Episode three
Urquhart is back at the Palace, where the king is incensed to find the Prime Minister is still delaying announcing the date of the general election, which he announced some time ago he would hold. As he says in the quote section, Urquhart engages in some verbal fencing with the monarch, clearly enjoying his discomfort and happy to string him along. What he is not happy about, however, is that he knows that the King has been trying to organise opposition against him; principally members of the opposition, as well as some of his own party. His eyes are very cold as he tells the King he will not accept this attempt at a bloodless coup. He has had, as he probably had expected, no success in changing the King's mind ––– his Majesty now intends, apparently, to go on television, making his own television programme ––– and refuses to show Urquhart a draft of the script. He says it's still in production, but of course we know that's not true: he just doesn't want the Prime Minister editing, censoring or changing any part of it. Urquhart goes to see the King's ex-wife, the divorced Princess (who is never named) and explains the dangerous path that her ex-husband is now treading. He is fully aware that she has no interest in saving the king, or dissuading Urquhart from his path. In fact, she would probably be happy to see him destroyed ––- as long as her son, the king in waiting, gets to ascend the throne after he is gone. She makes this clear when they meet; Urquhart now knows that he has another very powerful ally.
With no interference from Urquhart ––– although he can't say it was from lack of trying ––– the King's broadcast goes out on television. He speaks about the poor, the homeless, the jobless, and a new spirit of caring that needs to be fostered throughout the country. His speech, if you will, is a direct challenge to and confrontation with the government and Urquhart does not like it one little bit. He puts a brave face on it the next morning, in front of the reporters, but once the door of 10 Downing Street closes behind them that smile vanishes and he flies into a rage. He is particularly savage with Stamper, blaming him for not keeping the tabloids and the popular press under his heel, as Urquhart had instructed him to do. Stamper is not happy: not only is he chewed out by his boss, it happens in front of Sarah, which adds to his embarrassment and humiliation. When he asks Urquhart for a private word, he is savagely denied. It seems like FU is laying all of, or at least most of, the blame at the feet of the man who used to be his right hand, and who (perhaps foolishly) believed he was also his friend. He is beginning to realise now that Urquhart has no friends ––– he has people he uses, as long as they are useful to him; and when he has no further use for them, he throws away like a crumpled up cigarette packet. In the case of Stamper, it would seem that Urquhart is either giving up smoking, or about to open a fresh packet ––– a pack with Sarah Harding's name on it.
Intending to take out his anger on Brian Brynford-Jones, the newspaper boss he sees as having betrayed him, Stamper is perhaps surprised to find that he ends up more pouring out his heart to him, talking about how "Francis has changed". He's obviously torn between loyalty and a pathological need for revenge. And yet, it's almost as if Stamper is Judas, agonising over betraying Christ, trying to find a different way but really knowing there is none. In the end, as we all know, Stamper will do what is best for Stamper. The friendship he had with Urquhart will be sacrificed to ensure his own survival: exactly as FU would have and will do in his position. He is however rather surprised to find that he may have friends where he did not realise he had any: Brian tells them that, were he to try to fill Urquhart's shoes, he may indeed have supporters and backers. Seems the whole country is getting a bit tired of Urquhart and his policies: a lot of people think it really is time for him to go.
The King's speech has gone over extremely well, so much better than he had expected to it to. But then, when you tell people what they want to hear, when you tell them everything will be okay without actually telling them how you're going to make everything okay, when you throw out grandiose phrases, ideas and promises without any real plan behind what you say, you'll always be popular with the people. Anyone could make such a speech: it's backing it up that's the hard work. It does however cause a serious swing against Urquhart's government, for which he is extremely annoyed and determined to redress the damage. David Mycroft has turned up, after his romantic tryst with his new best friend, and as he, Chloe and the King discuss the performance of the monarch on the television, and the pretty much overwhelmingly positive reaction from the public to that speech, they are unaware that they are being monitored ––– one can only assume by Urquhart or some arm of his government ––– as Chloe tries to push the King further down the political path, telling him in no uncertain terms ––– telling him word for word in fact ––– that Urquhart is his enemy. The King, however, knows that as a constitutional monarch there is only so far that he can go; he has no intention (he says) of taking on the government, much less the Prime Minister.
When the King angrily dismisses Chloe for suggesting that Urquhart is his enemy, and he should go on the offensive against him, David Mycroft, completely unaware that they are being monitored, tells the King that Urquhart will use any and every tactic against him in the coming battle. He agrees with Chloe that Urquhart is the King's enemy, and rather than have this news used against the King, he begins to tell his Majesty about his own homosexuality. It's a brave move, a courageous move, but unfortunately it will backfire spectacularly, as those who now listen in on the King's private meeting with his closest advisers are about to suddenly, and rather unexpectedly, have some major ammunition delivered right to their door. Sadly for them, and luckily for Mycroft, the King holds up his hand and says no: your private life is yours, none of my business, has nothing to do with your job. At that point, as much as the listeners must hate the King for preventing them from finding out what Mycroft was about to tell him, David must love the King even more for being so understanding and so circumspect.
