The Latest Breaking News from Humphrey Appleby

​When Bernard asks why, Sir Humphrey explains: “Because once the Prime Minister knows, there will have to be an enquiry, like Watergate. The investigation of a trivial break-in led to one ghastly revelation after another and finally the downfall of a president. The golden rule is don’t lift lids off…

It begins, inevitably, with Henry VIII, who married Catherine but couldn’t produce a male heir. The Pope refused to annul the marriage because Catherine was the aunt of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor whose armies effectively controlled Rome — a man at whose snook the Pope could ill afford…

Chillingly, in the BBC sitcom, Humphrey emerges as cabinet secretary, the most powerful position in the civil service

Some of the tools, named after the fictional Whitehall official Sir Humphrey Appleby from the BBC’s Yes, Minister, are ready for use straight away.

Proposals for potential development go much further than anyone first thought. A revolt may follow, says environment writer Geoffrey Lean

Quality of external investigations into local government scrutinised.

Jonathan Lynn’s new play finds the political double act in their 80s, in a suitable final chapter to a magnificent comic project