THERE’S a chance to step back in time when I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, the final chapter in the evergreen comedy series, sets off on its UK-wide tour in early May following a run at the Apollo Theatre in London’s West End.

The cast includes Clive Francis who is reprising the role of Sir Humphrey Appleby which he first performed at the Barn Theatre, and currently in the West End, alongside Simon Rouse in the role of Ex-Prime Minister Jim Hacker.

From the BAFTA Award-winning co-creator of Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, Jonathan Lynn, comes the long-awaited final chapter of British political satire — and it is as cutting, and catastrophically funny as ever.

Jim Hacker is back — older, but perhaps not wiser, and still utterly baffled by the real world. Hoping for a quiet retirement from Government as the master of Hacker College, Oxford, Jim instead finds himself facing the ultimate modern crisis: cancelled by the college committee. Enter Sir Humphrey Appleby (played by the acclaimed Clive Francis), who has lost none of his love for bureaucracy, Latin phrases, and well-timed obstruction.

Can Humphrey and Jim out manoeuvre the hostile students, the Fellows, and reality itself? Or is it finally time to say, "I’m Sorry, Prime Minister..."? Brimming with razor-sharp wit, nostalgic brilliance, and more double-speak than a press briefing, this is political comedy at its most timeless — and timely.

Yes, Minister is a British television comedy series written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. Comprising three seven-episode series, it was first transmitted on BBC2 from 1980 to 1984. A sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran for 16 episodes from 1986 to 1988 and a hugely successful stage play entitled Yes, Prime Minister was premiered at Chichester Festival Theatre in May 2010. The production transferred to the West End where it played at three different theatres and also toured the UK twice to great acclaim.

Set principally in the private office of a British cabinet minister in the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs in Whitehall, Yes Minister follows the ministerial career of Jim Hacker, played by Paul Eddington.

His various struggles to formulate and enact policy or effect departmental changes are opposed by the British Civil Service, in particular his Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, played by Nigel Hawthorne. The series received several BAFTAs and in 2004 was voted sixth in the Britain's Best Sitcom poll. It was the favourite television programme for fans across the political spectrum, most notably of the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher.

Clive Francis’ first West End engagement was in 1966 in There’s a Girl in My Soup at the Globe Theatre and since then he has appeared in countless TV and theatre produtions, while Simon Rouse is an accomplished stage and screen actor, widely recognised for his long‑running role as DCI Jack Meadows in ITV’s The Bill, which he played for 18 years.

I’m Sorry, Prime Minister can be seen at Malvern Theatres from Tuesday, July 27 to Saturday, August 1.