– I had to quit as chief of staff of the Conservative Party after the election in 1987, and had vacation for the first time in two years. I decided that I would write about politics, so I sat down beside the swimming pool with a bottle of wine and a notebook. The only thing I got on was two letters: “F and U,” said Lord Michael Dobbs, visiting Bergen in connection with the Nordic Media Festival.
Dobbs had been one of Margaret Thatcher’s closest associates since 1979, when he was a speechwriter meant that she was elected Britain’s first female prime minister.
In 1986 he became Chief of Staff of the Conservative Party, but after the election victory in 1987 broke him and Thatcher at loggerheads.
more realistic than reality
You do not need a vivid imagination to imagine what the letters “F and O” stood for.
But they were eventually to Francis Urquhart, the cynical protagonist of his successful novel “House of Cards”.
More than 20 years later dolls Kevin Spacey as the no less cynical Francis “Frank” Underwood, the protagonist of the American Netflix series “House of Cards”.
– When I started working for Thatcher in 1979, we did not even have computers. What happens now with Netflix and everything is really science fiction
– Are you surprised that your novel of 1989 also serves as political fiction in 2013?
– No, the important thing is not the policy itself, but how the characters are constructed. People must believe what they read or see, and you have to write characters who act more or less rationally. One must, in other words, steer away from the real political life
– Yes, you would think actually appeared as unrealistic for people?
– Yes, I think so far on the way. Some of the political scandals that pop up, not least in Britain, is quite incredible, says Dobbs.
– Could needed a Underwood
“House of Cards» 2013 gives a darker quite different impression of American politics than the popular “president,” which aired from 1999 to 2006, did.
– The series was full of kind, idealistic politicians who would always make good and right decisions. Politics is not always so.
– Was it necessary to have a darker version of American politics?
– Yes, the American political system is largely in crisis. Bartlett in “The President” was liberal Americans dream while President George W. Bush was in power, but now I think many Americans could wish that there was a Francis Underwood in Congress that could settle, says Dobbs.
Cooperation with Borgen properties
He is now working on a new series in collaboration with Adam Price, the creator of the Danish political series “Castle”.
– I’m a big fan of “Castle”. As with many other Scandinavian TV drama is the wonderful written.
– Birgitte Nyborg, ‘Borgen’ is a more idealistic politician than your Francis is?
– Yes, absolutely. You may have a slightly different view of their politicians in Scandinavia, perhaps to a greater extent believe in them. We are working on a series with a female protagonist, but I can not reveal much more, he said.
– Do you regret that you left politics in 1987?
– I worked for the party later under John Major, but if I had not taken a break in 1987, I probably would have never started writing.
– You were author thanks to Thatcher?
– Yes, in a way. I have many wonderful memories from when I worked with her. But she should have gone off earlier – at the end of her career she heard no other than themselves, says Dobbs.
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