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The first recording today starts with the end of Lizzie McGuire.

There’s a trail for Trapped.

Then a repeat showing for The Sarah Jane Adventures – Eye of the Gorgon – Part 1. I seem to have missed part two, sadly.

Media Centre Description: Children’s drama series from the makers of Doctor Who, following the adventures of investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith, a former companion to the Doctor. Sarah Jane and her team encounter the Gorgon – a terrifying creature that turns its victims to stone.

Recorded from BBC ONE on Monday 8th October 2007 16:58

BBC Genome: BBC ONE Monday 8th October 2007 17:00

Then the recording ends with the start of Newsround.

The next recording starts with a trail for Flight of the Conchords.

Then, it’s episode 2 of the 1990 BBC House of Cards. Ian Richardson is the scheming, fourth-wall breaking Chief Whip Francis Urquhart, who’s already scheming against the newly selected Prime Minister.

It’s conference season.

Reporter Mattie Storin, who has been getting close to Urquhart in search of stories, gets an anonymous letter, detailing a recent poll that shows the party 30 points behind. She doesn’t know that it was Urquhart who arranged for her to receive it. Her editor doesn’t want to run it, because he thinks she’s being set up.

It’s all sex & drugs. Roger O’Neill has been pressured by Urquhart to ask his assistant – also his sometime girlfriend – to ask her if she’d be willing to sleep with the Foreign Secretary.

Urquhart bugs a dispatch box so he can record them having sex.

He makes the switch when he goes to speak to the Foreign Secretary Patrick Woolton about whether he thinks the Prime Minister should resign, and whether he’s be interested in the leadership himself. Woolton says the party should wait a few months to “get the public used to the idea of a change of leadership. Move too soon and we’ll look like assassins.”

Mattie bumps into the Prime Minister’s brother, who’s a bit of an embarrassment to his brother as he’s a bit of a drunk, and there’s a rumbling of an insider trading scandal involving him.

Kenny Ireland turns up, playing Ben Landless, the American proprietor of Mattie’s newspaper. She complains to him that he spiked her story about the Tories doing badly in the poll, and he tells her it was a good story, but for the wrong paper, as they always support the Tories.

Urquhart corners Landless, and puts to him the idea of dumping Collingridge as leader.

Later, he listens to Woolton having sex. “One for the archives.”

The story about the opinion poll is printed that evening, and the Prime Minister wants to know who leaked the private poll. It seems strange that that would be the only poll around, but that seems to be what’s happening here. He chooses Urquhart to investigate who’s moving against him. Rookie mistake. Then later, the story about the share dealing involving his brother emerges, so Urquhart suggests putting his brother into rehab in the country.

He also encourages the PM to do a TV interview. He says that the shares story will seem like an irrelevance. Unfortunately, the interviewer has a lot of evidence involving the scandal which the PM can’t answer, and it leaves him looking very bad.

One part of this story I never really liked is the sexual undercurrent between Urquhart and Mattie. It always seemed like that regular TV trope (much beloved by Steven Bochco as I recall) of the much older man having a much younger woman falling at his feet. These days I just assume this was exactly how Boris Johnson and Laura Kuenssberg were in private. But at least, for the first time this episode, we get his catchphrase. “You might think that. I couldn’t possibly comment.”

Media Centre Description: Andrew Davies’s adaptation of Michael Dobbs’ best-selling satirical novel about the corrupt and cynical world of British party politics. Urquhart forges ahead with his plan to bring down the new PM. Meanwhile, the party faithful congregate at the Tory conference in Brighton.

Recorded from BBC FOUR on Monday 8th October 2007 20:58

BBC Genome: BBC FOUR Monday 8th October 2007 21:00

After this, there’s a short promo for a new series, Fanny Hill. I remember BBC Four doing a few of these. I think the one they did about Mad Men totally put me off wanting to watch it, it was so up itself.

This series was written by Andrew Davies, who also adapted House of Cards and Pride and Prejudice so they’re really pushing it as a classic, when it all just comes off as a bit of a sex comedy.