The ending of the novel and TV series differ significantly (indeed, only the ending and popularity of the TV series prompted the author Michael Dobbs to write the sequels).
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Michael Dobbs stated that the inspiration behind Urquhart came during a drinking session at a swimming pool after a tense encounter with Margaret Thatcher, deliberately creating a character moulded around the initials "FU".
He is perhaps best known for directing the BBC's smash-hit 1990 mini-series House of Cards and its sequel To Play the King, adapted by Andrew Davies from Michael Dobbs' novels and famously starring Ian Richardson as Francis Urquhart.
Michael Jackson | Order of St Michael and St George | Michael Bloomberg | Michael Jordan | Michael Caine | Michael | Michael Palin | Michael Moore | George Michael | Michael Dukakis | Michael W. Smith | Michael Douglas | Michael Bolton | Michael Schumacher | Michael J. Fox | Michael Bublé | Michael Faraday | Michael Moorcock | Michael Kors | Michael Brecker | Michael Bay | Michael Nyman | Michael Phelps | Michael Ondaatje | John Michael Montgomery | St. Michael | Michael Landon | Saint Michael, Barbados | Michael Somare | Live! with Kelly and Michael |
The programme was a replacement for the nightly political programme The Midnight Hour, and like its predecessor, was initially presented by a team of single-presenter journalists, rotated nightly, consisting of Zeinab Badawi, Michael Dobbs, Andrew Neil and Steve Richards.