House of Cards
Encyclopedia
House of Cards is a 1990 political thriller television drama serial by the BBC
in four parts, set after the end of Margaret Thatcher
's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
. It was televised from 18 November to 9 December 1990, to critical and popular acclaim. The story was adapted by Andrew Davies
from a novel written by Michael Dobbs
, a former Chief of Staff at Conservative Party
headquarters. Dobbs's novel was also dramatised for radio for BBC World Service
in 1996, by Neville Teller, and had two television sequels. The House of Cards trilogy was ranked 84th in the British Film Institute
list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes
.
, Francis Urquhart
(the entire concept came from the initials, 'F.U.') played by Ian Richardson
. The plot follows his amoral and manipulative scheme to become leader of the governing party and Prime Minister
.
It appears Michael Dobbs did not envisage writing the second and third books. The screenplay of the BBC's dramatisation of House of Cards differed from the book and hence allowed future series. Dobbs wrote two following books To Play the King
and The Final Cut
which were televised in 1993 and 1995 respectively.
House of Cards draws heavily from Shakespeare's
Macbeth
and Richard III
, both of which examine issues of power, ambition and corruption. Richardson said he based his performance of the scheming Francis Urquhart on the way Shakespeare portrayed Richard III
. Frequently during the drama, Urquhart talks through the camera to the audience, breaking the fourth wall
.
In the dramatisation, the camera frequently focuses on rats for the symbolic effect of filth and conspiracy.
("Nothing lasts forever. Even the longest, the most glittering reign must come to an end someday."), the governing Conservative Party
are about to elect a new leader. Francis Urquhart, Member of Parliament
(MP) and Chief Whip
, introduces viewers to the contestants, from which the popular and decent Henry ('Hal') Collingridge emerges victorious.
Urquhart is secretly contemptuous ("no background and no bottom") but expects promotion to a senior position in the Cabinet
. After the general election, which the party wins by a reduced majority, Urquhart makes his suggestions for a cabinet reshuffle but Collingridge – citing Harold Macmillan
's political demise after sacking half his Cabinet
– effects no changes at all. Urquhart now aims at ousting Collingridge and is confirmed in his resolve by his wife, Elizabeth.
At the same time, Urquhart begins (with his wife's blessing) an affair
with the junior political reporter, Mattie Storin. It appears the Urquharts believe that his affair will give him a power over Mattie that will enable him to manipulate her position at the main newspaper,The Chronicle, to ensure that, within its pages, Francis comes off well and his rivals for the leadership, very badly. Mattie, while talented, is naïve and apparently somewhat unstable. She has an apparent Electra complex
and declares that she can not call Urquhart by his first name but wants to refer to him as 'Daddy', a word that later figures prominently in Urquhart's painful flashbacks of Mattie.
Urquhart enlists the services of one of the party's public relations
consultants, Roger O'Neill, a charming but unstable man with a cocaine
habit. Blackmailed about this, Urquhart starts to use O'Neill to undermine Collingridge. O'Neill gives a young opposition MP information concerning hospital cuts that would make Collingridge look foolish at Prime Minister's Question Time. Later, an internal poll showing a huge drop in support for the Tories is also leaked to the press. The seemingly unambitious and trustworthy Urquhart directs the prime minister's distrust towards Party Chairman
, Lord Billsborough, who had backed environment secretary Michael Samuels, in the earlier leadership contest, causing the prime minister to eventually sack Billsborough. At the same time, Urquhart encourages Patrick Woolton, Foreign Secretary and representative of the right-wing of the party, and newspaper tycoon Benjamin Landless, to support Collingridge's removal.
O'Neill also sets the scene for Urquhart himself to pose as Collingridge's gentle but alcoholic brother Charles, so that he can trade in Mendox Chemicals, a company about to benefit from the Government. As a result of the latter, Collingridge becomes accused of insider dealing. This, combined with his eroding image and his bad showing at the party conference, eventually forces him to resign.
After Collingridge's resignation, Urquhart – in imitation of Shakespeare's Richard of Gloucester
– at first feigns unwillingness to stand before announcing his candidacy. With the help of his underling, the weaselish Tim Stamper (played by Colin Jeavons
), he goes about making sure his competitors drop out of the race: Peter MacKenzie, secretary of health, accidentally runs his car over a protester at a demonstration staged by Urquhart and is forced to withdraw by the public outcry, while Harold Earle, secretary for education, is blackmail
ed into withdrawing by anonymously sending him old pictures of him and a rentboy he had paid for sex.
