The Final Cut Online

The third in the three mini-series sees FU holding firm to achieve his goal of serving in office longer than 'she' did. A historic peace deal brokered between Turkey and Cyprus is to be his public triumph (and private windfall), although past events (recent and long since past) hold a constant threat of being revealed, while he finds himself surrounded by possible leadership challenges.

This final run of episodes manages to keep the core strength of the previous episodes, and for many (myself included) this will be enough to make it work and be worth watching; however this is not to be blind to some of the issues with it. The first for me was that the entire history of FU in Cyprus seems dropped in completely inorganically. Okay I understand we join after he has always worked through the deal so perhaps these triggered the memory – but for the viewer we come to this subplot through the memories first. These are quickly followed up by the family seeking the truth (about the very thing FU is now having nightmares about) and as a result it seems like the series is rushing to introduce a plot and get it moving. Once the series gets into its stride, this works better as a backdrop while leadership challenges and political maneuvering is in the fore – which is the aspect I found more engaging.

The character of FU and the to-camera addresses remain effective and engaging, but in this case too many of the supporting characters and plots are not so well done. The family seeking justice is one example, but cabinet members are not as strong and too long is spent on affairs (with a lot of nudity and humping added for what I can only presume is the satirical effect of putting the image of real politicians at it into the minds of the public). These scattered examples of things not working so well do rather limit the series as a whole, but mostly it works. The start does lack sharpness, but I was a bit surprised by some of the lack of edge at the end too – it works but some aspects of it could have been better.

Despite the misgivings, and despite it not being at the level of the previous series, it is still an enjoyable end to the story.

Having risen through the ranks of the United Kingdom's Conservative Party in House Of Cards and having consolidated power in To Play The King, Francis Urquhart (played once again by Ian Richardson) is on the verge of becoming the longest serving Prime Minister. Yet the pieces are slowly moving against him for last game of power politics. The stage is set for The Final Cut, the final miniseries in the House Of Cards trilogy.

Like its two predecessors, the miniseries's success lies in its lead character Francis Urquhart as played by actor Ian Richardson. Urquhart, who has served as Prime Minister for approximately a decade, is making plans for his eventual retirement while seeking a fitting legacy. Yet the skeletons of the past aren't quite as quite as dead and buried as he might think though as things slowly come out to threaten his very political existence. Richardson continues to play Urquhart as a modern day (modern day being an alternate version of mid to late 1990's UK) version of Shakespeare's Richard III but there's a more human element in this last act as well. Here's a man whose played numerous power games and finds himself risking more and more in one final play for power and, in this case, a fine legacy as well. In a way this may well be Richardson's finest performance in the role of Urquhart.

There's also another major player who deserves mention. Diane Fletcher, who had largely been on the sidelines in the two previous miniseries, gets her biggest role in the trilogy as Urquhart's wife Elizabeth and this is as much her series as it is Richardson. Her she is revealed to be just as cunning and manipulative as her husband as she helps to set up the Urquhart Trust and watches her husbands final power plays with increasing worry. Also of interest is Elizabeth's hinted at relationship with security man Corder which brings a new dimension to this series, especially in regards to the ending. All of this gives Fletcher a chance to show off her skills and makes The Final Cut as much hers and his.

Which brings us to the supporting cast which is a bit mixed. On the plus side are Paul Freeman as Tom Makepeace, the Conservative party politician who grows increasingly wary of and eventually becomes the one who may finally be able to bring Urquhart down. There's also Isla Blair as Claire Carlsen who rises within Urquhart's ranks while being involved with one of the PM rival's. Last but not least is Nick Brimble as Corder who gets a large role in the proceedings and the aforementioned relationship with Urquahrt's wife as well. On the downside are Nickolas Grace who gives a sleazy and annoying performance as Geoffrey Booza Pitt and Joseph Long as the rather bumbling and ineffective Cyprus President. The supporting cast overall is a mixed bunch which dampens the success of The Final Cut somewhat.

The production values hold up well for the most parts. Once again there's fine production design by Ken Ledsham who creates the worlds ranging from 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, and beyond though somehow there seems a very low budget feel to the scenes set in Cyprus. There's also the cinematography of Ian Punter which once again brings a fine sense of atmosphere to the world of the miniseries. Last but not least here is once again the music by Jim Parker, especially with the main title and end title pieces which serve as a perfect start and closing to the four episodes of the miniseries. Sadly what seems to be lacking is the direction of Mike Vardy who makes this final part seem to be both very sleazy (including unnecessary nudity especially considering the lack of it earlier in the trilogy) and snail paced throughout. The result is, like the supporting cast, something that dampens the success of this final part.

