the abc authorised a series of "our man in canberra" and production commenced in may 1972 on 13 half-hour episodes, written by john o'grady. it centred on the newly elected mp for danforth, humphrey sullivan, who won his seat by a majority of 15 votes. humphrey is naive and idealistic and bumbles through his new position. he is being manoeuvred by the minister but in the end he usually ends up out-manoeuvring him, with help from his wife. some parallels can be drawn with the later british comedy series "yes, minister".