Concept and creative process
Titles for a satirical sitcom series set in the office of a UK Cabinet minister, Jim Hacker MP, played by Paul Eddington, who struggles with Civil Service bureaucracy and political machinations. He is supported by Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Minister’s permanent secretary, played by Nigel Hawthorne and by Bernard Woolley, his Principal Private Secretary, played by Derek Fowlds. The titles and music for this second show of the new series were now ready and replaced the stopgap version used for episode one. Gerald Scarfe created the titles, drawing directly under the camera and filming two frames of every pen or brush mark needed to complete the distinctive caricatures of the main protagonists. Each title sequence ended with the episode title superimposed over the Weekly Information Bulletin of the House of Commons. The title music was composed by Ronnie Hazlehurst based on the chimes of Big Ben.