History Characters / YesMinister

* TheBlindLeadingTheBlind: Not often, but it can happen sometimes, such as the whole metadioxide debacle, where Sir Humphrey tries to flummox Hacker and a chemistry-illiterate MP despite it becoming apparent he has no knowledge of chemistry himself, merely parroting what vested interests have told him, and is therefore caught flat-footed when they start asking questions he can't answer like "what does inert mean?" or "what is a compound?"

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Early in the series he provides a rather peculiar example: Sir Humphrey explains how there are various different methods of trying to measure how well the government apparatus works, most of them frustratingly vague and subjective. He himself has settled on something easily quantifiable: how many people the government employs. The direct logical result of this is that in his view ever-expanding sprawling government bureaucracy, endless deliberation committees and new government departments are an unambiguously ''good'' thing in his opinion as they expand the number of civil servants employed. A quick way to get him to support any proposal is to point out how it will require setting up a new department to handle it with many new positions to be filled.

* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: While he's mostly an advocate for the NecessaryEvil's in government, Humphrey also tends to roadblock any potential change that might threaten the status quo, preserving the power and influence enjoyed by the Civil Service and "old boys club" they've cultivated, so he may continue to push for endeavors that upper-class, university educated individuals, like himself, prefer at the expense of the average Britain, which Hacker calls him out on whenever he has the chance.

* NotSooWellInternationedExtremist: While he's mostly an advocate for the NecessaryEvil's in government, Humphrey also tends to roadblock any potential change that might threaten the status quo, preserving the power and influence enjoyed by the Civil Service and "old boys club" they've cultivated, so he may continue to push for endeavors that upper-class, university educated individuals, like himself, prefer at the expense of the average Britain, which Hacker calls him out on whenever he has the chance.

* BadBoss: It's stated in the series and [[AllThereInTheManual especially the books]] that he and Hacker had a somewhat adversarial relationship (Hacker having run a rival contender's in-party campaign for nomination as Prime Minister – and while they lost to the PM, he still holds a grudge). Indeed, it's stated that the reason Hacker was appointed to the Department of Administrative Affairs when he'd been the Shadow Agriculture Minister for seven years was because the DAA was considered [[KickedUpstairs an unglamorous political graveyard]]. (That, and the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture had begged not to have him – he'd have known too much!) Indeed early in the series the PM comes close to abolishing the entire department – and by extension Hacker's career – altogether. However there is a turning point in their relationship where the PM becomes ''slightly'' more of a BenevolentBoss.

* EveryoneHasStandards: He may not mind being called a moral vacuum, but he's genuinely shocked, outraged and hurt when Hacker implicitely reveals to him that he's suspected of being a soviet spy.

-> '''Played by:''' Creator/NigelHawthorne; Henry Goodman (2013)

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-> '''Played by:''' Derek Fowlds; Chris Larkin (2013)

-> '''Played by:''' Creator/PaulEddington; David Haig (2013)

* CharacterDevelopment: After his promotion to Cabinet Secretary, in ''Yes Prime Minister'' he's generally less jovial and complacent, and more bad-tempered.

** Turned UpToEleven in "The Bed of Nails" when he goes into an absurdly long discussion about the origins of the phrase "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts". Hacker and Sir Humphrey, who were ''actually'' talking about public transport policies before Bernard derailed the discussion, just stare at him in disbelief for a few moments before going back to what they were discussing beforehand.