QUOTES
Urquhart:" I do enjoy these little visits to the Palace; a glass of sherry, some verbal fencing, and a bracing dose of hatred and contempt."
Urquhart: "Far be it from me to lop off another million or so from a deserving Royal family on the specious pretext of babies starving in the street!"
(This is quite clever of Urquhart: he is using the King's regard for the poor and disenfranchised against him. He is telling the king that the Royal family subsists on money that could be, ostensibly, better used ––– though of course he doesn't say how that will be used. It can be pretty sure that it would not be to alleviate the suffering of the poor and the jobless and homeless and all the other "nuisances" that he no doubt sees these people as. But like everything else in his life, he has no qualms about using their plight in order to score points over his adversary.)
Urquhart: "I hear you've been having secret talks with the opposition and some of the less trustworthy memories of my own party. Is this true?"
The King: "I have a perfect right ––– I would consider it my duty –-– to inform myself of all shades of political opinion."
Urquhart: "Yes, but that right hardly extends to conspiring in Chelsea restaurants and trying to organise a bloodless coup against the elected government of the day, does it?"
Urquhart (to camera): "What I would prefer of course is that he would give up thinking altogether. Kings aren't supposed to think."
Princess:"What's going to happen, Mr Urquhart?"
Urquhart: "I'm afraid that by his actions his Majesty is going to injure himself."
Princess: "You mean you're going to injure him. Do you really want to destroy the monarchy?"
Urquhart: "No Ma'am I do not wish to destroy the monarchy. You have nothing to fear from me, nor does your son."
(Here, once again, Urquhart has been very clever and manipulative. He is telling the Princess (who is already harbouring wounded feelings for her ex-husband) that it is the man he is after, not the throne. He only wishes to ––– as he already intimated to us ––– take down the current occupant of the throne, not destroy the actual monarchy. He is telling the Princess that, should the king be defeated, then the next in line to the throne (her son, presumably) will have his total, unequivocal, and loyal support. As long as she supports him in his endeavours to unseat the current monarch, of course.)
Quilley: "Man's making a stand: got to respect that."
(Quilley may be a drunk, overentitled, aristocratic waster, who only hangs around the Princess in order to bask in her reflected glory, but he is, in this one sentence, voicing the opinion of a large section of the population. When they compare the cynical, heartless, capitalist attitude of the government towards their plight, and contrast that with the King's honest, if somewhat naive, view, it's not hard to see why so many people would be prepared to support the King in his endeavours, and rail against the government for not doing enough, or indeed anything, to help them.)
Sarah: "He's put it on the agenda though (the King) ––– compassion. He's really done it I'm afraid. Compassion is here to stay."
(The one thing Urquhart cannot combat, and will have no truck with: compassion. You could say he doesn't even know the meaning of the word. Well, you might very well think that: I couldn't possibly comment.
)
Urquhart (to camera): "No, it is not easy; it is interesting but it is not easy. So many people gather in these rooms where lovers meet, so many ghosts, so many silent witnesses from my past life and her present one. Sometimes it seems that they suck up all the sweet, clean air in the room and I can't breathe. I wanted to make her my slave, and now I almost feel in danger of becoming hers."
The King: "This is not some petty personal blood feud, and I'm not a politician."
(It may not be for him, but to his opponent this is exactly what it is. The King, naive as he is, inexperienced as he is, really thinks that he can effect change if he gets the power of the people behind him. He does not like Urquhart, but he is not battling him personally. He is in fact (or he believes he is) battling the policies, ideologies and decisions of the government which have brought them to this pass, as he sees it. Were another man in power things might be different: perhaps even such a man might side with the King (although that is probably unlikely), but Urquhart sees this as a personal vendetta against him and his government, and he has taken a very personal dislike to a king who, as he sees it, is abusing his position, and making life for the Prime Minister much harder than it needs to be. In reality, Urquhart probably believes that the King is not fit to sit on the throne: somewhere deep, deep down in that dark, unfathomable, cold heart there is perhaps a shred of decency, a small voice calling to him from the darkness, saying "England cannot be ruled by such a man". Urquhart intends to make sure that this is indeed the case. For him, the feud between the King and himself could not be more personal.)
Urquhart: "No rest for the wicked."
(Never was a truer word spoken, nor a phrase used more appropriately).
Urquhart: "Prime Minister's Question Time: very frightening. Like being mugged by a guinea pig."
Urquhart: "If any of this dirt sticks to Stamper, I'll drop him like a hot brick. In some ways, it could be a very good thing: the way the tide is running against us, we could do with a scapegoat."
Sarah: "I thought he was your oldest friend?"
Urquhart: "He is."
(As if there was any doubt in our minds at this stage, it's quite clear that Urquhart
has no friends, and that those who think they are his friends, those who count themselves among the chosen few, are little more than pawns to be sacrificed as he sees fit. If Urquhart can save his own neck by, literally, metaphorically or politically stabbing his very best friend in the back, pushing him over the edge, letting him fall to his death, he will do it. And he would have absolutely no hesitation in doing so; he would consider it the expedient thing to do. There is no room for emotion in the heart of the Prime Minister.)
