and fresh from the West End as it’s emblazoned, it arrives at Theatre Royal Brighton. It’s also directed by Jonathan Lynn with Michael Gyngell co-directing, till July 18. It then continues touring; quite possibly in the afterlife if those two old adversaries have anything to do with it.
A joyous night out and very highly recommended.
Review
“I’m not dead, I’m in the House of Lords.” Just when the Westminster bubble had written Jim Hacker’s obituary, and breathed a sigh of relief that the Yes Minister years were gone – they’re back. Jonathan Lynn revives what’s now I’m Sorry Prime Minister for one final time: and fresh from the West End as it’s emblazoned, it arrives at Theatre Royal Brighton. It’s also directed by Jonathan Lynn with Michael Gyngell co-directing, till July 18. It then continues touring; quite possibly in the afterlife if those two old adversaries have anything to do with it.
These are of course Sir Humphrey Appleby head of the Civil service, played with some sublimity by Clive Francis. And a new face with much energy bristling in harrumphs as Hacker, by Robert Kitson. He’s now founder and master of his own Oxford college. Like Francis, Kitson is a theatre animal and it shows. His Hacker bristles with entitlement and Kitson plays each reveal of his previous self with genuine astonishment. The tour is getting something that even the West End didn’t have in Kitson, and the two spark off each other with gleeful timing.
Francis takes the art of the pause to Saturn and back. His exquisite hesitations, his pounce, his mannerisms aren’t just Sir Humphrey, they’re vintage Francis. Though Francis even manages to look like Sir H. Naturally there’s two virtuoso arias that suggest what the long-winded Polonius might have sounded like had he been younger and drunk enough Red Bull. Francis though renders them operatic. Possibly Figaro’s great list aria. And there’s moments of recognition as Sir Humphrey meets his equal. If one with shorter sentences.
This is Sophie, Hacker’s just-hired care-worker. Princess Donnough sparkles in the role of a young woman with a first in English, yet victim of austerity with a grim backstory Lynn and Sophie don’t flinch from depicting. As Hacker discovers Sophie graduated from this college, and hated it. Dunnough’s gay, refreshingly woke Sophie is as wry as Sir Humphrey as reality-checker. Though she’s exasperated but warm; and cannily articulate in a different way (whether in literary or cultural references). Packer struggles to keep up with Sophie’s references to Ibsen. “Ah yes, he wrote The Seventh Seal.”
And indeed the quartet’s completed by William Chubb’s Visitor, a formal title. A man who comes Seven-Sealed in the kind of cape you’d imagine. Hacker thinks The Grim Reaper has indeed arrived; after all, it’s in Chubb’s aka.
In a way. This Sir David requires something from Jim Packer. And it’s not his soul. After all Sir David is a judge. And Packer has rather transgressed; just a bit. It’s time for him to resign. Hacker doesn’t want to and thinks of Sir Humphrey who engineered his position. As Packer charmingly puts it to him later: “I’d heard you were in the bin—asylum—hospital… It is a home for the elderly deranged.” But labels and circumstances can be deceptive.
The first act takes a witty while to establish its characters. Chubb only makes two appearances throughout, but they’re telling and he plays the glacially polite Sir David to the hilt in Hacker’s back. There’s care to distinguish his kind of legal urbanity from Francis’ civil service mandarin: forensic versus classic. Updated one-liners on past and present politics litter the floor like Hacker’s strewn documents.
The second act speeds up and with the quartet finally assembled there’s the kind of stand-off Rigoletto’s quartet might envy, if less bloody. Blood on the carpet perhaps. There’s more reveals of just what Hacker has said; Sophie and Sir Humphrey fight a rearguard action but there are limits.
There’s twists too where accommodation might be reached. And a carpet-sweep of contemporary culture jokes, a few of which might date in a few years (identity politics is shifting to the far right). But statue action hasn’t and Lynn’s up on the twists surrounding the Cecil Rhodes one and much else. And some remain perennial. On Sophie quoting bible as erotica Sir Humphrey muses: “I never knew the Bible was queer literature.”
None of this should involve spoilers. Though by the end – engineered by Sophie, the Deus ex machina as Sir Humphrey for once didn’t say (there’s much Latin tag-of-war) – a heart-warming conclusion is reached.
Lee Newby’s detailed set and costume involves a solidly realised, slightly chaotic master’s lodge living room. There’s even a staircase, fitted with a chairlift involving physical comedy, something also surprisingly in abundance. Whilst lit by Mark Henderson with Ben and Max Ringham’s sovereign sound, it’s Leo Flint’s video design that paints a wintry scene outside: pre- and post-snowfall. Right at the end there’s a small homage to the original too.
I’m Sorry Prime Minister surprised me. It’s notably enhanced on tour and this is a far finer comedy than I’d expected. Act Two really does move and the build pays off. It’s a fitting, touching end to the whole Yes, Minister franchise, and we’re lucky Lynn has imagined it through to the end in a brisk two-hours. A joyous night out and very highly recommended.
Prop Supervisor Katie Balmforth, Associate Director Nadia Papachronopoulou, associate Sound Designer Marie Zschommler, Design associate Alfie Heywood, Associate Props Supervisor Lauren Thompson, Production Manager Chris Clay, Costume Supervisor Carol Lingwood, Propmaker Josie Power, Production carpenter Keith Faulkner, Production Sound engineer Matthew Russell, Production LX Stu Meech and Adam Killey, Lighting Programmer Stanley Olden
Company Manager Matthew Elesmore, DSM Olga Morisse, ASM Frances Campbell, Tech Swing Sam Daplyn, Hold LX Mat Green, HOD Wardrobe Grace Douetil, Deputy Wardrobe Jessica Hawley, Sound Operator Jess Dyer. Photo Credit Danny Kaan.
