House of Cards (BBC)

House of Cards is the new Netflix original series, starring the great Kevin Spacey, based, loosely, on the original BBC series of the same name. I watched both recently, and while the American version is quite good, the English version is the undisputed master.

The BBC aired House of Cards, a political thriller based on a novel by the same title, in four hour-long installments in 1990. The plot traces the machinations of the protagonist, Francis Urquhart, Chief Majority Whip in the House of Commons, as he plots a rise to Prime Minister following the deposal of Maggie Thatcher by her own Conservative party. Urquhart, ingeniously played by Ian Richardson, seduces a young reporter to spread his backstabbing gossip about his colleagues. Meanwhile, his wife, played by the wintery Diane Fletcher, aids him in his seduction so that she can consolidate her own power. Neither husband nor wife will hesitate to use blackmail on even their closest supporters if it will help further their aims. Throughout the show, Urquhart breaks the fourth wall by directly addressing the camera, much like the villains in Shakespeare’s tragedies use asides to let the audience know their own deceptions.

At this point, you’re probably thinking “Those plot points remind me of Shakespeare’s Richard III, with a dollop of Macbeth,” and I think that you’d be entirely correct with your analysis, especially if you stir in some Machiavelli.

The immense success of the series led the BBC to commission two sequels, To Play the King (1993) and The Final Cut (1995), in which Urquhart manipulates the royal family and then steals elections in order to continue as the longest-serving Prime Minister in the 20^th century. Furthermore, he’s determined to erase the Thatcher legacy (he sees Maggie as his true rival even after she’s left the political scene) so that he can secure his legacy as the most powerful Prime Minister in English history.

If you like dramas about political intrigue, or if you’re an Anglophile, then you’ll love this series. I’ll post about the Netflix series in a few days.