Last but not least is the script. Once again Andrew Davies adapts Michael Dobbs (who is uncredited as the novel's author due to creative conflicts with the makers of the series) novel into a script which takes a look at a seasoned politician and his last grasps at power. Urquhart seems obsessed at times with the shadow of predecessor Margret Thatcher (who appears to have died just before the beginning of the series) and him staying as Prime Minister longer then she was and securing a fitting legacy to his tenure. Yet there are ghosts of the past that begin to haunt Urquhart more and more. Here we learn more of Urquhart's past including his army tenure in Cyprus and how it now threatens to bring him down. There's the machinations of those in his government as well including Makepeace who prepares to challenge him for power as well. Together the script offers us a look at the fall of one government, the effect of that on the man in charge of it and the rise of its successor. That's not the say that this is a perfect script though as there are some decidedly sleazy and improbable aspects to the story as well, including the rather unsatisfactory ending which seems a rather convoluted way to end the trilogy of miniseries's. Maybe those are the faults of the novel rather then the script but there is something not quite right with this final part of the House Of Cards trilogy.

The Final Cut proves to be the last, if unsatisfactory, part of the House Of Cards trilogy. While there's fine performances from Richardson and Fletcher plus much of the supporting cast the issues with other members of the supporting cast, some low budget feels, direction and script issues weigh this part down significantly. The result is a good but overall unsatisfactory conclusion which seems rather a shame.

I can't recommend this series highly enough! All the actors are first rate, the script literate and hilarious! BBC has done a first rate job and this is one of the best things I have seen in years! Ian Richardson is perfect in this role! He's probably sick of hearing about it by now, but he was really wonderful, as was everybody else. A first rate production in all ways!

I have loved all of the episodes of The House of Cards Trilogies from the very first to The Final Cut. I absolutely abhor the American version of the show. I wish Hollywood would stop taking BBC ideas, paint them thickly with a stupidity brush to then show on our television screens and start making original ideas of their own.

I am curious if any other fans of this original series has or know where one can get sound bites from the third series? In particular, there are two I am most interested in and I believe they are in the same scene. When Jeffrey Boozer-Pitt tells FU about his behavior with a woman who was married, FU makes the following statement, "Jeffrey, Jeffrey." The second sound bite is just a moment later when Jeffrey talks about his improper share dealing with same woman, FU says, You really are utterly contemptible, aren't you" he goes on, "No background, no bottom, absolutely no informing principal but the will to survive. Just a plump little bag of squirming appetites."

Harsh,perhaps, but appropriate. If anyone knows where I can get those sound bites, please let me know. I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you.

WARNING; SPOILER AHEAD. This mini-series is the final in the three adapted by Andrew Davies from Michael Dobbie's books (the others are `House of Cards' and `To Play the King'. Francis Urquhart (Ian Richardson) has achieved his ambition to be prime minister even longer than Maggie Thatcher (whose memorial he is about to open) and is now contemplating retirement. However, his past is now catching up with him in the shape of his participation as a young man in a long-forgotten insurrection on Cyprus. What's more, his hitherto supportive wife, Elizabeth has been getting rather matey with Corder, the security goon.

This is the blackest of the series and at times the dullest. The pace gets very slow and when the final bullet comes it is almost a relief. It fits though. As a noted Scottish autocrat, Lord Reith of the BBC once opined, the best form of government is despotism tempered by assassination. Churchill, on the other hand, thought that democracy was a terribly bad form of government, but far better than all the other sorts. Urquhart, the Scottish laird, needs to wear the democrat's clothes even to be a British conservative politician, but is a despot at heart. Mrs Thatcher was successful for many years as the national chief bully, but eventually hubris caught up with her in the shape of the poll tax. `F U' nearly makes it out the door, but alas, he knows too much, and, (shudder) is showing signs of weakness. Perhaps we forget that down through the ages politics has been a bloody business and the genteel veneer of present day parliamentary democracy conceals some pretty rough play.

Anyway, the three `Cards' series amount to 600 minutes of great entertainment – much more fun than most airport novels and filled with incident and amusing, if not very original characters. `F U' himself, Ian Richardson, is a joy, and never has better use been made of `direct to camera' acting.

The Final Cut is the last of the House of Cards trilogy and certainly not the best. The problem it had was how excellent its two predecessors were and it is always difficult to put 'three in a row' together. You only have to look at how awful The Godfather III was to see that. So where did it go wrong ?? The first part showed hoe FU became prime minister (excellent) and the second part showed how he crushed all opposition as PM including the Monarch (Almost as good). It was always going to be difficult to follow this up and if there was a dark secret in FU's past, surely one of his opponents would have found it when he ran for PM in the first part, particularly Pat Woolton who was foreign secretary. Well acted, quite a predictable ending, how evil is that wife of his ??? On a more comical note the fact that FU's wife is having an affair with the head of security is verging on the absurd. In its own right, not bad, but it had to much to live up to - well worth watching though but make sure you see them in the right order.

An absolute masterpiece in political philandering. Politics is poison. Politics is perversion. Politics is treacherous intercourse between any man and any other person, any woman and any other human with only one objective: to seize power, to retain power, to "make history" as if they could, not understanding that power is illusive and evasive, and history is not made by anything or anybody because history is and nothing else. What makes it is unknown of everybody. Big Ben here is only to dictate the time of the beginning of each episode, 9:22 a.m.

