See Also: House of Cards, To Play The King
1995 British 4-part TV mini-series; the final in the House of Cards trilogy, the one where not everything is as simple as it seems; Urquhart (Ian Richardson) is under attack - despite nearly having overtaken Margaret Thatcher as longest-serving postwar Prime Minister, not everyone is happy with him; the poverty running rampant in the previous series continues to stir dissent as Britain spirals further and further towards a dystopia. Eventually one of his colleagues resigns his post and challenges Urquhart for the leadership; nevertheless Urquhart has connections - a woman claiming to have had an affair with his rival shows up.
Now more than ever, his past haunts him; an historic agreement among the people of Cyprus, negotiated by Britain, becomes convoluted as a businessman offers Urquhart bribes to let oil deposits be on his side of the border, and we learn that Urquhart served in Cyprus as a soldier, where he killed two men. This time Urquhart is the one with vulnerabilities; if any of this surfaces, his career is over.
The final of this trilogy feels like the final; we have a sense that the end is near, and Richardson's portrayal of Urquhart is tinged with a certain sense of melancholy.. but, for the most part, it seems Urquhart may still win the day.