Spooks (Series) - TV Tropes. Spooks is a BBC drama revolving around a team of MI- 5 officers who must juggle their professional lives, working to protect the British state from domestic threats, whilst living semi- anonymous private lives shrouded in secrecy, misdirection, and false identities. Its inaugural series won the BAFTA for Best Drama in 2. Britons in joining the real MI- 5, which both bemused and annoyed the organization. Influenced by John le Carr. ![]() To maintain its conceit of anonymity, the episodes themselves have no credits, although they are available on the DVD releases and on the BBC3 . Despite its gritty nature, it also strives for depth and thoughtfulness by delving deep into real- life geopolitics and socioeconomics to flesh out and humanize the threats the team faces, offering up literary allusions and symbolism such as a traitor using Coriolanus to justify his betrayal, and keeping the spotlight focused on the human cost of living in the center of a tangled web of deception and intrigue. The show ran for ten series, from 2. Through it all, Sir Harry Pierce (Peter Firth) was the sole character to feature in all 8. Often a put- upon Reasonable Authority Figure struggling through a morass of ineffectual bureaucracy and murky political machinations and occasionally a badass former Cold Warrior who doesn't flinch at strangling an assassin with his necktie, Harry Pierce anchored the show through a revolving door of a cast including Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Nicola. Walker, and Richard Armitage. Peter Firth returned to the role in 2. The Greater Good, which co- starred Kit Harrington. ![]() Celebrity MasterChef champ Lisa Faulkner joins the cast of EastEnders. We're sure she'll turn up the heat.Pajiba: Sweetened by Mock, Lightened by Droll. Here's an alphabetical listing of all our TV: "Homeland"--"A Gettysburg Address": Die Another Day. In the United States, partly due to the racial connotations of the word 'Spook' in reference to African- Americans, it was renamed MI- 5. Although the series was in development before 2. Split Screen. Poor critical reception and ratings cancelled it before a second series was made. And the Adventure Continues: The show ends on a particularly bittersweet version of this. Anyone Can Die, Killed Off for Real: All in reference to Lisa Faulkner's frying as well as dozens of other examples. Only one of the original characters remains in the show, although some ex- characters, like Tom, are still alive and kicking (and are brought back sometimes, like Ruth and Malcolm). A quick rundown of the dead: Helen, Danny, Fiona, Colin, Zafar, Ben, Connie, Adam, Jo, Ros, Lucas, Tariq, Ruth, Erin and Callum. Most of their names (plus a few extras) are seen in the final episode on MI- 5's memorial wall. It's theorised that the one character who has been in it since the beginning (Harry) is still in it because the show would lose a lot of viewers if it did; the series seven finale, when he gets kidnapped by. Russian Alan Davies, was.. ![]() In the end, he survives the finale, albeit even more broken than ever before, and continues working at Thames House. Of course, the previous season cliffhangers which put Harry in life- threatening danger had other characters in even more danger - as in, one character appeared to drown himself in the ocean, and another was left bleeding out on the street. David Wolstencroft has explained in a DVD extra on why the characters are killed frequently. Wolstencroft . Strangling a Russian hitman half his age with his tie, interrogation technique that would put Revolver Ocelot to shame, outthinking Mossad, the CIA, the FSB and sometimes his own Government (sometimes all at the same time), threatening to shoot (and actually shooting) people who have threatened his Grid team.. Back for the Finale: Tom Quinn makes a cameo appearance in the final episode of Series 1. Harry as an outside contractor. Bittersweet Ending: It's fair that almost every episode will/has end like this or at least have a touch of it as no matter what victory is achieved by the team there some price to pay. Blonde Republican Sex Kitten: Christine Dale. Bottle Episode: notably, . Poor, poor Jo. British Brevity: Sort of. Seasons range from 6- 1. BBC's longest running dramas ever. Broken Ace: Tom Quinn. ![]() As described by Harry, . Until, of course his all- consuming jobdestroyed him emotionally and mentally, breaking down his ability to determine morality, and eventually made him a liability and he had to be decommissioned.
