- List of fictional places in Yes Minister
This list of fictional places in "Yes Minister" elaborates on the details provided in
Antony Jay andJonathan Lynn 's "Yes Minister " and "The Complete Yes Minister", the diary-basednovelization of the series.Buranda
:"For the Brisbane suburb, see
Buranda, Queensland "Buranda is a fictionalWest Africa ndeveloping country (or LDC (Less Developed Country) at the time of filming) that features in the second episode of "Yes Minister " ("The Official Visit ") and (briefly) "Yes, Prime Minister" ("A Conflict of Interest "). Formerly British Equatorial Africa, it is referred to privately byJames Hacker as a "TPLAC" (tin-pot little African country), much to Sir Humphrey's consternation.Buranda's leader in both episodes is
Colonel Selim Mohammed, previously Charlie Umtali prior to his conversion toIslam . The crux of the first storyline hinges on Hacker's former association (as fellow alumni of theLondon School of Economics ) with the Colonel, which he tries to use (on Sir Humphrey's urging) to avoid a diplomatically-embarrassing speech in the audience of Her Majesty the Queen. In the second, the Burandan president and his business associates are implicated in financial improprieties that could result in a run on the British pound.Buranda's location is a little ambiguous: where the novelisation places it in
Ghana , the actual episode (on a news report) suggestsEquatorial Guinea (although this country was a former colony ofSpain ).Qumran
Qumran "does" exist in real life as an ancient settlement (see
Qumran ): this fictional version, however, features as a Gulfsheikhdom in both "Yes Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister". In both series, it is characterised by classic hallmarks of Arab nations: it is an oil-rich state that practicesSharia (Islam ic) law. Possession of alcohol (which forms part of thestoryline for "The Bishop's Gambit " in "Yes, Prime Minister") carries a sentence of public flogging and imprisonment, and adultery (also mentioned) is punishable bystoning .Qumran is first mentioned when the fictional Minister for Administrative Affairs
James Hacker is sent to lead a British government delegation to the state. Hacker is appalled when Civil Service delegations from almost every department are sent, even though the meeting is only to finalise a contract for electronics exports that Britain received, it later emerges, through bribery. Hacker and Sir Humphrey, with the help ofBernard Woolley , later conspire to smuggle alcohol into the reception and violate Islamic law using an emergency communications room as a cover. Hacker, unsurprisingly, becomes drunk; Sir Humphrey is dressed as aBedouin and is on first-name terms with his Qumrani counterparts. Later on, the Minister and his wife are embroiled in a controversy over the Qumranis' gift of a priceless vase, which the Minister's wife wants to keep but is prohibited from doing so as, ironically, it would look like bribery.In "Yes, Prime Minister", Qumran is featured for threatening to flog a British nurse found in possession of bottle of whisky. A clergyman adversary of Humphrey's is sent to Qumran to intercede her behalf, putting him in line for a bishopric. The
Reverend Christopher Smythe, is said to be interested in onlycricket ,Islam and steam engines; in fact, when asked about theBible , he referred to it as "a Christian version of theQur'an ". Qumran is, according to Sir Humphrey, valuable to the British because they give Britain intelligence on Arab-Soviet relations and host a British listening post, as well as providing a steady flow ofoil by sabotagingOPEC agreements.t George's Island
St George's Island is the subject of the "Yes, Prime Minister" episode "
A Victory for Democracy ", where it is a democracy under threat of invasion by EastYemen , a neighbouring fictional Middle Eastern country.Little is stated about the country's history, except that it was one of the few islands in the
Indian Ocean to stay in theCommonwealth of Nations . It was granted independence in the 1960s, approximately twenty years before the "Yes, Prime Minister" series was set. UnlikeIndia ,Cyprus ,Palestine andIreland , the country was not partitioned, causing misgivings by Sir Richard Wharton, thePermanent Secretary of theForeign and Commonwealth Office . He cynically believed that partitioning the formercolonies causedcivil wars , making the people of these countries spend all their time and energy fighting each other, rather than someone else. After all, "it saved us (Britain) having a policy about them."Although the size and exact location of the island are never given, certain geographical features are revealed as clues. Firstly, Sir Richard tells Sir Humphrey that there are "
Marxist guerrillas in the mountains." He also discusses a British contract to build a proposedairport andharbour installation.Hacker and Bernard look at a globe and discuss the exact location and strategic importance of the island, while being watched over by the weaselly character of Luke, another Private Secretary from the Foreign Office. It is located somewhere in the
Arabian Sea near thePersian Gulf , making it important that the Russians never fulfil their wish to gain a "warm waterport ." Jim later tells hisDefence Secretary that it is located "halfway between India andAfrica ."The actual whereabouts of the island and the main characters' ignorance of its location is a running joke, suggesting that a great deal of fuss is being made over an otherwise geographically insignificant country, whose only relevance is political and ideological.
As well as gaining independence from Britain in the 1960s and remaining in the Commonwealth, the politics of the island remain ambiguous. Jim requests his Foreign Secretary to arrange for the "President of St George's Island" to invite an airborne
battalion on a goodwill visit. However, the island also has a Prime Minister, which would be typical of aWestminster system republic such as Ireland. Moreover, the island is spoken of as remaining in the "Royal" Commonwealth" (seeCommonwealth realm ) at one point in the episode, although this may simply be a grandiose reference to the entire Commonwealth.The Marxist guerrillas in the mountains were also Soviet and
Libya n backed, which meant that the Foreign Office was "staying right out of it". East Yemen's full name was "The People's Democratic Republic of East Yemen". It was also mentioned that it often conducted military raids against its neighbour, West Yemen (another fictional country); East and West Yemen appear to be based onSouth Yemen and North Yemen, respectively.See also
*
List of fictional countries
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