Noble House was an American television miniseries that was produced and broadcast by NBC in 1988. Based upon the novel Noble House by James Clavell it featured a large cast headlined by Pierce Brosnan as business tycoon Ian Dunross and was directed by Gary Nelson. However due to time restrictions several of the many subplots from the book were removed. The novel was set in Hong Kong in 1963. The miniseries updates the storyline of the novel to the 1980s. It is part of Clavells Asian Saga. The Noble House also is a nickname of Struans the trading company featured prominently in most of Clavells novels. The tai-pan Ian Dunross struggles to rescue Struans from the precarious financial position left over from his predecessor. To do this he seeks partnership with an American millionaire while trying to ward off his arch-rival Quillan Gornt who seeks to destroy Struans once and for all. Meanwhile Chinese communists Taiwanese nationalists and Soviet spies illegally vie for influence in Hong Kong while the British government seeks to prevent this. And nobody it seems can get anything done without enlisting the aid of Hong Kongs criminal underworld. Other obstacles include water shortages landslides bank runs and stock market crashes.Struan and Company is based on Jardine Matheson which continues to exist to this day as an Asia based trading company. The chief character Ian Dunross is believed to be a composite character of two real life Jardine-Matheson tai-pans Sir Hugh David MacEwen Barton and Sir Michael Herries.Rothwell-Gornt is based on then Butterfield and Swire now known as Swire Pacific. Quillan Gornt is based on two Swire taipans John Kidston Jock Swire and William Charles Goddard Knowles.