Sir Humphrey Appleby, the consummate civil servant with a patrician disdain for the delusions of democratic government, is an almost perfect comic creation.
He functions like one of the stock characters of commedia dell'arte - endlessly adaptable and brimming with humorous potential that is both timeless and topical.
The creators of the much-loved TV series, Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, have done a fine job bringing the show up to date with a very credible portrait of a British PM wrestling with the issues of the day.
But political satire dates quickly and jokes about the global financial crisis, climate change, and the quagmire of European monetary policy would have had more bite when the show premiered in 2010. The script could use a few tweaks to include hot-button issues like Wikileaks and the internal surveillance scandal.
The show may be a victim of its own success. In the 1980s, exposing politicians' most idealistic aspirations as a mask for self-serving manipulation had a sharp satirical edge, while in our more cynical age it has become the default position of almost all political commentary and feels more like conventional wisdom.