The general idea is that a plain apparatchik of the conservative party manages to push aside the successor to Margaret Thatcher, the longest- serving peace time Prime Minister, who was too weak for the job, and he becomes nothing but the brute of the job who uses young women to get his inspiration, kills them as soon as they could become dangerous, and is in fact entirely manipulated by his own wife, a new Lady Macbeth who even manages to make him confront the new king and force him to abdicate.

What's the best part of it is that it is thrilling to follow the actions of this apprentice sorcerer and to see how he manages any situation to his own advantage and yet is heading right into the wall because to succeed too long becomes dangerous for your own health in the British system where only the sovereign can last long because he or she is not supposed to play politics. It is thrilling because we know the only end can be his failure when the wall of success will become so hard that he will have to be eliminated for the simple survival of the political system.

Yet you will learn only in the very last scene who the manipulator of it all is and what his or/and her intention is too. And it is true the series is intelligent enough and well enough done that you cannot know who that manipulator is though we see his/her black gloves at crucial moments but the episode systematically mislead you to believing it (he/she) is someone else.

The series is also a very good criticism of British democracy based on the free press that is as free as a tornado in a narrow and deep gorge between two very high mountains. The press is in fact on a very short leash: make money with news and make the news if necessary to make money, like Citizen Kane used to say. Parliament is an amazing maze of corridors and staircases, a comfortable bar and a House of Commons with only one interesting session, Questions to the Prime Minister, every week or maybe more often. This Parliament is a farce in many ways, at best a circus for gladiators who have no right to kill one another but who can bruise their own and respective egos in all possible ways.

It is so easy to make the public believe what you want them to believe when you can pull the strings that hold the press. And then you can always manage someone to get killed here and there, now and then, who is embarrassing or annoying the big masters.

I am so glad I am not engulfed in such an ugly activity. And yet I am sorry everyday because of them because they terrorize my own life all the time with their own caprices and incompetence. After that you sure will loathe politics, or at best want to be one of the few who can control the game.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

The final part of the House Of Cards mini-series trilogy isn't as good as the previous two, but still fairly entertaining and worth a watch. The production was as sharp as its BBC budget would allow, the acting was believable even if the darker plot wasn't entirely.

UK Prime Minister Francis Urquhart is clinging on to power by any means but he has various cracks (no pun intended with all the nudity on display in here) appearing amongst his colleagues and friends, and also his violent past in war torn Cyprus 50 years previously is gradually catching up with him. It's more improbable than what has gone before but slimy Ian Richardson as the biggest swinger in town carries all before him, I think he talks to us more than to the other characters! Judging by the amount of sex, swearing and violence in these episodes rather less discipline is on display but it's not too distracting. Why do people seem to think it's more realistic if the characters are coarse and swearing all the time while they're watching a procession of 2D images on a flat screen on the other side of the room? My favourite bit from any of the 12 episodes was in the last one, where FU deliciously tells Booza Pitt he didn't have to resign… The predictable ending had him managing to hang on in office longer than Margaret Thatcher, was sudden and was a slight let down, but the steam had all escaped by then anyway.

Overall as a whole it's an excellent time-passer, with many engrossing sections, not too many dull stretches and although it tails off a bit I would still recommend all three series.

'House of Cards' is superlative. 'To Play the King' is great. The third series of the trilogy 'The Final Cut' (1995) may be the weakest of the three but is still very good.

Everything that made 'House of Cards' and 'To Play the King' is here in 'The Final Cut' and work brilliantly. Unlike the previous two series however, a few parts veer on the improbable and the ending felt unsatisfying in its predictability and not having the punch or clarity of the ending of 'House of Cards' (the ending of 'To Play the King' was the weak link of that series but was more convincing than here). The previous two series are paced a little tighter too. Having said all this, the deviations from the source material again don't detract and the spirit and attention to character and mood detail are present.

On the other hand, 'The Final Cut' visually looks wonderful, full of elegance and atmosphere in the design and class and style in the way it's filmed. It's also beautifully scored by Jim Parker with a very memorable main theme, and the direction lets the atmosphere and drama breathe but still never undermines the momentum.

Andrew Davies once again also deserves a lot of the credit. The script has dry cynicism, sharp wit, dark bite and class, with some deservedly iconic lines that have since become part of popular culture. The nation's mood is brilliantly captured and the political elements are handled so truthfully and don't feel shoe-horned (it's actually essential here) or heavy-handed. The storytelling is mostly very absorbing, the depth and richness of the previous two series in the trilogy not lost.

Ian Richardson is once again absolutely incredible in his best and most justifiably best known role, dominating the whole proceedings with ease. Diane Fletcher has a bigger role in 'The Final Cut' and again shows completely believability in a role that one doesn't see from her usually.

Paul Freeman is especially good in support, which is mostly pretty solid apart from Nikolas Grace's sleaziness being more over-the-top than creepy.

Overall, while the weakest of the three 'The Final Cut' still has a huge amount to enjoy, primarily Richardson. 8/10 Bethany Cox