The first ballot leaves Urquhart to face Michael Samuels, the young and ambitious secretary of environment, and Patrick Woolton, the front-runner on the right-wing of the party. Woolton is eliminated by a prolonged scheme: At the party conferences, Urquhart pressured O'Neill into persuading his personal assistant and lover, Penny Guy, to have sex with Woolton, and sneaks a bugged ministerial red box into Woolton's suite, and records their encounter. Now, during the leadership contest, a tape of the encounter is send to Woolton, pressuring into withdrawal. Linking the tape (via O'Neill and Billsborough) to Samuels, whom he also despises for being Jewish
, Woolton backs Urquhart in the contest. Urquhart also receives support from Collingridge, who still thinks Urquhart his most loyal ally and blames Billsborough (and thus Samuels) for his own downfall. At the same time, Samuels' reputation is tarnished by revelations that he was in favour of homosexual rights, nuclear disarmament and communism
in his Cambridge
days.
Stumbling across contradictions in the allegations against the Collingridge brothers, Mattie begins to dig deeper. On Urquhart's orders O'Neill arranges for Mattie's car to be vandalised and a brick to be thrown through the window of her flat, in order to deter her from following up on the story. However, O'Neill is becoming increasingly uneasy with what he is being asked to do and with the possibility of being discovered. His cocaine habit is also adding to his instability and he begins to become a problem for Urquhart, who promises him a knighthood to keep him quiet but then mixes O'Neill's cocaine with rat poison, causing him to poison himself when taking the cocaine in a motorway lavatory.
Though initially blind to the truth of matters thanks to her affair and infatuation with Urquhart, Mattie eventually deduces that Urquhart and his associates are behind the unfortunate downfalls of Collingridge and all of Urquhart's rivals. The story ends with Mattie Storin looking for Urquhart at the point when it looks like his victory is certain. She eventually finds him on the roof garden of the Houses of Parliament
, where she confronts him. He admits to what he has done, in particular, to Roger O'Neill's murder. He then asks whether he can trust her and though she answers in the affirmative, he says he doesn't believe her any more.
Here the ending of the TV series differs from the novel. In the novel, Urquhart throws himself from the roof, knowing that Mattie will not hide her information. In the TV series, it is Urquhart who throws Mattie off the roof, onto a van parked below. The book also did not contain a romance between Mattie and Urquhart, as the dramatisation did.
Subsequently, the TV series has Urquhart defeating Samuels in the second leadership ballot and ends with him being driven to Buckingham Palace
to be invited to form a government by the Queen.
's leadership headquarters "came to a halt" to view the show. During a time of "disillusionment with politics," the series "caught the nation's mood."
It has been ranked 84th in the British Film Institute
list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes
.
, voiced by Richardson. A further variation was used by Nicola Murray, a fictional government minister, in the third series finale of The Thick of It
.
. The show is set to star Kevin Spacey
as well as be produced by David Fincher
and Spacey's Trigger Street Productions. It marks Netflix
's entry into original programming and is slated to air in late 2012.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in four parts, set after the end of Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
. It was televised from 18 November to 9 December 1990, to critical and popular acclaim. The story was adapted by Andrew Davies
Andrew Davies (writer)
Andrew Wynford Davies is a British author and screenwriter. He was made a Fellow of BAFTA in 2002.-Education and early career:...
from a novel written by Michael Dobbs
Michael Dobbs
Michael Dobbs, Baron Dobbs is a British Conservative politician and best-selling author.-Background:Michael Dobbs was born on 14 November 1948 in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, the son of nurseryman Eric and Eileen Dobbs. He was educated at Hertford Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford University....
, a former Chief of Staff at Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
headquarters. Dobbs's novel was also dramatised for radio for BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
in 1996, by Neville Teller, and had two television sequels. The House of Cards trilogy was ranked 84th in the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes
100 Greatest British Television Programmes
The BFI TV 100 is a list compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute , chosen by a poll of industry professionals, to determine what were the greatest British television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened....
.
Overview
The antihero of House of Cards is a fictional Conservative Chief WhipChief Whip
The Chief Whip is a political office in some legislatures assigned to an elected member whose task is to administer the whipping system that ensures that members of the party attend and vote as the party leadership desires.-The Whips Office:...
