The Final Cut (TV Serial) - Novel Differences

Novel Differences

In the novel, but not in the television series:

• Urquhart does not kill Georgios and Euripides Pasolides in a lone operation but, as an officer, is responsible for their deaths.

• Urquhart successfully thwarts the attempt to build a statue in honour of Margaret Thatcher. (Its erection is a theme -- of political mortality -- running through the television series.)

• Makepeace does not openly challenge Urquhart for the leadership of their party but leads a popular movement against the Prime Minister.

• Urquhart faces losing a general election and he is urged to resign by his Cabinet Ministers to keep his undefeated record.

• Mattie Storin's murder is not mentioned and the information not revealed to Makepeace.

• Urquhart is not suspected as the murderer of Georgios and Euripides Pasolides until all is revealed at the end.

• Urquhart is not assassinated on Corder's orders, but allows the brother of the men he killed in Cyprus to shoot him, making himself a martyr in the process.

• Makepeace does not succeed Urquhart but is tarred by association with Urquhart's assassin as planned.

• It is unclear whether Urquhart beats Margaret Thatcher's record in office as the longest-serving post-war prime minister.