‘I’m Sorry, Prime Minister’ heads to the Apollo Theatre with Griff Rhys Jones

From the BAFTA Award-winning co-creator of Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister…

Following a successful run at The Barn Theatre followed by runs at Theatre Royal Bath and Cambridge Arts Theatre, I’m Sorry, Prime Minister will be transferring to the West End at the Apollo Theatre from 30 January to 25 April 2026.

Making his return to the West End, Griff Rhys Jones stars as ex-Prime Minister Jim Hacker alongside Clive Francis who is reprising the role of Sir Humphry Appleby he played at The Barn Theatre. This is the final chapter of Yes, Minister written and directed by BAFTA Award-winning Jonathan Lynn, which sees the pair in their old age facing up to life in their retirement. The production is co-directed by Michael Gyngell.

Griff Rhys Jones:

“I am delighted and honoured to be stepping into the shoes of Jim Hacker in this the final, funny and poignant episode of his long career. The great TV series, and latterly the plays, are part of my architecture of British Comedy. They have always been the first and last word on the shenanigans that we call politics. What Americans have taken to calling the swamp.

“Sorry, Prime Minister is as acute and apposite as ever. It will be a hoot. What can the great comedy sparring partners make of what the modern world throws at them? I urge everybody – old fans, young fans and yet-to-be fans to come and join us at the Apollo to find out.”

I’m Sorry, Prime Minister first opened at The Barn Theatre in September 2023, followed by visits to Theatre Royal Bath and Cambridge Arts Theatre. This is the first Barn Theatre production to transfer to the West End.

From the BAFTA Award-winning co-creator of Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, Jonathan Lynn, comes the long-awaited final chapter of British political satire — and it is as cutting, and catastrophically funny as ever.

Jonathan Lynn:

“I wanted to write the final chapter about Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby, now in their 80s, discarded, ignored, watching today’s world with utter bewilderment. An elegiac play about old age and loss – loss of power, loss of influence, loss of friends, loss of family. The only play I’ve ever seen on this theme is King Lear. This will be funnier.”

Jim Hacker is back — older, but perhaps not wiser, and still utterly baffled by the real world. Hoping for a quiet retirement from Government as the master of Hacker College, Oxford, Jim instead finds himself facing the ultimate modern crisis: cancelled by the college committee. Enter Sir Humphrey Appleby, who has lost none of his love for bureaucracy, Latin phrases, and well-timed obstruction.

Can Humphrey and Jim out manoeuvre the hostile students, the Fellows, and reality itself? Or is it finally time to say, “I’m Sorry, Prime Minister…”? Brimming with razor-sharp wit, nostalgic brilliance, and more double-speak than a press briefing, this is political comedy at its most timeless — and timely.

Yes Minister is a British television comedy series written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. Comprising three seven-episode series, it was first transmitted on BBC Two from 1980 to 1984. A sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran for 16 episodes from 1986 to 1988. A hugely successful stage play entitled Yes, Prime Minister was premiered at Chichester Festival Theatre in May 2010. The production transferred to the West End where it played at three different theatres and also toured the UK twice to great acclaim.

Set principally in the private office of a British cabinet minister in the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs in Whitehall, Yes Minister follows the ministerial career of Jim Hacker, played by Paul Eddington. His various struggles to formulate and enact policy or effect departmental changes are opposed by the British Civil Service, in particular his Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, played by Nigel Hawthorne.

The series received several BAFTAs and in 2004 was voted sixth in the Britain’s Best Sitcom poll. It was the favourite television programme for fans across the political spectrum, most notably of the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher.

Tickets are on sale now from www.imsorryprimeminister.com.