, Francis Urquhart
Francis Urquhart
Francis Ewan Urquhart is a fictional character created by Michael Dobbs. A Conservative politician, he appeared in a trilogy of novels: House of Cards in 1989, To Play the King in 1992 and The Final Cut in 1995...
(the entire concept came from the initials, 'F.U.') played by Ian Richardson
Ian Richardson
Ian William Richardson CBE was a Scottish actor best known for his portrayal of the Machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's House of Cards trilogy. He was also a leading Shakespearean stage actor....
. The plot follows his amoral and manipulative scheme to become leader of the governing party and Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
.
It appears Michael Dobbs did not envisage writing the second and third books. The screenplay of the BBC's dramatisation of House of Cards differed from the book and hence allowed future series. Dobbs wrote two following books To Play the King
To Play the King
To Play The King is a 1993 BBC television serial, the second part of the House of Cards trilogy. Directed by Paul Seed, the serial was based on the Michael Dobbs novel of the same name and adapted for television by Andrew Davies...
and The Final Cut
The Final Cut (TV serial)
The Final Cut is a 1995 BBC television serial, the third part of the House of Cards trilogy. Directed by Mike Vardy, the serial, based on Michael Dobbs's 1995 novel of the same name, was adapted for television by Andrew Davies...
which were televised in 1993 and 1995 respectively.
House of Cards draws heavily from Shakespeare's
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
and Richard III
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
, both of which examine issues of power, ambition and corruption. Richardson said he based his performance of the scheming Francis Urquhart on the way Shakespeare portrayed Richard III
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
. Frequently during the drama, Urquhart talks through the camera to the audience, breaking the fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
.
In the dramatisation, the camera frequently focuses on rats for the symbolic effect of filth and conspiracy.
Plot
After the resignation of Margaret ThatcherMargaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
("Nothing lasts forever. Even the longest, the most glittering reign must come to an end someday."), the governing Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
are about to elect a new leader. Francis Urquhart, Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) and Chief Whip
Chief Whip
The Chief Whip is a political office in some legislatures assigned to an elected member whose task is to administer the whipping system that ensures that members of the party attend and vote as the party leadership desires.-The Whips Office:...
, introduces viewers to the contestants, from which the popular and decent Henry ('Hal') Collingridge emerges victorious.
Urquhart is secretly contemptuous ("no background and no bottom") but expects promotion to a senior position in the Cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
. After the general election, which the party wins by a reduced majority, Urquhart makes his suggestions for a cabinet reshuffle but Collingridge – citing Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
's political demise after sacking half his Cabinet
Night of the Long Knives (1962)
The epithet Night of the Long Knives is given to July 13, 1962, when the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan sacked the following members of his Cabinet:*Lord Kilmuir — Lord Chancellor*Selwyn Lloyd — Chancellor of the Exchequer...
– effects no changes at all. Urquhart now aims at ousting Collingridge and is confirmed in his resolve by his wife, Elizabeth.
At the same time, Urquhart begins (with his wife's blessing) an affair
Affair
Affair may refer to professional, personal, or public business matters or to a particular business or private activity of a temporary duration, as in family affair, a private affair, or a romantic affair.-Political affair:...
with the junior political reporter, Mattie Storin. It appears the Urquharts believe that his affair will give him a power over Mattie that will enable him to manipulate her position at the main newspaper,The Chronicle, to ensure that, within its pages, Francis comes off well and his rivals for the leadership, very badly. Mattie, while talented, is naïve and apparently somewhat unstable. She has an apparent Electra complex
Electra complex
In Neo-Freudian psychology, the Electra complex, as proposed by Carl Gustav Jung, is a girl’s psychosexual competition with mother for possession of father. In the course of her psychosexual development, the complex is the girl’s phallic stage formation of a discrete sexual identity; a boy’s...
and declares that she can not call Urquhart by his first name but wants to refer to him as 'Daddy', a word that later figures prominently in Urquhart's painful flashbacks of Mattie.
Urquhart enlists the services of one of the party's public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
consultants, Roger O'Neill, a charming but unstable man with a cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
habit. Blackmailed about this, Urquhart starts to use O'Neill to undermine Collingridge. O'Neill gives a young opposition MP information concerning hospital cuts that would make Collingridge look foolish at Prime Minister's Question Time. Later, an internal poll showing a huge drop in support for the Tories is also leaked to the press. The seemingly unambitious and trustworthy Urquhart directs the prime minister's distrust towards Party Chairman
Chairman of the Conservative Party
In the United Kingdom, the Chairman of the Conservative Party is responsible for running the party machine, overseeing Conservative Central Office. When the Conservatives are in power, the Chairman is usually a member of the Cabinet being given a sinecure position such as Minister without Portfolio...
