Here we have a baggy, old-fashioned stage finale to a 46-year-old political sitcom that amuses despite the misplaced star casting of Griff Rhys Jones in the role of ex-Prime Minister Jim Hacker. Always untroubled by subtlety, the comedian’s constant mugging and whinnying, guffawing, meandering delivery of every single line here stand in stark contrast to the sharp timing and comic physical precision of Clive Francis as Hacker’s sparring partner, former cabinet secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby.
Now in their 80s, the two characters find themselves in a baffling new world of cancel culture, safe spaces and trigger warnings. Hacker (“I’m not dead, I’m in the house of Lords”) faces ousting from the Oxford college he founded due to his politically incorrect views. Sir Humphrey has been fleeced and briefly incarcerated in a “home for the elderly deranged” by a wicked daughter-in-law.
