Sir Antony Jay, co-writer of much-loved British TV political comedies Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, died on Tuesday aged 86 after a long illness.

Jay started his career at the BBC's current affairs and documentaries department, but is best known for the political satires he penned in the 1980s. These depicted the interplay between politicians — principally Jim Hacker MP, who headed the (fictional) Department of Administrative Affairs and later became prime minister — and civil servants, especially the wily Sir Humphrey Appleby and Sir Bernard Woolley.

The shows were big successes for the BBC and must-watch TV for politicians — Margaret Thatcher was a fan.

Here are 5 things the shows taught us Brits about our continental cousins.

1. Brits are distrustful of Europe — always have been

From "The writing on the wall" (1980)

Sir Humphrey: Minister, Britain has had the same foreign policy objective for at least the last 500 years: to create a disunited Europe. In that cause we have fought with the Dutch against the Spanish, with the Germans against the French, with the French and Italians against the Germans, and with the French against the Germans and Italians. Divide and rule, you see. Why should we change now, when it's worked so well?

Hacker: That's all ancient history, surely?

Sir Humphrey: Yes, and current policy. We had to break the whole thing [the EEC] up, so we had to get inside. We tried to break it up from the outside, but that wouldn't work. Now that we're inside we can make a complete pig's breakfast of the whole thing: set the Germans against the French, the French against the Italians, the Italians against the Dutch... The Foreign Office is terribly pleased; it's just like old times.

Hacker: But surely we're all committed to the European ideal?

Sir Humphrey: [chuckles] Really, minister.

Hacker: If not, why are we pushing for an increase in the membership?

Sir Humphrey: Well, for the same reason. It's just like the United Nations, in fact; the more members it has, the more arguments it can stir up, the more futile and impotent it becomes.

Hacker: What appalling cynicism.

Sir Humphrey: Yes... We call it diplomacy, minister.

* * *

2. Every man, woman and country for themselves

From "The devil you know" (1981)

Hacker: Europe is a community of nations, dedicated towards one goal.

Sir Humphrey: Oh, ha ha ha.

Hacker: May we share the joke, Humphrey?

Sir Humphrey: Oh minister, let's look at this objectively. It is a game played for national interests, and always was. Why do you suppose we went into it?

Hacker: To strengthen the brotherhood of free Western nations.

Sir Humphrey: Oh really. We went in to screw the French by splitting them off from the Germans.

Hacker: So why did the French go into it, then?

Sir Humphrey: Well, to protect their inefficient farmers from commercial competition.

Hacker: That certainly doesn't apply to the Germans.

Sir Humphrey: No, no. They went in to cleanse themselves of genocide and apply for readmission to the human race.

Hacker: I never heard such appalling cynicism! At least the small nations didn't go into it for selfish reasons.

Sir Humphrey: Oh really? Luxembourg is in it for the perks; the capital of the EEC, all that foreign money pouring in.

Hacker: Very sensible central location.

Sir Humphrey: With the administration in Brussels and the Parliament in Strasbourg? Minister, it's like having the House of Commons in Swindon and the Civil Service in Kettering!

* * *

3. No one wants to eat salami!

From "Party games" (1984)

Hacker: By the end of next year we shall be waving goodbye to the good old British sausage and we'll be forced to accept some foreign muck like salami or bratwurst or something in its place

Sir Bernard Woolley: They can't stop us eating the British sausage, can they?

Hacker: They can stop us calling it the sausage though. Apparently it's going to be called the emulsified, high-fat offal tube.

Sir Bernard: And you swallowed it?

* * *

4. Those pesky Eurocrats

From "The devil you know" (1981)

Hacker: Brussels is a shambles. You know what they say about the average Common Market official? He has the organizing ability of the Italians, the flexibility of the Germans and the modesty of the French. And that's topped up by the imagination of the Belgians, the generosity of the Dutch and the intelligence of the Irish.

* * *

5. Weapons against the world

From "The grand design" (1986)

Sir Humphrey: With Trident we could obliterate the whole of Eastern Europe.

Hacker: I don't want to obliterate the whole of Eastern Europe.

Sir Humphrey: But it's a deterrent.

Hacker: It's a bluff. I probably wouldn't use it.

Sir Humphrey: Yes, but they don't know that you probably wouldn't.

Hacker: They probably do.

Sir Humphrey: Yes, they probably know that you probably wouldn't. But they can't certainly know.

Hacker: They probably certainly know that I probably wouldn't.

Sir Humphrey: Yes, but even though they probably certainly know that you probably wouldn't, they don't certainly know that although you probably wouldn't, there is no probability that you certainly would!

Earlier this month, Jay and his former writing partner Jonathan Lynn reunited to pen a sketch inspired by Brexit for the Guardian.