The Men from the Ministry
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The Men from the Ministry was a United Kingdom comedy radio series broadcast by the BBC between 1962 and 1977. It ran for 14 series, totalling 147 episodes. A further 14 episodes were made by the BBC Transcription Service but were never broadcast in the UK.
The series centered on the "General Assistance Department" (analogous to the "Department of Administrative Affairs" in Yes, Minister), whose main function is to provide help and assistance to other overloaded governmental departments. The cast are portrayed as inept and ineffectual, subject to all the usual human flaws such as greed, selfishness and incompetence. However, malice was never a factor and all the humour was very light-hearted.
The Men from the Ministry has become a major success in Finland by the name of Knalli ja sateenvarjo ('A bowler hat and an umberella'). It has been in the repertoire of Yleisradio since 1979 and has been repeated twice. Scriptwriter Edward Taylor has also written some episodes only for the Finnish audience that have never been broadcast in the UK.
Cast
- "One" (Roland Hamilton-Jones) - Wilfred Hyde-White (1962-65)
- "One" (Deryck Lennox-Brown) - Deryck Guyler (1966-77)
- "Two" (Richard Lamb) - Richard Murdoch
- Mildred Murfin - Norma Ronald
- Under-Secretary Sir Gregory Piktin - Roy Dotrice (1962-65), Ronald Baddiley (1966-77)fi:Knalli ja sateenvarjo