Antony Rupert Jay was born in London, England on April 20, 1930. He received a degree in classics and comparative philology from Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1952. After serving two years with the Royal Signal Corps, he joined the current affairs department of BBC Television, where he developed the current affairs program Tonight. He became editor of the program and head of the television talk features department. He left the BBC in 1964 to become a freelance writer and producer.
He wrote for the programs That Was the Week That Was and The Frost Report and the documentaries The Royal Family and Elizabeth R.: A Year in the Life of the Queen. He was a writer and producer of management training films for Video Arts. He created the television shows Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.
He wrote several books during his lifetime including Management and Machiavelli: An Inquiry Into the Politics of Corporate Life, Effective Presentation: The Communication of Ideas by Words and Visual Aids, The Householder's Guide to Community Defense Against Bureaucratic Aggression, and Corporation Man. He was the co-author with David Frost for To England with Love and with Jonathan Lynn for The Complete Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. They later collaborated on a stage version of Yes Prime Minister. Jay died on August 21, 2016 at the age of 86.
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