Urquhart finally names the date for the general election, after resisting many calls to settle on a date, from the opposition to the king himself. However he is concerned that the groundswell of support for the king could reflect a backlash against his government, sweep the opposition into power, and he and his party into the gutters of history. Things are further exacerbated when Quilley of all people stands up in the House of Lords and makes an impassioned speech in favour of the measures proposed by the king. Always a bastion of the government, even this high house has now begun to turn on Urquhart and his unpopular government. Things go from bad to worse for Urquhart when off his own back Stamper sets one of the junior ministers, John Staines, to raise a point of order in the House of Commons. As this point of order concerns moral rectitude, decency, family standards, family values and so forth, it is rather unfortunate (and Urquhart knows this, and is fuming about it) that Staines is almost immediately afterwards arrested and charged with sexual crimes against underage boys. Staines has mentioned in his point of order speech that "foxhunters get a better view of things from their high horses, I suppose": it's pretty ironic that his own moral point of view is almost right away shown to be very much more flawed than those of the occupants of the House of Lords.
Urquhart has Sarah draw up a new plan ––– his response to the King's attempt to, as he sees it, drag England back into the days of the welfare state ––– but Sarah is facing problems at home, both from her husband, who has not surprisingly figured out what's going on, i.e. that this is not just a professional relationship ––– ("I can smell him on you!") ––– and from a mysterious voice on the telephone, which warns her not to poke into affairs that don't concern her, specifically enquiries relating to Mattie Storin, unless she wants to end up sharing her fate. Rather than scare her off however, the threat only spurs her to look deeper into the story behind Mattie. She ends up speaking to John Krajewski, Mattie's old friend from the Chronicle, who tells her what seems to be a lot of conspiracy theory: about offices and buildings being bugged; people disappearing, shadow projects, the usual thing. But John knows what he's talking about. He warns her she is in great danger if she is investigating Mattie's death; he tells her that he believes that Urquhart murdered Mattie (or had her murdered), and when she expresses ––– not surprisingly ––– disbelief at this theory, he says that he knows that Urquhart had his hand in the death of Roger O'Neill. But he can't prove any of it as Mattie's tapes were stolen when she died. He believes that he is soon to die himself, and says he just wishes they'd get on with it: he knows too much, and he is a loose end which will have to be tied up. He leaves Sarah in a state of disbelief, but growing suspicion and perhaps just a modicum of acceptance of what must be a dark truth to be revealed.
Urquhart calls in Bruce Bullerby, whose newspaper's coverage has been less than, shall we say supportive? He shows him some photographs, taken of him and the Princess, and Bullerby knows that he is being blackmailed. But it's not as simple as money ––– it never is with FU --- no, Urquhart wants something completely different. First of all, more support from "their friends in the media", a position Bullerby is quite happily to adopt. But that's not all. He now tells Bullerby to release and print the memoirs of Princess Charlotte. Bullerby is understandably reluctant to do this: after all, she only agreed to let him write her memoirs on the understanding ––– the strict understanding ––– they would not be published until after her own death. There are some very embarrassing, damning, humiliating revelations that have been made known to the newspaper editor, and the Princess, apart from her own embarrassment, has been warned that if she exposes royal secrets she could be very much in danger. The promise not to expose her memoirs until she dies had been given to her by Bullerby when they began this enterprise. Now he is being asked ––– ordered really ––– to go back on that arrangement, and to ultimately betray the Princess, who he has actually begun perhaps to have feelings for, or at the very least, not to hate. But as ever, when it's his skin or someone else's, Bullerby will sacrifice whoever needs to be sacrificed. It's the pictures ––– the embarrassing revealing pictures of him and the Princess ––– to be published, or the memoirs. It's his choice. He too now realises he has been played, used by Urquhart, as the man uses everybody.
Krajewski's prophecy turns out to be true when his body is dumped on waste ground, his killing seeming to bear all the hallmarks of an IRA execution. When Sarah hears this on the radio, she is understandably shaken: after all, the last time she saw him the journalist intimated that she might be next. And when she tells Urquhart about it --- and if she's honest with herself, looking deep into his cold, almost reptilian eyes, she must feel the hand of death on her shoulder --- it's pretty clear that the Prime Minister is not happy that she has been researching his ex-lover, and we all know how far he will go to protect his secrets…
Armed with his new weapon, his ace in the hole, Urquhart goes to the King, explaining that should His Majesty toe the line and withdraw from confrontation with the government, and with him personally, Urquhart will be able to "persuade" the paper to refrain from running the article, and thus save the reputation of the Royal family. But of course the price of this deal is the King's silence and allowing himself to be reined back in by Urquhart. The King, somewhat surprisingly perhaps, tells Urquhart to publish and be damned. He will not be blackmailed, and believes he has enough support among the people to be able to take on Urquhart. He tells him that people are tired of muck-raking and scandal, that his tactics will not work. Furious, Urquhart leaves, realising that perhaps once again, he has underestimated the young king. More drastic, serious measures will have to be taken if he is to retain his grip on power.