Urquhart (to camera): "But they all, all of them, betray us eventually. They love us, but not quite enough. They trust us, but not quite enough. And we trust them to be entirely human, meaning less than completely trustworthy. Which means that we can never quite entirely sleep. As the cat's eyelids flicker, some part of us must stay awake, always: ready, as the coiled spring is ready."
Urquhart: "You might think that some of those who made accusations were not perhaps in the ideal position to throw stones, living as they do in glass houses… Or Should I say, glass palaces. You might very well think that: it would not be proper for me to comment."
Urquhart: "Why are you doing this? What could possibly be in it for you?"
The King: "You really don't understand at all do you?"
(Here we see again evidence of the fundamental dichotomy between the King and the Prime Minister. Urquhart does nothing unless he can gain by it. Whether this is financial gain, political gain, or indeed personal gain, there must be some return for him before he will take any position, before he will move. The King, on the other hand, is not looking for personal wealth, reward, even recognition: he is the king after all, and has no need of celebrity, and certainly no need for riches. He genuinely believes that this is the right thing to do, and he does it
because it is the right thing to do. The concept is alien to Urquhart. Why would anyone go up against the government when there is nothing to be gained, as far as he can see?. It just doesn't make sense: not to him. And here we see why these two men will never see eye to eye; though they, to a degree, "fight on the same side", they are living in worlds apart.)
THE REAL URQUHART
We see here an interesting parallel between the divorced Princess and Mattie Storin from the first series. Very much unsure if she can, the Princess asks Urquhart "Can I trust you?" He smiles, that shark smile, that crocodile smile, the smile of a predator sensing he is closing in on his prey, and tells her "You know you can". It's almost exactly the same question, and the same answer, he gave to Mattie ––– just before he threw her off the roof at the end of the first series.
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE
It would seem that even the Machiavellian wife of Urquhart needs to take a little time away from her own schemes, keeping Francis on the right road (as she sees it), and of directing his career. She tells her husband she will go to the country retreat, and will take Corder with her. Urquhart mentions that Corder is "good value for money": Elizabeth smiles that secret smile and says that she thinks so too. It's pretty obvious what is going on here: although Elizabeth is fiercely loyal to her husband, it's probably fairly likely that they don't sleep together, or if they do it's not very much. Whether Urquhart is aware or not of her dalliances with one of his underlings is not known, but considering his own extramarital (and approved by his wife) affairs, I hardly think that he would have too much to say on the subject. Pot calling the kettle black?
The betrayer betrayed
As he falls farther and farther from Francis's good graces, it seems quite likely now that Tim Stamper realises there is really no room for him at the table any more. His place of honour has been taken by the younger and obviously prettier Sarah Harding, with whom Francis seems to have what Stamper would probably assume to be an unhealthy fascination. Truth to tell, he's probably seeing Mattie Storin all over again, and we all know how that ended. But as he is squeezed further out of the circle, pushed out of the loop, Stamper is given a rope to hold onto: a rope not only to cling to to drag himself back to the metaphorical shore (let's say back into political life, or at least, active political life), but also quite possibly to use to hang Francis with. He has been told, or it has been intimated at any rate, that should Urquhart go down ––– as everyone expects he will have to ––– that Stamper could very well be next in line to lead the country, and he has friends he did not know that he had. With this sort of power base, it is possible that Stamper can be a force in politics, even without the patronage of Urquhart. So what now is there to stop him from betraying his old master? After all, we're likening him to the faithful dog getting kicked by his master: how long before that dog is no longer prepared to take the kicking, turns around and bites the hand that fed it?
There's plenty of betrayal to go around; Urquhart set Bullerby the task of recording Princess Charlotte's memoirs as a way of safeguarding his own position, a weapon against the king, should he need it. He told Bullerby the story that they would not be published until after the Princess's own death. It is certainly not clear whether Bullerby believed this to be the case, whether or not he expected that Urquhart would go back on his word, as he has done in so much of his career and his life. What is clear is that, despite himself, he has grown attached to the Princess and finds Urquhart's betrayal of her ––– with himself used as the instrument of that betrayal –-– to be especially bitter and hurtful. Bullerby knows he has been used, knows the Princess has been used as well, and it is unlikely that he will forgive or forget this very personal betrayal.
And is Sarah also betraying her husband? When she first took the job from Urquhart, she made it clear ––– as did he ––– that no sexual involvement was envisaged. Now, by mutual assent, (though really through the manipulation of her by Urquhart) she has fallen into a romantic/sexual relationship with him ––– she believes that she may even be in love with him, and tells him so. How he feels about this we do not know: after all, the last woman who fell in love with him literally fell out of his good graces, and onto the roof of a parked van several stories below. Urquhart does not have time for love: he believes it to be an impediment to his plans, an unnecessary distraction, something to be avoided at all costs. He also knows the power it can have over the human heart, and the human brain. It can most definitely get in the way when you're plotting dastardly schemes and trying to destroy your enemies, which is why he is also most surprised ––– and it would seem mildly annoyed ––– to find that the tables have in a way been turned against him; he finds himself as attracted to Sarah as she is to him, and the whole power dynamic has been shifted. Urquhart always prefers to have his hand firmly on the reins: he is not used to being the one being directed, as he feels he is at this point.
