Last Updated on February 13, 2026
I’m Sorry, Prime Minister opens in the West End, and Sir Humphrey still runs circles around everyone
Last night’s press night at the Apollo Theatre confirmed something London-theatre audiences have quietly suspected: you can retire Jim Hacker, but you can never slam the door on Sir Humphrey Appleby.
I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, billed as the final chapter of the beloved political satire dynasty that began with Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, opened in London’s West End this week. Written and directed by Jonathan Lynn, co-directed by Michael Gyngell, and transferring from a celebrated run at the Barn Theatre in Cirencester, it reunites two of British comedy’s most familiar figures in a new setting: Hacker as Master of Hacker College, Oxford, and Sir Humphrey, once civil service apparatchik supreme, still confident that procedure will always win the day.
Griff Rhys Jones plays Hacker with affable befuddlement, while Clive Francis returns as Sir Humphrey in a performance that still delights in verbal convolution and bureaucratic one-upmanship. Campbell’s set evokes a book-lined study that feels as cosy as a college common room and just as susceptible to old-boys’ nostalgia.
London’s critics are not unanimous in their praise (but that’s nothing unusual). The Financial Times suggests the play occasionally gravitates into “cultural grumbling” when it tackles modern issues such as cancel culture and university politics, and argues that the material feels more reflective than razor-sharp satire. The Times notes that while the humour “simmers gently,” its plotting is uneven and its engagement with contemporary politics sometimes feels cursory rather than incisive.
Online theatre reviewers are slightly warmer. A piece on Monstagigz found Francis’s Sir Humphrey “verbally dazzling,” even if Griff Rhys Jones’s Hacker doesn’t always generate laughs as readily as expected.
Whether this production is a nostalgic pleasure or a thoughtful elegy for characters long sustained by prime-time broadcast brilliance will, it seems, depend on what audiences hope to find. For devotees of the original series, there is still plenty of verbal fencing to savour; for those expecting a satirical scalpel as sharp as in the 1980s, the surgery feels gentler, reflective rather than confrontational.
The play runs at the Apollo Theatre until 9 May 2026, with performances Tuesday to Saturday evenings and matinees on Wednesday and Saturday. Tickets are on sale at the official website, with the best availability from March.
Tickets from: £18
Box office: 0330 333 4809
Online booking: https://www.imsorryprimeminister.com
Performance times: Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30 pm; Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.30 pm
Apollo Theatre,
Shaftesbury Avenue,
London, W1D 7EZ.
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