The House of Cards Trilogy is a British political thriller television series written by Andrew Davies and Michael Dobbs. It comprises a trilogy of three television serials; House of Cards (1990), To Play the King (1993), and The Final Cut (1995). The trilogy tells the manipulative and sudden rise to power of Francis Urquhart, played by Ian Richardson.
Andrew Davies adapted the story from the 1989 novel of the same name by Michael Dobbs, a former chief of staff at Conservative Party headquarters. Neville Teller also dramatised Dobbs's novel for BBC World Service in 1996, and it had two television sequels (To Play the King and The Final Cut). The opening and closing theme music for the TV series is entitled "Francis Urquhart's March", by Jim Parker.
House of Cards was ranked 84th in the British Film Institute list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes in 2000. In 2013, the serial and the Dobbs novel were the basis for a US adaptation set in Washington, D.C., commissioned and released by Netflix as the first ever major streaming service television show. This version was also entitled House of Cards, and starred Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright.
Overview[]
The antihero of the House of Cards trilogy is Francis Urquhart, the Chief Whip of the Conservative Party, played by Ian Richardson. The plot follows his amoral and manipulative scheme to become leader of the governing party and, thus, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Michael Dobbs did not envisage writing the second and third books, as Urquhart dies in the original version the first novel. The screenplay of the BBC's dramatisation of House of Cards differs from the book, and hence allows future series. Dobbs rewrote the ending of the first novel to match that of the miniseries, and wrote two following books, To Play the King and The Final Cut, which were televised in 1993 and 1995, respectively.
House of Cards was said to draw from Shakespeare's plays Macbeth and Richard III, both of which feature main characters who are corrupted by power and ambition. Richardson has a Shakespearean background and said he based his characterisation of Urquhart on Shakespeare's portrayal of Richard III.
Urquhart frequently talks through the camera to the audience, breaking the fourth wall.
| Picture | Title | Release | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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House of Cards | November 18, 1990 - December 9, 1990 | |||
| The schemes of a ruthlessly ambitious British politician who will stop at nothing to get to the top. | |||||
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To Play the King | November 21, 1993 - December 12, 1993 | |||
| Francis Urquhart, the unscrupulous but cunning Conservative Prime Minister, has his survival threatened by a liberal monarch and an upcoming General Election. | |||||
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The Final Cut | November 5, 1995 - November 26, 1995 | |||
| Francis Urquhart is too experienced a politician not to know that everything must end, even his long career as British prime minister. In order to secure his retirement and establish monument to himself, he takes part in negotiations aimed at ending the Cyprus conflict. However, that same island hides the secrets from Urquhart's youth - secrets that could destroy him. | |||||
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Plot[]
House of Cards[]
Following the resignation of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the moderate but indecisive Henry Collingridge emerges as both Thatcher's successor and the leader of the Conservative Party; the party wins the next general election with a reduced majority. Shortly afterwards, Francis Urquhart, the party's Chief Whip, submits a memorandum to Collingridge advocating a cabinet reshuffle that would contemplate a prominent ministerial position for Urquhart himself. However, Collingridge discards Urquhart's proposals on the basis that doing so would probably adversely affect the party's popularity. Enraged, Urquhart begins plotting an intricate, long-term political revenge.
Urquhart exploits his position as Chief Whip to leak inside information to the press to undermine Collingridge, ultimately forcing him to resign. Most of his leaks are to Mattie Storin, a young reporter for a tabloid newspaper called The Chronicle. With his wife's encouragement, Urquhart had gained her ultimate trust by having a sexual relationship with her. Their relationship is paternal as well as sexual; she is attracted to him in part because he is old enough to be her father, and often calls him "daddy".
Urquhart systematically eliminates his enemies in the resulting leadership contest by means of fabricated scandals that he sets up himself or publicizes. These include threatening to publish photographs of Education Secretary Harold Earle in the company of a rent boy; causing Health Secretary Peter MacKenzie to accidentally run over a disabled man; and forcing Foreign Secretary Patrick Woolton to withdraw by blackmailing him with an audiotape of a one-night stand that Urquhart himself orchestrated. His remaining rival, Environment Secretary Michael Samuels, is alleged by the press to have supported far-left politics as a university student. Urquhart thereby reaches the brink of victory.