So it seems Sarah is prepared to give up her marriage for this man. Is she really in love? Can she truly believe that anyone could ever really be in love with Urquhart? And if she is just fooling herself does she realise that her entire marriage is being sacrificed for what very well may be a fantasy, a lie, or even a misunderstanding? She may be a hard-nosed political analyst but in matters of love it would appear that Sarah Harding is driven by the same urges, desires and needs that characterise virtually every human on this planet.
I couldn't possibly comment...
Again Urquhart trots out his familiar "plausable denial" phrase when asked during Prime Minister's Question Time if the royals have any right to be telling people what they should do, as they live in such luxury?
A Boy in a man's world?
Is the king growing up? Up to now, although his arguments with Urquhart have been heated, and quite bitter, there has been ––– mostly through what we would assume to be king's naivete ––– some sort of forlorn belief that he can somehow get through to the man, that he can make Urquhart see the world through his eyes, and that somehow, suddenly, out of the blue there will be a revelation, and the two will work together as one. Of course it will never happen, but that has not stopped the king up to now. Now however, it would appear that the king has taken something of a harder line with his ––– he detests the word, but there really is no other ––– enemy. Urquhart maintains a stiff, formal, almost mechanical attitude of respect to the monarch, but his actions are belied by his words. We see this most clearly when, as he prepares to leave the king after having failed to blackmail him into changing his mind, he speaks to him an equal. He does not use the words “Your Majesty”, he does not say Sir; he in fact affords no real respect to the king: he speaks to him as he would speak to any man in the street, and more, he speaks of him with the unbridled, barely restrained rage and fury that he would level against those who cross him.
The king, for his part, seems to realise that being a gentleman and doing things the right way will not actually get him anywhere. It is, in the truest sense of the phrase, time to take off the kid gloves. We see the king begin to realise this, when he refuses to allow Urquhart to review (that is to say, edit and censor) the text of his television programme, due to go out the next day. He is tired of Urquhart interfering with him, trying to muzzle him, trying to make him say the things he wants him to say. He has come to realise that Urquhart will not bend, that if he is to get his message across it must be directly to the people and not through the offices of the Prime Minister.
But he is torn too: he begins to see that Chloe is using him to further her own minorities agenda. When he complains "I'm not a political animal" she is quick to contradict him, telling him that he should go further when the king wants to step back, that people need to hear from him, that he is their hero, their champion. All of which no doubt plays to the King's ego, but he is no fool: he sees now he is being used as a mouthpiece for Chloe's own views, and as a way to get things that she wants from the government: effecting change through the Palace, possibly whether the Palace wants it or not. It's also quite clear that she is in love with the king at this stage, but whether he realises that is not clear. If, or when, he does, then their working relationship is going to get even harder, as he will have to wonder is he doing things that she asks him to do ––– or advises him to do –-– because they are the right thing to do, because he believes that they need to be done, or simply because she asks him?
There's an old saying: when the going gets tough the tough get going. Never has this been truer than of Urquhart. However when the going gets tough he generally gets murderous! Now that things are beginning to turn against him, in many ways, heads are almost literally going to roll. Blood will flow in the streets, knives will stab in the dark, and those who are in his way will fall as Urquhart bends his will to the task of removing any obstacles or impediments to his absolute rule. Yes, it's time to check on
The Urquhart body count
Lethal
John Krajewski: The journalist was a loose end and Urquhart does not like loose ends. There was only ever going to be one outcome of that situation. Although, with all that is on his mind at the moment you have to wonder had Krajewski not met with Sarah Harding, would it just perhaps have been possible he may just have been let fade away into obscurity, ranting his hard to believe conspiracy theories, dismissed as just another nutcase? But once he had passed on what he knew ––– or suspected he knew ––– to Sarah, he was back on the government's radar and there was only one way to deal with him. And so, in a way, we come full circle: the only other person really to know Mattie Storin, and to suspect her death as being other than accidental, has now joined her in the afterlife.
Nonlethal
Princess Charlotte: She would have to fall into this category: her life has been ruined, ostensibly by the man she trusted and was possibly falling in love with, and now, thanks to the revelations in her memoirs, published in
the Clarion, her very life may be in danger. We cannot count her as a lethal victim of Urquhart, but we can count her as nonlethal. Her career, quite possibly her life may very well now be at an end.
Non-lethal Bodycount: 5
Lethal Bodycount: 3
Total Bodycount: 8
And isn't that…?
The television journalist we see during the programme is none other than Don Warrington, who came to fame as Philip, the upper-class student who partnered Richard Beckinsale and was something the bane of Rigsby's life in the television series "Rising Damp". We have also seen him play a small part in one episode of “Red Dwarf”, but in fairness "Rising Damp" is where he made his name, and is the series for which he will always be remembered.