House of Cards (TV Mini Series)

Chapter Three (1990)

Ian Richardson: Francis Urquhart

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mattie Storin : Is Mrs Urquhart in the country this evening?

  Francis Urquhart : Not this evening, Mattie. Mrs Urquhart is in town.

  Mattie Storin : And at home?

  Francis Urquhart : And at home, Mattie.

  Mattie Storin : I wish she were in the country. And you do too, don't you? Don't you?

  Francis Urquhart : You might well think that, Mattie. I couldn't possibly comment.

• Francis Urquhart : His deepest need was that people should like him. An admirable trait, that... in a spaniel or a whore, not, I think, in a Prime Minister. And we've done him a favour, too, if he did but know it. He was in the trap and screaming from the moment he took office. We've simply put the poor bastard out of his agony. "After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well." So let's not involve ourselves in any squeamishness, all right? Because this... is just the start.

• Mattie Storin : I don't know what to call you. There's nothing I can call you.

  Francis Urquhart : You can call me Francis.

  Mattie Storin : That's just it, I can't. I don't think of you as Francis. It's so stupid.

  Francis Urquhart : You can hardly call me Chief Whip.

  Mattie Storin : I want to call you Daddy.

• Francis Urquhart : So hard to know who to trust in these suspicious days. Does passion engender trust? Not necessarily. And yet we all would wish to feed on certainties. To hear the word "always", and believe it true. She trusts me absolutely, I believe. I trust she does. And I? I trust her absolutely... to be absolutely human.

• Ben Landless : Anyway, what this piece is going to say, whether Miss Storin likes it or not, is that little Mikey Samuels has taken an early lead in the polls and he's running around telling the world he's got the whole thing sewn up.

  Francis Urquhart : How do you know he's taken an early lead?

  Ben Landless : I dunno whether he has or not, I'm just telling you what we're putting in the paper.

• Mattie Storin : Is Mrs Urquhart in London at the moment?

  Francis Urquhart : She's in the country.

  Mattie Storin : Oh.

  Francis Urquhart : I would be anxious about letting you go back to your flat alone tonight.

  Mattie Storin : Yes.

  Francis Urquhart : I hope you wouldn't think it improper if I invited you to spend the night here.

  Mattie Storin : I don't bloody well care if it's improper or not.