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Spooks (TV series)

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For the music band, see The Spooks.
For the Three Stooges film, see Spooks!
Spooks
The Spooks logo, as seen in the opening title sequence.
GenreSpy
Created byDavid Wolstencroft
StarringPresent Cast
Peter Firth
Rupert Penry-Jones
Raza Jaffrey
Anna Chancellor
Hugh Simon
Miranda Raison
Hermione Norris
Country of origin United Kingdom
No. of episodes46
Production
Running time59 min. approx.
Original release
NetworkBBC One
ReleaseMay 13, 2002 –
present

Spooks is a British television drama series, produced by the independent production company Kudos for BBC One. The title derives from a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 intelligence officers at Thames House, though Freemasons' Hall in Covent Garden is used for filming. In the United States and Canada the show is aired under the title MI-5. The programme was created by writer David Wolstencroft. As of the final episode in Series 5 in November 2006, there have been a total of 46 episodes.

Each episode ends with a scene freezing suddenly into a black-and-white negative image, which cuts directly to a trailer of the next episode, then the Kudos and BBC logos in the very last frame (or merely the logos if the episode is the finale of the current series). The series continues to air with no credits on BBC One, to maintain an atmosphere of the anonymity of real-life spies and the drama of each episode finishing within a couple of seconds of the final frame, although episodes aired on BBC Three, one week ahead of their BBC One showing, have a brief credit sequence (which is then removed for the BBC One version). The final episode of each series is not previewed on BBC3. Full credit sequences are available online for every episode to date.

Background

Series 1

File:Spooks003.JPG
Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Quinn and David Oyelowo as Danny Hunter in Series One.

Starring Matthew Macfadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Jenny Agutter and Peter Firth, the initial series of six one-hour episodes was screened in the spring of 2002.

The series was a critical and popular success, regularly drawing seven to eight million viewers, and combining glossy high production values with fast-paced action/adventure and spy intrigue storylines.[1]

The show quickly gained an unexpected edge with the violent killing of character Helen Flynn, played by Lisa Faulkner, in the second episode which drew the most number of complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Commission in 2002.[1] During an undercover operation Helen and Tom were captured by race riot instigator Robert Osborne, played by Kevin McNally, who tortured Helen with a deep fryer in an attempt to make Tom, her superior, reveal classified information. He refused and she was killed. This provoked an angry reaction from many viewers who jammed BBC phone switchboards with complaints, despite the show airing after the 9pm watershed. Nevertheless, the death of Faulkner's character set the precedent that, in Spooks, anyone can die at any time.

Series 2

With the success of the first series, a second longer series of ten episodes was commissioned and subsequently aired in 2003. It again drew praise, particularly for the dramatic cliffhanger ending of the series finale.[2]

Series 3

A third series, again of ten episodes, was transmitted on BBC One in the autumn of 2004, concluding on 13 December. The first episode saw the introduction of Rupert Penry-Jones as Adam Carter, drafted in from MI6 to help investigate Tom's disappearance. He later took over Tom's position as Senior Case Officer, as over the course of the series, all three of the original leading trio, MacFadyen, Hawes and Oyelowo, left the programme. Their departures were staggered over the second, sixth and tenth episodes respectively.[3]

In episode six, Zoe was taken to court for misconduct during an operation, and forced to leave MI5 and assume a new identity in Chile. She was replaced by Adam's wife Fiona (Olga Sosnovska).

Although fan response to the changes of leading cast was generally negative and the season garnered varied critical reactions, viewing figures remained steady and a fourth season was commissioned.

Series 4

The fourth series of Spooks began transmission on Monday 12 September 2005 on BBC One at 9pm with the first of a two-part story. The next day (13 September) the second episode was shown. The following week Spooks assumed a 9pm Thursday slot, a break from the Monday 9pm slot the previous series had traditionally occupied. Once again the series ran for 10 episodes.[4]

The opening two-parter provided the series with two new regulars in Zafar Younis (Raza Jaffrey, whose character had actually debuted in the final episode of series three) and Juliet Shaw (Anna Chancellor). However, it was also a controversial storyline, as it featured terrorists (albeit anti-humanity and technology extremists rather than Al-Qaeda) bombing central London, something that in reality had taken place two months earlier on 7 July, after the episodes had already been shot.

According to The Guardian newspaper the day the first episode aired, "The similarities were sufficient to cause head of drama Jane Tranter and new BBC One controller Peter Fincham to agonise over whether to drop the episodes."[2] The episodes eventually aired unedited, although before both instalments of the two-parter the BBC One continuity announcer warned viewers that they featured scenes of terrorist bombing in London which some viewers might find disturbing.

