YES, PRIME MINISTER to Launch UK Tour in January 2012

The smash hit production of Jonathan Lynn and AnTony Jay's play Yes, Prime Minister will tour again from January 23, starting at Chichester Festival Theatre.

The production will then tour to Coventry, Wales, Woking, Cheltenham, Oxford, Buxton, Poole, Milton Keynes, Crawley, Canterbury, Cambridge, Derby and Darlington. Michael Simkins will play Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby and Graham Seed will play Prime Minister Jim Hacker.

Graham Seed is best known for his role as Nigel Pargetter in BBC Radio Four's The Archers since 1983. Among his many TV appearances he has starred as Jorkins in the television series Brideshead Revisited and Britannicus in I, Claudius. His more recent TV credits include Spielberg's Band of Brothers and Midsomer Murders. Seed has featured in numerous on stage productions, from the national tour of Journey's End to the Accolade in February this year.

An associate member of RADA, Michael Simkins has made film and television appearances as well as starring as Billy Flyn in Chicago from 2007. His career in the West End has seen him featuring in Mamma Mia, The King and I and Off West End in Pinter's The Old Masters (2004) and Terence Rattigan's Less than Kind (2011). On television, Simkins' has played a regular character in Foyle's War, as well as featuring in TV dramas such as A Touch of Frost, Judge John Deed and most recently, Above Suspicion: Silent Scream. His film credits include Wilde and V for Vendetta.

AnTony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, the original writers of the classic TV series Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister have taken the stage version nationwide having received universal and public acclaim. The production opened at Chichester Festival Theatre and transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in the West End with David Haig and Henry Goodman in the title roles. Simon Williams and Richard McCabe took over Haig and Goodman in a sell-out UK tour which ended back at Apollo Theatre in London. The production then moved next door to its originAl West End home at the Gielgud where it is due to run until 19 November.

Prime Minister Jim Hacker and Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby face a country in financial meltdown. The only prospect of salvation comes from morally dubious allies - leading to deliciously comic consequences.

AnTony Jay has enjoyed a distinguished career as writer, broadcaster and producer. He was founder and editor of the BBC's legendary Tonight programme, is the editor of The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations, and author of Elizabeth R and two acclaimed documentaries on the Royal Family. He is a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.

Jonathan Lynn's prolific career spans more than four decades as a director, screenwriter, producer and actor in films, television and theatre, as well as best-selling author and novelist. As well as co-writing, he will be directing this stage version of Yes, Prime Minister. His film credits as director include The Whole Nine Yards, The Fighting Temptations, The Distinguished Gentleman, My Cousin Vinny and Nuns on the Run (which he also wrote).

Jay and Lynn's BAFTA award-winning political comedy Yes, Minister first aired on BBC2 in 1980 and ran until 1984. The sequel, Yes, Prime Minister ran from 1986 until 1988.

Lynn and Jay also wrote three novels, The Complete Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, Volumes 1 and 2, which cumulatively sold more than a million copies in hardback, were on the British top-ten bestseller list for three years and have been translated into numerous languages.

The UK tour of the Chichester Festival Theatre production of Yes, Prime Minister is produced by Mark Goucher (The Vagina Monologues, The Complete Works of Shakespeare), Wimpole Theatre (Whipping It Up, A Christmas Carol) and Matthew Byam Shaw (Frost Nixon, See How They Run, Boeing, Boeing) for Playful Productions.

The full tour itinerary is as follows:

Chichester Festival Theatre
23rd January-4th February 2012
Box Office: 01243 781312
www.cft.org.uk

COVENTRY BELGRADE
6th February - 11th February 2012
Box Office: 0247 655 3055
www.belgrade.co.uk

NORTH WALES THEATRE
13th February - 18th February 2012
Box Office: 01492 872 000
www.venuecymru.co.uk/details.php?id=118

WOKING NEW VICTORIA
20th February - 25th February
Box Office: 0844 871 7645
http://www.atgtickets.com/2396/689/Woking-Theatres/New-Victoria-Theatre/Yes-Prime-Minister-Tickets

CHELTENHAM EVERYMAN
27th February - 3rd March 2012
Box Office: 01242 572 573
https://tickets.everymantheatre.org.uk/show.asp

OX FORD PLAYHOUSE
5th March - 10th March 2012
Box Office: 01865 305 305
www.oxfordplayhouse.com

BUXTON OPERA HOUSE
12th March - 17th March 2012
Box Office: 0845 127 2190
www.buxtonoperahouse.org.uk/whats-on/yes-prime-minister/

POOLE LIGHTHOUSE
19th March - 24th March 2012
Box Office: 0844 406 8666
www.lighthousepoole.co.uk

MILTON KEYNES THEATRE
26th March - 31st March 2012
Box Office: 0844 871 7652
http://www.atgtickets.com/2396/657/Milton-Keynes/Milton-Keynes-Theatre/Yes-Prime-Minister-Tickets

CRAWLEY HAWTH
2nd April - 7th April 2012
Box Office: 01293 554 636
https://tickets.hawth.co.uk/public/show.asp

CANTERBURY MARLOWE
9th April - 15th April 2012
Box Office: 01227 787 787
http://marlowetheatre.com/page/3120/Yes-Prime-Minister/202

CAMBRIDGE ARTS
23rd April - 28th April 2012
Box Office: 01223 503 333
www.cambridgeartstheatre.com

DERBY THEATRE
30th April - 5th May 2012
Box Office: 01332 255 800
www.derbytheatre.co.uk

DARLINGTON CIVIC
8th May - 12th May 2012
Box Office: 01325 486 555
www.darlington.gov.uk/Leisure/arts

 

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