Considering what he went through, the outcome isn't really very surprising. He reappears briefly in the finale, where it seems he's become an assassin, sent by Harry to take out the man behind Elena's plot Adam Carter, his replacement, went almost as spectacularly off the deep end after the death of his wife. And finally, Harry himself in the finale. Bulletproof Human Shield: Subverted/shown correctly when Jo Portman manages to restrain a terrorist who is trying to blow himself and everyone else up. The only way to avert the explosion is for Ros to shoot the man, however (as both Jo and Ros realise) the bullet will go straight through him and kill Jo as well; which is what happens. Calling the Cops on the FBI: In the fourth episode of the first season, a suspect under surveillance realises that his house is being staked out by two MI- 5 agents in an unmarked car, and creates a diversion by calling the police and telling them that the occupants of the car are creating a public disturbance of an intimate nature. Clumsy Copyright Censorship: One episode was temporarily pulled because visible Apple logos on the back of the computers had to be digitally airbrushed out, advertising not being allowed on The BBC. Combat Pragmatist: if you're a field agent in MI- 5 you do not survive long if you don't adopt a . However, strong contenders for a prize in this area go to: Adam (for using a set of empty metal shelves to beat up a terrorist), Zaf (for escaping from a cupboard using an opponent's own crowbar and then using it to beat him to a (deservedly) bloody pulp), and Ros (for using a car- jack to immobilise a Mossad assassin before he could call for back- up). Compromising Memoirs: ? Harry: Took early retirement. Crapsack World: Terrorists around every corner, corruption in every rank of the government, allied governments not giving a damn about Britain's survival, Russia openly slaughtering British agents in the street, and Anyone Can Die taken to Kill 'em All proportions (by the end it's safe to assume that basically all the current major characters will not survive). Oh, and if Code 9is still canon, the London will be destroyed sometime after the end of the series. Cruel and Unusual Death: Several. Damsel in Distress: Beth Bailey. ![]() A Death in the Limelight: Fiona in ? Let's just saythat he did not live long. Dirty Coward: How Adam describes a rival agent who was helping rogue Mossad agents to take hostage and kill Saudi officials for this when he kills himself rather than face the team. Driven to Suicide: Lucas. Dropped a Bridge on Him: Adam's death. One of the country's best spies has to drive a bomb- rigged car away from any danger. He first puts his seatbelt on to drive the car, and near the end, he does a useless handbrake turn which costs him precious seconds. Although the seatbelt sort of makes sense since, if you crash, you'd probably want to be injured as little as possible when the car's rigged with a bomb. Also, to be fair, his goal was preventing civilian casualties; only after the car was stationary in middle of an empty square could he look to saving his own life. He didn't know exactly how long he had left, of if the trigger would be delayed for some reason. Had he jumped out of the side while it was moving, the car might have gone careering into the side of a building and caused civilian casualties. Zaf, who gets tortured to death off- screen. A lot of fans were expecting him to show up again in Series 6 since the show rarely ever has the main characters Killed Offscreen (and whenever a hero appears to be in peril, but isn't confirmed dead, they usually pull through). So when it was revealed that Zaf had died after being tortured for days while crying for his mother, it felt pretty anticlimactic. Dying Alone: Adam. The man sacrifices his own life to drive a car bomb away from a crowd of people, only to die by himself before he has time to run away from the car. Ben, who bleeds to death in a lonely computer room after his throat was lacerated by Connie. After he is poisoned and gets out of the taxi he's riding, he collapses to the ground in the middle of nowhere, seconds away from death. Suddenly, Calum shows up, and then he dies. Dying Moment of Awesome: The death of Ros, though YMMV. Even though she knew it was probably hopeless she stayed with the paralysed Home Secretary, dragging him painstakingly down the corridor despite him insisting that he leave her. By series 8 and the time of the Obama administration, this changes somewhat: a new CIA station chief announces . And then there's a sniper rifle. Expansion Pack Past: Lucas North. Face. Unusual in that she didn't know the nerve toxin she was injected with wasn't going to be fatal.. False Flag Operation: Several. A group of Mossad agents take over an embassy while pretending to be Al Qaeda, and Harry's kidnappers in the first episode of season 8 pretend to be Islamic terorists to throw MI5 off the scent. In fact, the majority of the episodes of the fifth series involved these. Fictional Political Party: The British Way Party, a Fictional Counterpart to the real- life British National Party. Girl- on- Girl Is Hot: Invoked by Ros when dealing with a Saudi prince in one episode. Good Is Not Nice: The MI- 5 agents are not afraid of doing anything immoral so long as they get the results they want. Harry himself has flat- out authorized the murder of a few