Michael Dobbs back with Maurice Saatchi after playing cards right

Lord Dobbs first worked for the original Saatchi & Saatchi between 1983 and 1991

Actor Ian Richardson as the scheming Francis Urquhart in ‘House of Cards’ (BBC)

Michael Dobbs, author of the House of Cards TV trilogy, is to be reunited with Maurice Saatchi 25 years after he left the advertising industry to become a best-selling writer.

Lord Dobbs, 67, a key adviser to Margaret Thatcher and a survivor of the Brighton bombing, will join the ad agency M&C Saatchi as a non-executive director at the start of 2016. He will be reunited with Lord Saatchi, who is still an executive director.

Asked if the return of Lord Dobbs meant M&C Saatchi would be targeting the Conservative party’s advertising account for the 2020 election, chief executive David Kershaw said: “You might think that; I couldn’t possibly comment.”

That, of course, was the catchphrase of Francis Urquhart, the scheming politician played by Ian Richardson in the BBC’s version of House of Cards in the Nineties.

Lord Dobbs first worked for the original Saatchi & Saatchi, founded by the brothers Maurice and Charles, between 1983 and 1991 and became deputy chairman. After that he became a newspaper columnist and presenter for the BBC’s Despatch Box programme.

His political life began in 1977 as adviser to Mrs Thatcher. He went on to be deputy chairman of the party under John Major. As an adept political operator, he was dubbed “Westminster’s baby-faced hitman”.