BBC: House of Cards Trilogy. Series 2: To Play the King (1993)

Urquhart, the Machiavellian party hack who schemed his way to the prime ministry in the 1990 mini-series , is now ensconced in power but facing an unexpected challenge from the newly crowned King of England. The politically naive but idealistic monarch (modeled loosely on Prince Charles) has taken to delivering feisty, compassionate speeches about the poor and staging canny photo ops in the ghetto -- a campaign that is starting to turn the nation against Urquhart's cold-blooded Conservative policies. To the PM, His Royal Majesty is nothing but a royal pain. "The trouble is, he has ideas," he tells an aide, words dripping with scorn. "He has a conscience. He wants to contribute." Surrounding this clash between King and commoner is a whirl of political intrigue. There's a Fergie-like princess with a potentially explosive diary, a royal aide hiding a homosexual affair and assorted political tricksters, both dirty and deadly. Like its predecessor, is a wonderfully savvy, supremely cynical picture of real-world politics that makes American efforts in the same vein (JFK: Reckless Youth) look like Saturday-morning cartoons. Michael Kitchen, as the King, is starchy yet appealingly human; in its fictional way, does more to demystify the British monarchy than any Daily Mail photos of Princess Di in the exercise gym. The face-to-face confrontations between King and Prime Minister are epic battles of wills and words worthy of George Bernard Shaw. Yet Urquhart's monstrousness ! has taken on almost Shakespearean proportions; the murder that ended Part I continues to haunt him like Banquo's ghost. With the key creative people from returning (writer Andrew Davies, director Paul Seed), is a rare sequel that advances rather than diminishes the original. But it doesn't entirely escape redundancy. Urquhart hires a pretty young political operative (Kitty Aldridge) who is seduced by his power just as investigative reporter Mattie Storin was in . Urquhart's asides to the camera, charming in the first part, become somewhat precious and predictable by the end of the second. But Richardson remains a marvel; we feast on a face that reveals everything with the arch of an eyebrow or the sag of a cheek muscle. His calculated temper tantrums are as believable as the silky menace in his most understated lines ("I couldn't possibly comment"). This is TV's scariest, most alluring villain since J.R. Ewing.


Director: Paul Seed
Writers: Michael Dobbs (novel), Andrew Davies (adaptation)
Ian Richardson… Francis Urquhart
Michael Kitchen… The King
Kitty Aldridge… Sarah Harding
Colin Jeavons… Tim Stamper
Diane Fletcher… Elizabeth Urquhart
Erika Hoffman… The Lady
Tom Beasley… Young Prince
Leonard Preston… John Stroud
Rowena King… Chloe Carmichael
Nicholas Farrell… David Mycroft
Michael Howarth… Dick Caule
Merelina Kendall… Hilda Cordwainer
Barry Linehan… Henry Hotson
Nick Brimble… Corder
Bernice Stegers… Princess Charlotte


More info - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108962/

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