House of Cards (1990)

Ian Richardson's Francis Urquhart is the original that the American remake borrowed its asides from. The BBC's Chief Whip plots his way toward Downing Street and keeps stopping to share the plan with you, a trick taken straight from Shakespeare's Richard III, which Richardson used as his model. The pleasure is in how charming he makes complicity feel, and in his signature dodge, "You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment." Only four episodes, and it won him a BAFTA. If you like it, two sequels follow: To Play the King and The Final Cut.