Episode seven saw the departure of Fiona Carter, as actress Olga Sosnovska was pregnant during filming and elected to leave the programme. In a by-now traditional shocking exit Carter attempted to kill her deranged ex-husband, who she thought had been hanged several years previously. He, however, abducted her and later shot her dead in Adam's presence when she tried to escape (by cutting her own wrists with broken glass to fake a suicide attempt, and thus managing to overpower her guards temporarily). Her character was replaced in the Spooks set-up by Miranda Raison as Jo Portman, a new arrival at MI5 who had been recruited by Adam in the previous episode.

Series 5

Spooks returned for its fifth (10 part) series on 17 September 2006 with the first part of a two-part story. The second part followed the next day (18 September), marking Spooks' return to BBC One's Monday night schedule.[5].

Its storylines included a home-grown Al-Qaeda cell planning an attack on London (episode 3); the British government selling nuclear technology to Gulf states (episode 6); and the US administration selling arms to African dictators (episode 4). It is also the first series to feature a "cliffhanger" ending to an episode mid-series (episode 6), marking a slight change from the individual 1 hour episodes, season finale cliffhangers and more recently, two-part season openers shown on consecutive evenings. Its end-of-series cliffhanger was the potential drowning of Ros Myers and Adam Carter after environmental terrorists staged an attack on London to demonstrate the danger of Global Warming (episode 10), although the final black-and-white freeze-frame of the episode suggested they had surfaced alive.

Series 5 was criticised in some quarters for its formulaic scripting[citation needed] - in several episodes the villains initially appeared to be Islamic fundamentalists but turned out to be rogue elements within the British government, or agents of a supposed friendly power, such as Israel. Only in episode 3 was the true enemy an Islamic fundamentalist group. Some have suggested this is evidence of a left-wing bias by the show's scriptwriters, or a fear by the creators of a backlash from within the Muslim community[citation needed]. Despite this criticism, the series featured a more stable cast, more 2-part stories allowing for more complex stories and greater dramatic use of split-screen scenes depicting events occurring either simultaneously or at different times from a variety of camera angles. The lack of a definitive end-of-series cliffhanger leads to the anticipation of more in-series cliffhangers in series 6.

Series 6

A sixth series was commissioned by Jane Tranter, Head of Drama Commissioning at the BBC, by the time series 5 was announced, and will air in Autumn 2007.[3][4] Rupert Penry-Jones has already said in interviews that series six is likely to be his last.

Rogue Spooks

Following the success of the BBC Three Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood the controller of BBC Three, Julian Bellamy, has announced a Spooks spin-off, Rogue Spooks.[5] The series will feature a unit of young MI5 recruits who follow a different rule book to the main agency. Rogue Spooks is, like its predecessor, created by David Wolstencroft, and developed by the same team at production company Kudos. Rogue Spooks is due to be broadcast in late 2007.[6]

Cast

The main recurring characters include (principals shown in bold):

Current characters

Former characters

MI5 staff

Other officers

Significant others

Guest stars

The programme regularly attracts popular actors, with performers such as Hugh Laurie, Andy Serkis, Andrew Tiernan, Anton Lesser, Alexander Siddig and Anthony Stewart Head having appeared throughout all five series.

UK Ministers

These fictional UK cabinet ministers managed the team or have been characters in some episodes.

Episodes

Main article: List of Spooks episodes

Spooks has had a total of 46 episodes and five seasons. The show's sixth series will begin airing on the BBC in September 2007.

Locations

Regular

Single episode

DVD releases

Series Cover Art Region 1 Cover Art Region 2 Extras
Series One File:MI5S1.jpg January 13,2004 File:SpooksS1.jpg June 16, 2003 Deleted Scenes, A Guide To Spooks Terminology, Character Biographies, Image Galleries, Interviews and Commentaries With the Cast And Crew.
Series Two File:MI5S2.jpg January 11, 2005 File:SpooksS2.jpg September 20, 2004 Outtakes, Cast Interviews and Commentaries, and Featurettes.
Series Three File:MI5S3.jpg January 31, 2006 File:SpooksS3.jpg September 5, 2005 Audio Commentaries, Behind The Scenes Featurettes, Deleted Scenes and DVDROM content, including scripts, wallpapers and image gallery.
Series Four File:MI5S4.jpg January 9, 2007 File:SpooksS4.jpg September 4, 2006 Audio Commentaries, a Behind The Scenes Documentary and Interviews with the Series Producer and the Director of Episodes 9 and 10.
Series Five TBA September 10,2007[7] TBA

Spooks books

  • Sangster, Jim: Spooks Confidential: The Official Handbook (2003), Contender Books (London). ISBN 1-84357-069-6.
Episode guide of the first two seasons, and background information on MI5 and the making of the series.
  • Spooks: The Personnel Files (2006), Headline Book Publishing (London). ISBN 0-7553-3396-9.
Detailed MI5 personnel files of eight of the show's main characters: Adam Carter, Danny Hunter, Zoe Reynolds, Tom Quinn, Ruth Evershed, Harry Pearce, Zafar Younis and Malcolm Wynn-Jones.
  • Spooks: Behind the Scenes (2006), Orion Books (London). ISBN 0-75287-610-4.
Background information on British intelligence and episode guides for the first four series.

