List of fictional places in Yes Minister

This list of fictional places in Yes Minister elaborates on the details provided in Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn's The Complete Yes Minister, the diary-based novelization of the series.

Buranda

Buranda is a fictional West African developing country (or LDC (Less Developed Country) at the time of filming) that features in the second episode of Yes Minister ("The Official Visit") and (briefly) Yes, Prime Minister ("A Conflict of Interest"). Formerly British Equatorial Africa, it is referred to privately by James Hacker as a "TPLAC" (Tin-pot little African country), much to Sir Humphrey's consternation.

Buranda's leader in Yes Minister is Colonel Selim Mohammed, previously Charlie Umtali before his conversion to Islam. The crux of this storyline hinges on Hacker's former association (as fellow alumni of the London School of Economics) with the Colonel as he tries to use it to avoid a diplomatically embarrassing speech in the audience of Her Majesty the Queen.

Buranda's location is a little ambiguous: where the novelisation places it in Ghana, the actual episode (on a news report) suggests Equatorial Guinea.

Qumran

Qumran features in Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. It is an oil-rich Gulf sheikhdom in the Middle East. In both series, it is characterised by clichés of Arab nations: it is an oil-rich state that practices Sharia (Islamic) law. Possession of alcohol (which forms part of the storyline for "The Bishop's Gambit" in Yes, Prime Minister) carries a sentence of public flogging and imprisonment, and adultery (also mentioned) is punishable by stoning.

Qumran is first mentioned when the fictional Minister for Administrative Affairs James Hacker is sent to lead a British government delegation to the state. Hacker is appalled when Civil Service delegations from almost every department are sent, even though the meeting is only to finalise a contract for electronics exports that Britain received, it later emerges, through bribery. Hacker and Sir Humphrey, with the help of Bernard Woolley, later conspire to smuggle alcohol into the reception and violate Islamic law using an emergency communications room as a cover. Hacker, unsurprisingly, becomes drunk; Sir Humphrey is dressed as a Bedouin and is on first-name terms with his Qumrani counterparts. Later on, the Minister and his wife are embroiled in a controversy over the Qumranis' gift of a priceless vase, which the Minister's wife wants to keep but is prohibited from doing so as, ironically, it would look like bribery.

In a later episode, Qumran is featured for threatening to flog a British nurse found in possession of bottle of whisky. A clergyman adversary of Humphrey's is sent to Qumran and saves the nurse, putting him in line for a bishopric. The Reverend Christopher Smythe, is said to be interested in only cricket, Islam and steam engines; in fact, when asked about the Bible, he referred to it as a Christian version of the Qur'an. Qumran is, according to Sir Humphrey, valuable to the British because they give Britain intelligence on Arab-Soviet relations and host a British listening post, as well as providing a steady flow of oil by sabotaging OPEC agreements.

St George's Island

St George's Island is the subject of a Yes, Prime Minister storyline episode "A Victory for Democracy", where it is a democracy under threat of invasion by East Yemen, a neighbouring fictional Middle Eastern country.

Little is stated about the country's history, except that it was one of the few islands in the Indian Ocean to stay in the Commonwealth of Nations. It was granted independence in the 1960s, approximately twenty years before the Yes, Prime Minister series was set. Unlike India, Cyprus, Palestine and Ireland, the country was not partitioned, causing misgivings by Sir Richard Wharton, the Permanent Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He cynically believed that partitioning the former colonies caused civil wars, making the people of these countries spend all their time and energy fighting each other, rather than someone else. After all, "it saved us (Britain) having a policy about them."

Although the size and exact location of the island are never given, certain geographical features are revealed as clues. Firstly, Sir Richard tells Sir Humphrey Appleby that there are "Marxist guerrillas in the mountains." He also discusses a British contract to build a proposed airport and harbour installation.

Hacker and Bernard look at a globe and discuss the exact location and strategic importance of the island, while being watched over by the weaselly character of Luke, another Private Secretary from the Foreign Office. It is located somewhere in the Arabian Sea near the Persian Gulf, making it important that the Russians never fulfil their wish to gain a "warm water port." Jim later tells his Defence Secretary that it is located "halfway between India and Africa."

The actual whereabouts of the island and the main characters' ignorance of its location is a major running joke in this episode of the series, implying that a great deal of fuss is being made over an otherwise geographically insignificant country, whose only real relevance is political and ideological.

As well as gaining independence from Britain in the 1960s and remaining in the Commonwealth, the politics of the island remain ambiguous. Jim requests his Foreign Secretary to arrange for the "President of St George's Island" to invite an airborne battalion on a goodwill visit. However, the island also has a Prime Minister, which would be typical of a Westminster System republic such as Ireland. Moreover, the island is spoken of as remaining in the "Royal Commonwealth" (see Commonwealth Realm) at one point in the episode, although this may simply be a grandiose reference to the entire Commonwealth.

The Marxist guerrillas in the mountains were also Soviet and Libyan backed, which meant that the Foreign Office was "staying right out of it". East Yemen's full name was "The People's Democratic Republic of East Yemen" – in other words, a "Communist dictatorship." It was also mentioned that it often conducted military raids against its neighbour, West Yemen (another fictional country).

See also

• List of fictional countries