Prior to the final ballot, Urquhart ties up loose ends by murdering the party's drug-addicted and increasingly unstable public relations consultant, Roger O'Neill, whom he forced into helping him to remove Collingridge from office. Urquhart invites O'Neill to his country house near Southampton, gets him drunk, and puts rat poison in his cocaine.
The ending of the novel and TV series differ significantly (indeed, only the ending and popularity of the TV series prompted author Michael Dobbs to write the sequels). Mattie untangles Urquhart's web and confronts him in the deserted roof garden of the Houses of Parliament. In the novel, he commits suicide by jumping to his death. In the TV drama, he throws Mattie off the roof to her death, and claims she committed suicide. Shortly afterward, Urquhart is driven to Buckingham Palace to be invited by the Queen to form a government as Prime Minister. He does not know that Mattie was taping their conversations, and that someone has found the tape.
To Play the King[]
The second installment starts with Urquhart, in his second term as Prime Minister, feeling a sense of anti-climax. Having gained great power and influence, he wonders how to use them. His wife comments that he needs a challenge. This challenge is shortly provided in the form of the new King, a political idealist who opposes Urquhart's hard-line policies. He does not directly criticise Urquhart in public, but makes speeches about the direction he wishes the country to pursue, which contrasts with the Government's policies. Urquhart wins the confidence of the King's estranged wife and uses his influence in the press to reveal intimate and scandalous secrets concerning the royal family. The King is dragged into campaigning on behalf of the Opposition during a general election which Urquhart wins, creating a constitutional crisis and finally forcing the King to abdicate in favour of his teenage son, whom Urquhart expects to be a much less influential monarch.
Meanwhile, Urquhart's right-hand man and Party Chairman, Tim Stamper, becomes embittered by Urquhart's failure to reward his loyalty and plans to bring him down. He acquires the tape of Mattie's murder and plans to go to the police with it. Urquhart learns of Stamper's mutiny, however, and has him killed. He also eliminates his own aide (and lover) Sarah Harding, in whom Stamper had confided. Both perish in car explosions, made to appear as IRA terrorist attacks by Urquhart's bodyguard, Commander Corder.
With a tame monarch and no threat in sight, Urquhart is secure as Prime Minister.
The Final Cut[]
The last installment in the trilogy portrays the embattled and increasingly unpopular Urquhart determined to "beat that bloody woman's record" of longevity as Prime Minister, as well as make his mark on the office. He sets about reuniting Cyprus, both to secure his legacy, and to gain substantial revenue for "The Urquhart Trust" after a Turkish Cypriot businessman informs Urquhart of an international sea boundary deal which would give the exploitation rights for offshore oil to the British and the Turks. His past is catching up with him, however – a tenacious Cypriot girl and her father are determined to prove that he murdered her uncles while serving as an officer during the unrest that preceded independence in 1956. He also fires his more liberal and pro-European Foreign Secretary, Tom Makepeace, leaving Makepeace free to challenge Urquhart for the party leadership.
When civil unrest erupts in Cyprus, Urquhart orders a military raid that results in the deaths of several civilians, including children. Urquhart's party turns on him, and it appears inevitable that he will be forced out of office. Worse, he faces the prospect of imprisonment when evidence of the murders he committed in Cyprus – as well as the recording of Mattie's murder – falls into Makepeace's hands. Urquhart is shot dead at the unveiling of the Margaret Thatcher memorial, having been Prime Minister for 4,228 days – one day longer than Thatcher. In the TV series Urquhart's bodyguard, Corder, arranges his assassination with the consent of his wife (who is implied to be Corder's lover) to stop the dark secrets from Urquhart's past being revealed. In the novel, Urquhart allows himself to be killed by an assassin who is out for revenge, martyring himself in the process by pushing his wife out of the way and saving her life. He receives a state funeral, and soon afterward his party wins a landslide re-election.
| House of Cards Episodes | ||
|---|---|---|
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101. "House of Cards Episode 1" |
201. "To Play the King Episode 1" |
301. "The Final Cut Episode 1" |