Nothing lasts forever. Even the longest, the most glittering reign must come to an end someday. When this four-part film was released on 25 November 1990, it was only three days before Margaret Thatcher resigned. On November 13, 1990, Deputy Prime Minister Jeffrey Howe famously said, “It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find the moment that the first balls are bowled that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain.” On November 20, 1990, the party’s leader election was held, where Thatcher was short of four votes to have a 15% advantage over Michael Heseltine and on November 22, the prime minister withdrew from the second round. The book was written in 1989, when Thatcher began to shake the throne due to the resignation of Chancellor of the Treasury Nigel Lawson and the beginning of the recession of the early 1990s. So this movie turned out to be "the evil of the day."
The film begins with the resignation of Margaret Thatcher and the election of a new Conservative Party leader. In the very first minutes, the protagonist, Member of Parliament Francis Urquhart, who occupies the position of chief parliamentary organizer (in English Chief Whip), who has no ambitions to become the leader of the party (Me? Well, I'm just a backroom boy), is introduced. I'm the Chief Whip. Merely a functionary. I keep the troops in line. I put a bit of stick about. I make them jump") and helping one of the candidates, Henry Collindridge, win the election and become the new Prime Minister. After winning the parliamentary elections, Urquhart comes to the Prime Minister, hoping for a high post in the government, but the Prime Minister refuses him, citing the experience of the “British Night of the Long Knives” (in July 1962, Harold Macmillan, also Prime Minister from the Conservative Party, dismissed most of his Cabinet and a year later resigned himself). And then Urquhart, pushed by his wife, began his long combination to remove Collinridge from office and become prime minister himself, beating all competitors.
But since Thatcher's resignation, the film is already a feature film, it is in no way a film about real politics (like Oliver Stone's Nixon, Bernard Stor's The Great Charles), it is a political thriller. And that's good for him, because writers aren't burdened with having to recreate real identities. The authors deliberately created completely new characters that have nothing to do with the real members of the government of the time.
And the characters turned out great. We need to start with Francis Urquhart, beautifully played by theatrical actor Ian Richardson. He showed in every detail the seemingly modest and decent chief parliamentary organizer (as one of the heroes said about him: "But the odd thing about Francis Urquhart, is that he'd never stab you in the back, much he disliked you"), but actually clearing his way to the throne by any means, in particular by manipulating the young journalist Matty Storin in love with him and forcing the advertising agent Roger O'Neill to do the dirty work for him. Also well used the theatrical technique of "breaking the fourth wall", such as the caustic comments of the protagonist about other characters and events: "Patrick Woolton: a lout, a lecher, a racist, an anti-Semite, and a bully."
Other characters also turned out bright: Urquhart's wife, playing the role of Lady Macbeth in the events of the film. The images of all ministers and minor characters are worked out in detail: slippery Michael Samuels, who thinks himself the new William Pitt, rough and uncouth Patrick Woolton, weak Henry Collinridge, cocaine addict Roger O'Neill, suffering from the Matty Storin Electra Complex and others.
It should be noted the work of the artist on the scenery, in detail recreated the interiors of the Palace of Westminster, 10 Downing Street and other places associated with British politics.
Summing up, I want to say that it turned out a beautiful political thriller, drawing its origins from “Richard III” and partly from “Macbeth” by Shakespeare and which is worth watching at least for the sake of a beautiful British speech of actors.
10 out of 10