I know I am making a very peculiar observation here, but the fact that Stamper admires Urquhart and wants only to serve him (before Urquhart spites him) and the odd way in which he almost gets jealous of Sarah for her relationship with Francis, makes me wonder if Stamper was actually smitten with his boss.
shareWhile I normally get annoyed on these forums when people wonder if two characters were incestous/gay/paedophiles etc when virtually no evidence has been given, in this case I was also unsure.
Stamper was a great character (Sorry to see him go) and part of that stems from how we misjudge him early on. Prior to the events in this he seemed like any other character, oppurtunistic and using his means to get to the top. But then in the King he seemed to be geniunely loyal, a rare trait in the show. Which makes it all the harder to watch FU be such a total dick to him, evidently perceiving loyalty as weakness.
Even so his jealousy of Sarah is reasonable in some senses, she was encroaching in on his turf and thus his job (making him redundant and thusly lower in the structure). That said I honestly couldn't tell if he was pining for more than just FU's friendship (hard to even imagine what that would be like) or did he miss him more than that. As it was I found it hard to imagine how two gorgeous young women found FU so hot (they very much came on to him) that I wouldn't put it past FU to be able to somehow be alluring to Stamper too.
But then there's the part where Stamper gets Sarah to be a part of his small cabal as it were and apparently fulfill a similar role she did for FU, which was very vague (and given Stampers face- a fixed wide eyed crazy look- kinda sinister).
Like Mr. Candy, I get annoyed usually at such forums - but while watching this once again, I think we may be meant to think that in To Play the King, we are meant to think Stamper was suffering from a kind of unrequited love. However, this was not at all evident in House of Cards - I think it was a dcision made by the screenwriter only in To Play the King.
It's not a bad decision - it gins up the motivation for Stamper to act when he does - and we'd never heard of any kind of personal association for Stamper in thne past.
Stamper is one of life's dogs who needs a master to serve.
He did recall David Walliams playing the PM's Aide in Little Britain though.
If they wanted to go into Stamper's sexuality Colin Jeavons would of convinced either way. He could just as well be asexual with no life outside of politics.
I don't think he's a 'closeted' gay, as he's likely not--maybe never has been--actively so; but I yes, I think it's suggested in the story that there may be some tendencies toward homosexuality inherent in him, and he may very well realize this and fight against them.
It's possible to conceive of his servitude toward Urquhart as having some sort of very sublimated sexual basis. After all, most 'slave/master' relationships do have something of that at the very base, so it's likely there's a bit of it here, but nothing that Stamper would probably ever have even considered as being acted upon physically. He just wants to be in the presence of his 'beloved' as much as possible, and be as useful to him as he can--all while also looking out for his own personal ambitions.
I think it gets overlooked by some to just what an extent Urquhart presents as a true 'clinical' psychopathic type, and one trait that's been noted upon with such sorts is that they can be remarkably attractive to people both of their opposite gender and their own. They have a way of somewhat creating their own reality around them, that people of both sexes gravitate towards and find themselves very much drawn to, be it in terms of offering themselves up either in a self-effacing 'slave' capacity, as Stamper does, or sexually as Mattie and Sarah do.
Virtually every notorious cult leader manifests those qualities, which is why they're able to attract many followers, even though to an outsider, the source of the attraction may be mystifying. Urquhart is of much the same material as that sort, only his 'cult' is political rather than religious or social.
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Very good and basic point in that there is definitely a large measure of 'class angle' at work in the attitudes of both men towards their respective roles--and towards one another and the people around them.
shareI think Stamper is bisexual. During one of the conferences he mentions to Penny that he and his wife are sending their sons to a particular school (at least, that's what the conversation sounded like). Okay, so I know plenty of gay men unfortunately feel they have to hide and get married, but I got the feeling he quite fancied Mattie, even though he was jealous of her - just something about the way he looks at her at one point. However, I believe he is totally in love with Urquhart (whether it's sexual or not is unknown) and deadly jealous of Sarah.
shareI don't think Stamper is anything, to be honest. My impression of the character was that he'd probably always been swept aside and been without personal influence or value.
That's why, I think, he so relishes the role of Whip, and then Chief Whip — because it gives him undue influence and control over people that he could never have hoped to acquire on his own merits or by force of his own personality.
So I don't think there was anything between him and Urquhart — just slavish devotion from Stamper, because he saw Urquhart as his ticket to his own advancement. He was jealous of Matty and Sarah, I think, simply because they could achieve things he never could, and earned Urquhart's admiration for their own qualities.
That all said, I suspect Stamper proably was gay, yes, but was probably no longer capable of any sort of actual relationship with people.
You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.
Urquhart is a Cobra and a seducer.
In the case of Stamper, who clearly derives pleasure and a sense of power from directly tormenting or indirectly observing the torment of others it was a friendship made to order.
Urguhart specifically kept Stamper close for years as a professional confident and co-conspirator.
I don't think it was sexual in the obvious term at all, it was about power. That's what the lust was about.
As for Colin Jeavons, what a wonderful performance. I enjoyed him so much.
He was mostly on the sidelines in HOC in a quirky and, I thought, "Dickens-esque" sort of performance.
But in his expanded role his malevolent Stamper was quite a spellbinder.
The culminating scene in the warehouse with 'Sarah Harding' and the tape recorder is incredibly well played by both actors.
Think of Stamper as the blue-print for Peter Mandelson
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American money - In God We Trust
British banknotes - Charles Darwin