A good life for a ‘P.M.’

Press, 29 January 1988, Page 5

A good life for a ‘P.M.’

By

KAY FORRESTER

What do you say to an invitation from the Prime Minister? “Yes, Prime Minister” — what else? The invitation came from Britain’s other P.M., Jim Hacker. The actor who plays the politician in the television series, Paul Eddington, was in Christchurch yesterday to help launch the Keith Prowse ticketing and tour organisation in New Zealand. Life with Jim Hacker fits comfortably, the actor says. "Oh, yes indeed. He has been very good to me as, indeed, ‘The Good Life’ was before the ‘Yes Minister’ series. It means I get paid more. For an actor to have one successful television series is lucky. To have two ... I have been very lucky.” He does not mind that his face is instantly recognisable as the Right Honourable Hacker. The character has opened many doors for him, including that to No. 10 Downing Street. The British Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, has allowed the actor to be filmed entering No. 10. Eddington says he took on the “Yes Minister” series — after initially turning down the scripts — because of his interest in politics. But that interest does not extend to political aspirations of his own. He resisted the sugges-

tion from the series’ writers that he should change his name by deed poll to Jim Hacker and stand at a local election, with the writers providing his funny speeches. “It’s a sad comment on British politics that I probably would have won,” he says. “Anyway they dropped the idea because they said I’d probably be too responsible.” It is Jim Hacker, too, that got him a meeting with New Zealand’s Prime Minister, someone he had wanted to meet. "All in all Hacker has been good to me.” Ironically, Eddington spends more time on stage in Britain than on the small screen. “Television takes, perhaps, two months of the year.” He spent 10 months last year in Australia in “H. M. S. Pinafore” and, although he enjoys travelling, doubts he will take on a project that keeps him away from home as long again. When he returns to Britain a stage production of “The Browning Version” is on the agenda. Whether he will again cross swords with Sir Humphrey, the manipulating and not always civil servant, is uncertain. Filming of another series was completed recently. There is talk of a “Yes Minister” film — something the writers and cast are all keen on — but nothing is finalised.