10.0/101 votes#1 - The Writing on the Wall
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 3/24/1980
A rumour starts that Jim’s department is about to be axed. So with help from Sir Humphrey, they try and defeat the Prime Minister’s plans.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
10.0/101 votes#2 - The Key
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 1/30/1986
Office politics take precedence over national issues when Sir Humphrey and Bernard fall out with each other after Jim tries to restrict Sir Humphrey’s access to №10.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
9.0/102 votes#3 - The Smoke Screen
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 1/23/1986
Jim favors abolishing smoking through heavy taxation but runs into strong opposition from the tobacco lobby and the Treasury department.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
8.0/101 votes#4 - The Right to Know
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 3/31/1980
Jim faces rebellion at home and in the office over the removal of protected status from a badger habitat, while he tries to circumvent Sir Humphrey’s efforts to keep him ignorant of things.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
8.0/101 votes#5 - Jobs for the Boys
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 4/7/1980
Jim goes on radio to support the Solihull project a Government, union and private enterprise building scheme, that he has inherited from the last administration, but unknown to him the project is close to bankruptcy, Sir Humphrey hopes to save the deal by offering a quango to the director of the bank involved
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
8.0/101 votes#6 - A Real Partnership
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 2/6/1986
Sir Humphrey tries to get his scheduled pay raise even though increases for M.P.s have been put on hold for budgetary reasons.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
8.0/101 votes#7 - Official Secrets
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 12/10/1987
Jim considers approving the publication of his predecessor’s memoirs, but it becomes a plumber’s nightmare as a series of leaks spring up.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
8.0/101 votes#8 - A Diplomatic Incident
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 12/17/1987
Jim uses the occasion of his predecessor’s state funeral to negotiate with the French over the conditions of the Channel Tunnel.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
8.0/101 votes#9 - The Tangled Web
Season 2 Episode 8 - Aired 1/28/1988
Sir Humphrey has to decide if he will support the P.M. or inform Parliament when Hacker denies knowledge of a wiretap authorized by his office without his knowledge.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
7.5/102 votes#10 - The Grand Design
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 1/9/1986
With his finger now on the nuclear button, Hacker plans his first act as Prime Minister to be a radical new defence policy.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
7.0/102 votes#11 - The Ministerial Broadcast
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 1/16/1986
Jim is coached in the world of show business as he prepares to address the nation on his defence policy.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
7.0/101 votes#12 - A Victory for Democracy
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 2/13/1986
Jim must take action to avert a Marxist takeover of a Commonwealth island nation despite the efforts of the Foreign Office to keep him ignorant.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
7.0/101 votes#13 - One of Us
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 2/27/1986
Hacker threatens to place Sir Humphrey on leave while a security inquiry looks into why he cleared a confessed Soviet spy many years earlier, so Sir Humphrey retaliates with a dog in distress on Salisbury plain.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
7.0/101 votes#14 - A Conflict of Interest
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 12/24/1987
Hacker and Sir Humphrey clash over the appointment of the governor of the Bank of England and the cover up of a banking scandal in the City.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
7.0/101 votes#15 - Power to the People
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 12/31/1987
Sir Humphrey makes a very strange ally out of the formidable Agnes Moorhouse, a radical political reformer from a London council, in his efforts to stop Hacker’s plans to make local government more democratic.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
7.0/101 votes#16 - The Patron of the Arts
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 1/1/1988
Jim Hacker faces embarrassment when Sir Humphrey tells a friend in the arts that the PM's government is planning to cut grants.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
7.0/101 votes#17 - The National Education Service
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 1/8/1988
Sir Humphrey faces a conflict of interest when Hacker devises a plan to improve educational standards by abolishing the Department of Education and Science.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
6.0/101 votes#18 - The Bishop’s Gambit
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 2/20/1986
Jim has to choose a new bishop but doesn’t like either the Church or Sir Humphrey’s choices.
Director: N/A
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
6.0/101 votes#19 - Man Overboard
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 12/3/1987
Sir Humphrey makes Jim suspicious of the Minister of Employment when he needs the P.M.’s support in opposing a plan to shift military personnel from the south to the north of England.
Director: Sydney Lotterby
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
N/A/101 votes#20 - The Bed of Nails
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 12/9/1982
Jim accepts an unpopular position pushing a transportation bill desired by Number 10, but opposed by everyone else.
Director: Peter Whitmore
Writer: Jonathan Lynn
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Jonathan Lynn Ratings Summary
"The Writing on the Wall" is the best rated episode written by Jonathan Lynn. It scored 10/10 based on 1 votes. It was directed by Sydney Lotterby. It aired on 3/24/1980 and is rated 0.0 points higher than their second-best episode, "The Key".