The Final Cut (TV serial)

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The Final Cut is the third part of the House of Cards trilogy, a 1995 novel written by Michael Dobbs, perhaps better known as a 1996 BBC television serial based on the novel, adapted by Andrew Davies. It details the final years of Francis Urquhart's premiership.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Prime Minister Urquhart fixes international sea boundaries between Greece and Cyprus in order to give a company he has links with access to a stash of oil; and so he will have enough money for his "retirement fund".

He deliberately starts a diplomatic incident in Cyprus, "our own Falklands" to delay the leadership contest. The initial British military response is received positively at home, but eventually the death of civilians, including young schoolgirls, makes him even more unpopular. Urquhart's popularity is at its lowest, as many feel that he has outstayed his welcome, yet he remains in power simply because he wishes to beat Margaret Thatcher's length of service as prime minister. He is embattled by many calls to resign. His formerly sharp and sound judgement is now very poor; he appoints an untrustworthy Parliamentary Private Secretary and appears to be surrounding himself with people who will tell him what he wants to hear.

Urquhart is feeling guilt not only due to the murders of Mattie Storin and others shown in the previous serials, but also due to killing two school boys involved with the EOKA resistance, when he was a 19 year old Guards officer serving in Cyprus. He has frequent nightmares focusing on these past crimes.

The niece of the two boys who Urquhart killed investigates his involvement at the urging of her father. She finds a report written by the soldier who killed her uncles, but the author is kept secret from her. Urquhart does not reveal to her that he was their killer and pretends to be helpful otherwise.

Tired of Urquhart undermining his work, Tom Makepeace, the Foreign Secretary, crosses the floor and then challenges FU for the leadership of the party. For the first time it looks as though Urquhart may lose.

Makepeace's lover Claire Carlsen becomes Urquhart's Parliamentary Private Secretary, leading to both men questioning her actual loyalties at times. She tries to gain a power base as PPS while encouraging Urquhart and Makepeace to attack one another. Ultimately though, as Urquhart's downfall becomes assured, Makepeace rejects her, because she has become too associated with the prime minister.

At the unveiling of the Margaret Thatcher memorial statue (the show opens with her funeral), Elizabeth Urquhart has Francis assassinated by his bodyguard in order to preserve his (and her) reputation. In the original book, Francis allowed the brother of the men he killed in Cyprus to shoot him, making himself a martyr in the process.

[edit] Trivia

Ian Richardson only agreed to appear in a third series on condition that the character would finally be killed off.
The opening scenes containing Margaret Thatcher's funeral proved controversial and generated a great deal of adverse commentary in newspapers as it was felt to be inappropriate to show the funeral of a real person who was still alive. It also led to Michael Dobbs demanding that his name be removed from the credits.
Having relinquished the Tory whip and crossed the floor, Makepeace would be ineligible to stand for the Conservative leadership. It is possible that he could do so by receiving special dispensation from the Conservative 1922 Committee, but this is not mentioned in the series and such dispensation would be very unlikely anyway.
The series refers to Thatcher as Britain's longest-serving Prime Minister. She was actually the seventh. See Records of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom.