Sir Antony Jay CVO CBE died peacefully on Sunday evening after a long illness. He was 86.

Jay was best known as co-author with Jonathan Lynn of Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister (and of the best-selling books based on them) but had a long and varied career, starting in the BBC’s current affairs and documentary department. He was a founder member of the Tonight team, becoming Editor in 1962.

In 1964 he left the BBC to become an independent producer and writer. He wrote many documentary scripts and two books which have become management classics, Management and Machiavelli (1967) and Corporation Man (1971), as well as working with David Frost on The Frost Report, The Frost Programme and as Editor of A Prime Minister on Prime Ministers, a series of twelve David Frost interviews with Harold Wilson.

In 1969 he wrote the commentary for the documentary Royal Family. He is the former Editor of The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations (4th Edition 2010).

In the 1970s, he was a member of the Annan Committee on the Future of Broadcasting and, with John Cleese and two other television colleagues, founded the management and sales training film company Video Arts.

He scripted the major BBC documentary film Elizabeth R and wrote the accompanying book of the same title.