Frank Weisel

Frank Weisel is Jim Hacker's special political adviser, the one man in the department who owes his loyalty to the Minister rather than the machinery of state. Scruffy, blunt, and openly suspicious of the civil service, he pushes Hacker toward bold political moves while Sir Humphrey and Bernard regard him as an unwelcome outsider.

He exists to be the wrong kind of ally, the political operator whose crude directness makes Whitehall's polished evasions look even more absurd by comparison. Neil Fitzwilliam plays him with a scrappy impatience that never quite fits the room, and the civil servants' barely concealed distaste for him is one of the show's quietest, sharpest jokes.