, Lord Billsborough, who had backed environment secretary Michael Samuels, in the earlier leadership contest, causing the prime minister to eventually sack Billsborough. At the same time, Urquhart encourages Patrick Woolton, Foreign Secretary and representative of the right-wing of the party, and newspaper tycoon Benjamin Landless, to support Collingridge's removal.
O'Neill also sets the scene for Urquhart himself to pose as Collingridge's gentle but alcoholic brother Charles, so that he can trade in Mendox Chemicals, a company about to benefit from the Government. As a result of the latter, Collingridge becomes accused of insider dealing. This, combined with his eroding image and his bad showing at the party conference, eventually forces him to resign.
After Collingridge's resignation, Urquhart – in imitation of Shakespeare's Richard of Gloucester
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
– at first feigns unwillingness to stand before announcing his candidacy. With the help of his underling, the weaselish Tim Stamper (played by Colin Jeavons
Colin Jeavons
Colin Jeavons is a Welsh television actor.-Career:Jeavons is best known as Inspector Lestrade in the Granada television serials The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, or the part of the undertaker, Shadrack, in the television situation comedy written by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall from...
), he goes about making sure his competitors drop out of the race: Peter MacKenzie, secretary of health, accidentally runs his car over a protester at a demonstration staged by Urquhart and is forced to withdraw by the public outcry, while Harold Earle, secretary for education, is blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
ed into withdrawing by anonymously sending him old pictures of him and a rentboy he had paid for sex.
The first ballot leaves Urquhart to face Michael Samuels, the young and ambitious secretary of environment, and Patrick Woolton, the front-runner on the right-wing of the party. Woolton is eliminated by a prolonged scheme: At the party conferences, Urquhart pressured O'Neill into persuading his personal assistant and lover, Penny Guy, to have sex with Woolton, and sneaks a bugged ministerial red box into Woolton's suite, and records their encounter. Now, during the leadership contest, a tape of the encounter is send to Woolton, pressuring into withdrawal. Linking the tape (via O'Neill and Billsborough) to Samuels, whom he also despises for being Jewish
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
, Woolton backs Urquhart in the contest. Urquhart also receives support from Collingridge, who still thinks Urquhart his most loyal ally and blames Billsborough (and thus Samuels) for his own downfall. At the same time, Samuels' reputation is tarnished by revelations that he was in favour of homosexual rights, nuclear disarmament and communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
in his Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
days.
Stumbling across contradictions in the allegations against the Collingridge brothers, Mattie begins to dig deeper. On Urquhart's orders O'Neill arranges for Mattie's car to be vandalised and a brick to be thrown through the window of her flat, in order to deter her from following up on the story. However, O'Neill is becoming increasingly uneasy with what he is being asked to do and with the possibility of being discovered. His cocaine habit is also adding to his instability and he begins to become a problem for Urquhart, who promises him a knighthood to keep him quiet but then mixes O'Neill's cocaine with rat poison, causing him to poison himself when taking the cocaine in a motorway lavatory.
Though initially blind to the truth of matters thanks to her affair and infatuation with Urquhart, Mattie eventually deduces that Urquhart and his associates are behind the unfortunate downfalls of Collingridge and all of Urquhart's rivals. The story ends with Mattie Storin looking for Urquhart at the point when it looks like his victory is certain. She eventually finds him on the roof garden of the Houses of Parliament
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
, where she confronts him. He admits to what he has done, in particular, to Roger O'Neill's murder. He then asks whether he can trust her and though she answers in the affirmative, he says he doesn't believe her any more.
Here the ending of the TV series differs from the novel. In the novel, Urquhart throws himself from the roof, knowing that Mattie will not hide her information. In the TV series, it is Urquhart who throws Mattie off the roof, onto a van parked below. The book also did not contain a romance between Mattie and Urquhart, as the dramatisation did.
Subsequently, the TV series has Urquhart defeating Samuels in the second leadership ballot and ends with him being driven to Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
to be invited to form a government by the Queen.
