The Men From The Ministry! Series 1 (E01 - E05) 1962 [Best Available Quality]

Chapters
00:00:00 - S01E01 - 1962-10-30 - The Great Footwear Scandal
00:29:53 - S01E02 - 1962-11-06 - The Big Rocket
01:00:08 - S01E03 - 1962-11-13 - Strictly for the Birds
01:29:01 - S01E04 - 1962-11-20 - French Cricket
01:57:37 - S01E05 - 1962-11-27 - The War with the Isle of Wight

Series Details

The Men from the Ministry was a British radio comedy series that aired on the BBC from 1962 to 1977. The show featured a cast including Wilfrid Hyde-White, Richard Murdoch, and, starting in 1966, Deryck Guyler. Written and produced by Edward Taylor, with contributions from John Graham, it ran for 13 series, totaling 145 half-hour episodes and two specials. Although an additional 14 episodes were produced by the BBC Transcription Service in 1980, they were never broadcast in the UK until 2012 on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

The series humorously portrayed lazy, bungling, and incompetent civil servants working in the General Assistance Department (analogous to the later “Department of Administrative Affairs” in Yes Minister).

The stories revolved around the department’s efforts to assist other governmental departments, but instead of providing help, they created mix-ups, misunderstandings, and cock-ups. Sir Gregory would then reprimand them, fearing for his hard-earned Civil Service career and pension. Despite their ineptitude, the humor remained light-hearted, with a touch of broad satire in some episodes.

Broadcast Copyright

The 50 year period of broadcast copyright under section 14(2) of the UK's Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/14) has expired for all items included in this collection.