Foreign broadcasts and DVD sales

In the United States, the series is screened on A&E, a speciality cable channel, under the title MI-5. This is partly due to the fact that the word "spook" is an old (American) racist slang term for African Americans, and the network did not wish to risk the possibility of causing offence, and partly because in the US, "spook" is more generally associated with the Central Intelligence Agency (in the US) and a Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent in Canada.[8] Series 3 began in the U.S. immediately after the UK run ended and wrapped up with Episode 10 on March 12, 2005. The first two series were shown on A&E as a single 16-episode season. Due to the need to insert commercial advertising breaks, the episodes shown on A&E are heavily edited versions, with each 59-minute instalment being edited down to roughly 45 minutes for U.S. showings, often causing some narrative problems for American viewers. The full versions are, however, available on DVD in that country.

Unlike Series 3, Series 4 did not air immediately on A&E after it ended in the UK. It appeared that they were abandoning the show, but Series 4 began airing in the US after an 18-month absence on Fridays at 11pm on September 15, 2006. A&E stopped showing new episodes on September 29, 2006, replacing it with reruns of CSI: Miami. Series 4 was released on DVD in the US on January 9, 2007. To placate either viewer protest on their own message boards or Kudos, the British production company of the show (for whom at the end of US broadcasts the credits say jointly produces with A&E), they broadcast the remaining 8 episodes of Series 4 in one showing from 11am-7pm on October 21, 2006. [9]. BBC America has agreed to "take over" the series, beginning with showing reruns of the first 2 series, and presumably showing series 5 (and eventually 6) to the US.

In Canada, the series was also screened uncut and unedited on BBC Canada, a speciality digital cable channel, under its original BBC title Spooks, however, this was stopped after Series 3 because the U.S. A&E channel had exclusive rights to future viewings in Canada and was showing the episodes as well (albeit in the same almost-abandoned manner as in the United States). With the move back to BBC America, it is presumed that BBC Canada will resume showing the series. BBC also shows Spooks on its entertainment channel BBC Prime in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

The programme is also aired as Spooks in Australia and New Zealand on ABC and TVNZ respectively. In Sweden it airs as Spooks on SVT1, in France the programme is called MI-5 and broadcast on Canal Plus and Canal Jimmy and in Finland the show is called Erikoisjoukkue on YLE TV1, although the continuation of the show to Series 3 is not certain. In Belgium Spooks was broadcast on the Flemish public channel Canvas and on the French Belgian channel RTBF. In the Czech Republic as MI5 on ČT1. In Israel it was aired under two different names (MI-5 and Spooks) on the Arutz 2 Channel 2 and on cable. In Slovenia it was aired on Kanal A as Tajni agenti. It is aired in Southeast Asia through the Hallmark Channel. In the Netherlands, Spooks is aired on the channel Nederland 3. It currently airs in Croatia on HRT 2 as Obavještajci.

In Brazil, the series is screened on People + Arts, cable channel, under the title Dupla Identidade (Double Identity). In Argentina the same channel screens it as Doble Identidad (Double Identity as well).

In Iceland the series is shown on RUV (The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service) on Tuesdays at 22:25 under the Spooks name.

Critical response

Awards

Press

The Sun tabloid newspaper often cite Spooks as 'What to watch this Weekend/Tonight.[14]

References

  1. ^ The Broadcasting Standards Commission receives 154 complaints after Helen Flynn's killing, as reported by BBC News.
  2. ^ Gibson, Owen. Spooky coincidences. "The Guardian". Monday September 12 2005 (requires registration).
  3. ^ BBC press release on Spooks series 5 and the commissioning of series 6.
  4. ^ BBC episode guide informing of Spooks return in 2007
  5. ^ Rogue Spooks from the Guardian (requires registration)
  6. ^ Digital Spy on Rogue Spooks.
  7. ^ Play.com - Spooks series 5 DVD information page
  8. ^ The BBC's response to the Spooks name change to MI-5
  9. ^ TV Guide on A&E's coverage of Spooks
  10. ^ BAFTA award list 2000 to 2005
  11. ^ RTS Award page
  12. ^ Kudos - Spooks information page
  13. ^ a b BBC Drama - Best of 2003
  14. ^ The Sun - What to watch

Additional information from newspapers

  1. One of the reports was in The Sun, and can be found here.
  2. The BBC denied the accusations; a report of the issue can be found here.
Preceded by British Academy Television Awards
Best Drama Series
2003 		Succeeded by
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