House of Cards
"Nothing lasts forever: even the longest, the most glittering reign must come to an end someday". Those are the first word pronounced by the Chief Whip of the British Conservative Party, Francis Ewan Urquhart, referring to the fall from power of PM Margaret Thatcher. The winner of the ensuing party leadership contest is Henry Collingridge, a moderate but indecisive conservative. In the first series, Urquhart submits a memorandum to the new Prime Minister advancing the idea of a cabinet reshuffle that would contemplate a prominent ministerial position for the Chief Whip. Henry Collingridge discards his proposals and denies Urquhart the promotion he's been craving, urging him to orchestrate a political revenge.
Each government department has a whip attached who reports regularly to the Chief Whip. In addition, all delicate secrets and potential scandals are handled by the Chief Whip, who is in charge of discipline and morale on the backbenches. Urquhart exploits his position and inside knowledge, and he regularly leaks information and scandal to the press to undermine Collingridge and ultimately force him to resign. Most of his leaks are to his keen supporter Mattie Storin, a reporter for The Chronicle, a (fictional) pro-Tory paper (however, in the novel it is the real Telegraph), whose thuggish proprietor Benjamin Landless woos Urquhart with promises of lax competition in the election, as Landless expands his media empire.
He then eliminates his enemies in the resulting leadership contest by means of scandals that he set up himself or publicised. These include threatening to publish photographs of Harold Earle (Education Secretary) receiving oral sex from a rent boy; causing Peter MacKenzie, the Health Minister, to accidentally run over a disabled man; forcing Patrick Woolton, the Foreign Secretary, to withdraw by threatening him with a tape of his one-night stand with Penny Guy (secretary and mistress to Urquhart's right-hand man Roger O'Neill). His remaining rival, Michael Samuels (Environment Secretary), is alleged by the tabloids to have been a "gay lib commie" and CND-supporter at university. Urquhart thereby reaches the brink of victory.
Prior to the final ballot he murders Roger O'Neill, whom he blackmailed into helping him to remove the Prime Minister from office. Urquhart invites O'Neill to his country house near Southampton, gets him drunk, and mixes rat poison with his cocaine. This is because O'Neill has become unstable (due to his cocaine addiction and break-up with Penny) and knows too much about Urquhart's activities.
The ending of the novel and TV series differ significantly (indeed, only the ending and popularity of the TV series prompted the author Michael Dobbs to write the sequels). Mattie untangles Urquhart's web and confronts him in the deserted roof garden of the Houses of Parliament. In the novel, he commits suicide by jumping to his death. In the TV drama, he throws her off the roof, killing her, and claims she committed suicide. In the TV version, Urquhart had gained her ultimate trust by having a sexual relationship with her (with his wife's consent). This was strangely paternal; when Urquhart informed her "'Now that is absurd, Mattie. You don't expect me to fall for that. I'm old enough to be your father'", she seems to be further attracted to him, and called him 'daddy.' Shortly after murdering her, he is driven to Buckingham Palace to be invited by the Queen to form a government as Prime Minister. He does not know that Mattie was taping their final conversation and that someone would find the tape.
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