House Of Saddam - Episode guide
The intimate world of Saddam Hussein and his closest inner circle will be revealed in House Of Saddam – a gripping four-part drama for BBC Two that charts the rise and fall of one of the most significant political figures in recent history.
Episode 1
Wednesday 30th July 2008
It's March 2003 and, in the opulent presidential palace of Baghdad, Saddam Hussein watches, defiantly, as President Bush declares in a televised address to the Iraqi people that "the tyrant will soon be gone". The sound of bombs are heard in the distance.
Back to July 1979, again in Baghdad, during the seventh birthday party celebrations of his daughter, Hala, Deputy President Saddam and his allies force the intimidated President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr to resign.
Convening his first governmental congress of the Ba'ath party, Saddam exposes supposed detractors of his new leadership who are led from the courtroom and forced to "confess" to an attempted coup. Blindfolded and terrified, they are lined up against a wall and executed by members of Saddam's party in the ultimate test of loyalty to their new leader.
The personality of the new president permeates Iraq: the image of a heroic and popular leader is projected to the people. When terrorist attacks tear through Baghdad, Saddam orders a full military rebuttal against the perpetrators, leading to the Iran-Iraq conflict.
As war wages, Saddam faces troubles at home; the death of his domineering mother; the youthful nonchalance of his son and heir, Uday; and the deterioration of alliances with Barzan Ibrahim, his half-brother and former deputy. Saddam finds solace in the beautiful, married, Samira Shahbandar, who becomes his mistress much to the chagrin of his glamorous wife – Sajida.
Saddam's family and closest friends gather for a lavish ceremony to celebrate daughter Raghad's marriage to Hussein Kamel, Saddam's cousin and increasingly close ally. Amidst the celebrations, a feeling of underlying tension mounts – as jealousy, rivalry and paranoia threaten to test loyalties to the limit.
Episode 2
Wednesday 6th August 2008
It's 1988 as the gripping drama charting the rise and fall of Saddam Hussein continues.
Whilst Iraq is a country pushed to the brink of bankruptcy, Baghdad is a city jubilant in victory following the war with Iran. Uday, Saddam's unpredictable son and heir, celebrates in a nightclub in his own inimitable way: drinking heavily, firing his gun and intimidating the crowd. As ever, his brother-in-law and father's trusted adviser, Hussein, observes his actions.
As Kuwait's upsurge in oil output challenges future Iraqi prosperity, a family lunch reveals the fractures forming within Saddam's household: icy relations with his wife, Sajida, a growing unease with his wayward son, and the inklings of paranoia that a member of his house could be moving to overthrow him...
News spreads that Saddam has taken Samira as a second wife, and the ramifications are far-reaching. Sajida is shamed that Kamel Hanna, a common servant, knew first. Her brother, Adnan, confronts the leader with fears that he is neglecting the needs of both his first wife and his army – and Saddam replies that it's only the latter concern he intends to address.
Uday's short fuse is fatally ignited when he confronts a drunken Kamel Hanna at a party and savagely beats him to death in front of the horrified guests. Following a failed suicide attempt, Uday faces the thunderous anger of his father, and is rebuked for his hedonistic, violent ways.
Growing tension, rivalry and manipulations lead to Adnan's loyalty being questioned: and a fatal helicopter accident further crushes relations between Saddam and a heartbroken Sajida.
Kuwait drives Iraq toward an economic war over oil, and Saddam defiantly leads his country into "the mother of all battles". As nations line up to defend Kuwait, he proudly proclaims that it takes 30 nations to take on his single Arab power. When the enemy do not cross borders into Iraq, he claims victory.
Episode 3
Wednesday 13th August 2008
It's May 1995, in the penultimate episode of the gripping drama charting the rise and fall of Saddam Hussein, and Iraq is a country crippled by sanctions from the United Nations for refusal to comply with weapon inspections. When inspectors are finally admitted, a cat-and-mouse game begins – weapons, chemicals and documents are buried and concealed and the inspectors are chaperoned on the orders of Qusay, Saddam's second son and now chosen successor, which infuriates the increasingly sidelined Hussein Kamal.
Tensions erupt at a meeting of Saddam's government – comprised largely of his family – when the increasingly unhinged Uday taunts Hussein Kamal. Now believing they are descended directly from prophets, Saddam declares that Iraq is being ostracised from the rest of the world and targeted by their neighbours because of religious jealousy.
As the Day of Days celebration approaches to mark the anniversary of the victory over Iran seven years earlier, Hussein and his brother, en route to the Palace celebrations, cross the border to take diplomatic asylum in Jordan with their wives, Saddam's eldest daughters, Raghad and Rana. There, Hussein Kamal meets UN and CIA officials, giving them information on the whereabouts of Iraq's hidden weapons, while making claims on Saddam's leadership.
Infuriated by this betrayal, Saddam moves all the hidden weapons' documents to Hussein Kamal's warehouse, thus negating the UN's reliance on him for information. Of no value to the enemies of Saddam, the brothers are lured back to Iraq with a promise that they will be forgiven and no harm will come to them. Arriving in Baghdad, however, they are apprehended, forced to divorce Saddam's daughters and locked in a safe house.
Saddam forces Ali Hassan Al Majid – the defectors' uncle – to punish them for their disloyalty. A gun-fight ensues, killing the brothers and making widows of Saddam's grieving daughters.
Episode 4
Wednesday 20th August 2008
It is March 2003 and Iraq has been invaded, as Alex Holmes's compelling chronicle of the rise and fall of Saddam Hussein concludes.
As President Bush declares "the day of liberation is near" for the people of Iraq, Saddam instructs his daughters, grandchildren and wife, Sajida, to flee the country to safety in Syria, with only his loyal sons, Uday and Qusay, and eldest grandson, Mustapha, remaining.
For his own safety, Saddam goes into hiding near the town of Tikrit, off the banks of the Tigris River, where he lived as a child. As coalition forces flood Iraq and Baghdad in their search for the former President, Saddam continues to lead his people from virtual isolation in his desolate hut. He makes crude tapes decrying the invaders and imploring the Iraqi people to rise up and defend their sovereignty, then has them delivered to radio broadcasters by his bodyguard.
Uday, Qusay and Mustapha take refuge at a relative's house in Baghdad, and it isn't long before disloyalty leads to their location being revealed to US officials. A lengthy gun-fight between them and an army battalion kills the young men and leaves their father in shock and their mother watching reports of their death on television, utterly devastated.
In the dead of night, and evading the coalition patrol, an emotional Saddam visits his sons' graves near Tikrit, and lays Iraqi flags atop the soil as a mark of respect.
Saddam learns of the $25m price put on his head and the net begins to close in on his secluded hiding place. When the army discovers it, even the last throes of loyalty from his bodyguard cannot prevent him from being found in a make-shift underground hole. Hauled out, dignity in tatters and held to the ground, he declares: "I am the President of Iraq, and I am willing to negotiate."