Deviations from novel
- Urquhart never speaks directly to the reader; the character is written solely in a third-person perspective. In the series, he regularly speaks directlyFourth wallThe fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
into the camera to his viewers. - When alone, Urquhart is much less self-assured and decisive. He smokes and swears frequently.
- Mattie Storin worked for the real newspaper The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
not the fictional Chronicle. - Mattie Storin does not have a relationship with Urquhart or even talk with him frequently; she does have a sexual relationship with John Krajewski.
- Urquhart's wife is called 'Miranda' and is an extremely minor character, not sharing in his schemes. (In To Play the KingTo Play the KingTo Play The King is a 1993 BBC television serial, the second part of the House of Cards trilogy. Directed by Paul Seed, the serial was based on the Michael Dobbs novel of the same name and adapted for television by Andrew Davies...
and The Final CutThe Final Cut (TV serial)The Final Cut is a 1995 BBC television serial, the third part of the House of Cards trilogy. Directed by Mike Vardy, the serial, based on Michael Dobbs's 1995 novel of the same name, was adapted for television by Andrew Davies...
, however, she is called 'Elizabeth' and plays a larger role, as in the BBC drama.) - Benjamin Landless is from the slums of East LondonEast End of LondonThe East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
, not from Canada. - The Conservative party conferenceParty conferenceThe terms party conference , political convention , and party congress usually refer to a general meeting of a political party. The conference is attended by certain delegates who represent the party membership...
was in BournemouthBournemouthBournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
, not BrightonBrightonBrighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
. - Tim Stamper does not exist (although Dobbs introduced him in To Play the King).
- Earle's rent boy appears in person at an important speech of his, distracting him; subsequently, Earle is harassed by reporters who have been told of his indiscretion.
- At the end, Urquhart threatens to kill Mattie Storin by hitting her with a chair, but refrains in a fit of cowardice, and jumps to his death after she leaves the roof garden.
Reception
The first installment of the TV series coincidentally aired two days before the Conservative Party leadership election. Author Dobbs said that John MajorJohn Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
's leadership headquarters "came to a halt" to view the show. During a time of "disillusionment with politics," the series "caught the nation's mood."
It has been ranked 84th in the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes
100 Greatest British Television Programmes
The BFI TV 100 is a list compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute , chosen by a poll of industry professionals, to determine what were the greatest British television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened....
.
"I couldn't possibly comment"
The drama also introduced and popularised the phrase: "You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment." It was used by Urquhart whenever he could not be seen to agree with a question, with the emphasis on either the 'I' or the 'possibly' depending on the situation. The phrase was even quoted in the House of Commons following the series. A variation on the phrase was written into Terry Pratchett's Hogfather for DeathDeath (Discworld)
Death is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and a parody of several other personifications of death. Like most Grim Reapers, he is a black-robed skeleton usually carrying a scythe...
, voiced by Richardson. A further variation was used by Nicola Murray, a fictional government minister, in the third series finale of The Thick of It
The Thick of It
The Thick of It is a British comedy television series that satirises the inner workings of modern British government. It was first broadcast on BBC Four in 2005, and has so far completed fourteen half-hour episodes and two special hour-long episodes to coincide with Christmas and Gordon Brown's...
.
Remake
House of Cards will be remade into an original series in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The show is set to star Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey, CBE is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
as well as be produced by David Fincher
David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...
and Spacey's Trigger Street Productions. It marks Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
's entry into original programming and is slated to air in late 2012.
Related topics
- Politics in fictionPolitics in fictionThis is a list of fictional stories in which politics features as an important plot element. Passing mentions are omitted from this list.-Written works:*The Republic by Plato*Panchatantra This is a list of fictional stories in which politics features as an important plot element. Passing...
- A Very British CoupA Very British CoupA Very British Coup is a 1982 novel by British politician Chris Mullin. In 1988, the novel was adapted for television, directed by Mick Jackson, with a screenplay by Alan Plater and starring Ray McAnally...
, a similar drama of fictional contemporary British politics from a left-wing perspective - Yes MinisterYes MinisterYes Minister is a satirical British sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn that was first transmitted by BBC Television between 1980–1982 and 1984, split over three seven-episode series. The sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran from 1986 to 1988. In total there were 38 episodes—of which all but...
, a satirical sitcom about a generic British government, widely described by politicians as accurate
External links
- House of Cards at BBC FourBBC FourBBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
- House of Cards at Action TV
- House of Cards at British Film InstituteBritish Film InstituteThe British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
Screen Online