31 Facts About Jim Hacker

Jim Hacker is the minister of the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs, and later Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Jim Hacker was portrayed originally by Paul Eddington, with David Haig taking on the part for the 2013 revival.

Jim Hacker attended the London School of Economics and graduated with a third class honours degree.

When Jim Hacker was in his late 40s, his party won a general election victory, with Jim Hacker himself being re-elected in the Birmingham East constituency with an increased majority.

Jim Hacker expected to be appointed Minister of Agriculture, due to his extensive knowledge of the subject, but the Civil Service, for the same reason, encouraged the new prime minister to appoint him elsewhere.

Jim Hacker worked with the ministry's Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, who as a senior civil servant tries to control the ministry and the minister himself, and his own Principal Private Secretary, Bernard Woolley.

Sir Humphrey arranged a situation where Jim Hacker could avoid a scandal only by appointing an unqualified candidate to chair such a quango.

When Jim Hacker agreed, Weisel was disgusted and threatened to go to the press, but instead accepted Jim Hacker's offer of heading a well compensated "super-quango" on the abolition of quangos.

Jim Hacker hoped for promotion to a more prestigious Cabinet post, such as Foreign Secretary.

Jim Hacker considered the "top jobs" to be Foreign Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary, and dreaded the prospect of being made Secretary of State for Northern Ireland or Minister with General Responsibility for Industrial Harmony.

Jim Hacker was able to blackmail the Prime Minister into abandoning the idea.

Sir Humphrey persuaded Jim Hacker to refuse the offer, and Jim Hacker remained Minister of Administrative Affairs.

Jim Hacker was pleased to take on additional responsibilities while remaining at the same department, including the role of "Transport Supremo", responsible for an integrated transport policy, and responsibility for the arts.

Jim Hacker was awarded an honorary doctorate of Law from Baillie College, Oxford, in return for allowing them to continue taking overseas students.

Sir Humphrey, who was now Cabinet Secretary, encouraged and assisted Jim Hacker in using the position of Chair to his advantage, resulting in Jim Hacker becoming party leader and prime minister.

The former prime minister posed a problem for Jim Hacker by describing him unflatteringly in his memoirs.

Jim Hacker was delighted by his sudden death, not only because the memoirs would not be finished, but because the funeral offered the opportunity for him to host an unofficial summit of world leaders, during which he discussed with the French President the terms of joint British-French management of the Channel Tunnel.

Notable policies that Jim Hacker supported throughout the series have included:.

The foreword to the third volume of the book series makes clear that Jim Hacker has died, not merely suffered a political demise.

The obituary states that Jim Hacker was Minister of Administrative Affairs for a period of two years.

The obituary confirms that Jim Hacker was elevated to the House of Lords, taking the title Lord Jim Hacker of Islington, and reveals that he was made a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter.

Jim Hacker first appears in Yes Minister having been recently re-elected as Member of Parliament for Birmingham East, soundly defeating his opponents.

Jim Hacker soon learns and becomes more sly and cynical, using some of these ploys himself.

Jim Hacker learns that his efforts to change the government or Britain are all really for naught, as he discovers in the episode "The Whisky Priest", when he attempts to stop the export of British-made munitions to Italian terrorists.

Jim Hacker is continually concerned with what the newspapers of the day will have to say about him, and is always hoping to be promoted by the Prime Minister.

Jim Hacker is equally afraid of either staying at his current level of Cabinet seniority, or being demoted.

Jim Hacker is given embarrassing information about the two front-runner candidates, and manages to persuade them to drop out of the race, and lend their support to him.

In Yes, Prime Minister Jim Hacker strives to perfect all the skills needed by a statesman, giving more grandiose speeches, dreaming up "courageous" political programmes, and honing his diplomatic craft, nearly all of these attempts landing him in trouble at some point.

Jim Hacker has many prominent habits that feature throughout the series:.

On first becoming a minister, Jim Hacker intends to implement his party's manifesto commitment to "open government", but backs down when he is shown the dangers of the policy.

Jim Hacker is known as "a good European", a believer in "the European ideal" embodied in the European Economic Community, but a critic of the bureaucracy in Brussels, such as EEC officials being tasked with encouraging farmers to create and destroy agricultural surpluses, the introduction of the compulsory Europass, and the standardisation of word processing equipment.