House of Cards, Wednesday, 22.00, BBC4

With Gavin Williamson in the news this week, here’s a timely opportunity to see the person who he apparently, though ineptly, tried to model himself on, Francis Urquhart in the original series from 1990. Of course it was accidentally hugely topical at the time as Thatcher resigned while it was going out, though it had already been a huge sensation due to the breaking of the fourth wall which is pretty commonplace in drama these days but a massive innovation then. Famously Andrew Davies’ adaptation is pretty different to Michael Dobbs’ original novel, much as their politics are very different, but Dobbs is still very fond of it and he presents a new introduction tonight.