Hacker pushes for his defence budget cuts with the additional leverage of an anti-smoking policy.
This an excellent episode that tackles another very interesting subject matter with great comedy, cynicism, and tactical manoeuvring by the characters.
It's good to see the focus is less explicitly on 'Hacker's Grand design' and more on the tobacco industry and its implications on the medical and financial wellbeing of Britain. It presents an attitude from the civil service that is so morally wrong yet logically sound, you cannot help but laugh. Humphrey's notion of smokers as national heroes for me is one of the funniest concepts written on the show.
How the difficult characters are managed and the eventual resolution to the problem is an inspired plot thread that is both funny and quite disheartening to watch. You can quite easily imagine these situations occurring in real life government. Again the writers emphasise self interest as the main driving factor in the behaviour and decisions of characters.
Looking back at this from a 2021 perspective, there is a fabulous irony when you consider the proposals treated so outrageously in this episode are all in legislation now.
Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds are superb as ever. Bill Wallis gives a strong performance as the chain smoking Minister of Sport.
