Ja, Bewindsman
Yes Minister goes Dutch
Yes, Minister is to be remade for Dutch TV.But the show will have some notable updates from the Eighties original. Conniving Whitehall mandarin Sir Humphrey Appleby will be a woman, while the minister’s assistant private secretary will be a Moroccan called Mohammed.
Production company S&V Fiction will make 11 episodes for liberal Netherlands broadcaster VPRO.
Pita de Leeuw, head of drama production for the broadcaster said: ‘At first glance Yes Minister seems very British, but the themes that form the basis of the series are still very much relevant: Bureaucratic red tape, political deal-making and the closed ranks in the civil service.’
Claudia Danser from the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, which struck the deal, added: ‘It's a sign of the enduring quality of great formats that the humour, political jostling and absurd bureaucracy in Yes Minister are as relevant today the world over as they were 25 years ago.’
The Netherlands is the third country, after India and Turkey, to buy the show's format.
Published: 23 Mar 2009
