Review: I'M SORRY, PRIME MINISTER at Apollo Theatre

Jim Hacker MP was always the more polytechnic of the two main characters when butting-up against the old school smarmy superiority of Sir Humphrey Appleby. Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne have long since left us and instead Griff Rhys Jones delivers Lord Hacker (I’m not dead, I’m in the House of Lords) as a dishevelled and forgetful wind bag who is in need of a care worker to help locate his glasses, do some filing, make tea and generally correct his use of politically incorrect terminology. It is this last failing which has ruffled feathers among students and fellows within the potentially treacherous environs of the Hacker College campus where he has resided since leaving politics and where - in his mind at least - his entitlement should continue in perpetuity.

It appears that the chief architect of the accommodation arrangement, was Sir Humphrey himself. For the stage play the role is delivered with a nostalgic, gentler, twinkly-eyed charm all its own, by Clive Francis. We learn that the former Grand Poo-Bah of the Civil Service has himself experienced usurious abuse at the hands of his son and his greedy and ambitious daughter in law, and so the script largely calls for the two old adversarial colleagues to pool their resources in a bid to hold-out with a modicum of residual dignity, until their time to shuffle off.

Before then, the ruckus of Hacker’s inappropriate comments and bizarrely outdated appreciation for all things Empire has required Sir David (William Chubb) to descend as the bearer of bad news. Hacker is to resign his post and vacate his grace and favour apartments immediately. Surely Sir Humphrey will be able to find a loophole?

The tenuousness of the storyline is fleshed-out by the didactic interjections, advice and corrections of savvy and au courant care-worker Sophie (the eminently likeable Stephanie Levi-John). The script self-consciously ticks as many boxes as possible in layering her suitability as an in-house advisor and confidente when during the play’s early stages, Sophie - who is black and a lesbian - agrees to trial the former PM to assess whether he would make a suitable employer!

Lovers of the television show will enjoy the rambling diatribes for which Sir Humphrey was renowned. They may even be amused by the fact that in a show which constantly badgers those who fall foul of modern sensibilities, everyone seems determined to humiliate and degrade those elderly white men who may have failing eyesight, memories, and mobility issues (not to mention the occasional lavatorial mishap). As a reviewer it is not often that I am seated at the edges of the dress circle where poor sightlines can restrict view of the full stage. Consequently, I am unable to comment with any conviction on the hilarity (or otherwise) of a malfunctioning stairlift which apparently made an appearance.

The show continues at the Apollo Shaftesbury Avenue until 9th May and (specifically for those elderly patrons who may have bladder considerations), it runs just shy of two hours including the interval.