people simply because the victims were better off dead. Groin Attack: Ros takes the phrase . Go on, guess. Heroic Sacrifice (several)Heroic B. S. O. D.: several agents have issues with maintaining a stable reality. This does not end well. Spooks (series 1) - Wikipedia. Spooks series 1. DVD cover art of Spooks series one. Country of origin. United Kingdom. No. It consists of six episodes. Spooks follows the actions of Section D, a counter- terrorism division of the British Security Services (MI5). Among the storylines, main character Tom Quinn faces dilemmas living a double life with his girlfriend, who at first does not know he is really a spy, and Tessa Phillips is running phantom agents for monetary gain. Matthew Macfadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner, Esther Hall, Heather Cave, Hugh Simon and Greame Mearns are listed as the main cast. Kudos Film and Television developed Spooks after releasing Channel 4 medical drama Psychos in 1. Cold War spy show. The producers later successfully pitched the series to the BBC after the networks' commissioning teams were replaced. Four episodes were being written when the September 1. Spooks's goal of fighting terrorism. Throughout production, the producers were advised by former intelligence officers from the Security Service, KGB and Central Intelligence Agency. Filming took place from November 2. March 2. 00. 2. The first series was seen by an average of 7. American espionage- based series such as 2. The second episode attracted controversy after a scene which depicted the brutal death of main character Helen Flynn (Lisa Faulkner) attracted more than 2. As a result of the series, MI5's website saw a surge in a number of applications to the organisation by viewers. Spooks was awarded a British Academy Television Awards (BAFTA) for Best Drama Series, and was nominated for two other BAFTAs and three Royal Television Society Awards. The first series was released on DVD on 1. June 2. 00. 3 in Region 2, 1. August 2. 00. 3 in Region 4, and 1. January 2. 00. 4 in Region 1. Episodes. Matthew Macfadyen plays primary protagonist and senior case officer Tom Quinn. When portraying the character, Macfadyen did what he was told to do; he did not want to create a backstory for the character as he did not find merit in doing so. Hawes was attracted to the parallels between acting and spying. She can be quite cold and you don't really know her. He downplayed his enthusiasm to get the part. Firth was interested in the series after hearing of Brenton's involvement in the project, and thought Spooks was . She realised that although Tessa would start off as a peripheral character, her role would build as the series continued. Lisa Faulkner portrays admin support officer Helen Flynn. Esther Hall plays Tom's girlfriend and restaurant owner Ellie Simm, while Heather Cave plays her eight- year- old daughter, Maisie. Hall felt that Ellie was the character the audience could identify with. Rory Mac. Gregor appears in two episodes as Colin Wells, an MI5 technical officer. The producers were impressed enough by Dodds' performance that they wished to see her return in the second series. The producers felt the actor was suitable for the role, as was the case with Debra Stephenson, who played his wife Claire. Despite his status as a former Buffy regular, Head still had to earn the role from his audition. In the same episode, Naoko Mori appeared as a lover of Danny's; Mori previously appeared in Psychos, another series produced by Kudos. Cranitch had previously appeared in several other dramas as Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) operators. David Wolstencroft was credited as the series creator, Simon Crawford Collins as the producer, and Jane Featherstone as the series producer. The executive producers of the first series were Kudos director Stephen Garrett and Head of Independent Drama Commissioning for the BBC, Gareth Neame. The series includes three screenwriters, and three directors. Wolstencroft wrote the first two episodes and finale of series one. Simon Mirren wrote the third episode. Howard Brenton wrote the last three episodes, co- writing the finale with Wolstencroft. By the time he was hired it had been sixteen years since he last wrote for television. The style the director used was inspired by Bollywood films, as well as American television. According to Wolstencroft, Nalluri . Sue Gibson and Sean Bobbitt served as the directors of photography, with Mark Goddard and Francesco Reidy serving as first assistant directors. Colin Green and Soren B. Ebbe were the series editors, while David Crozier and Andrew Sissions served as sound recordists. Leila Kirkpatrick was the line producer and Linda Stefansdottir was the production designer, while Andrea Galer was the costume designer, and Alison Davies was the make- up designer. The casting director for the first series was Gail Stevens. Karen Wilson was the script editor, and Ralph Cameron and Malcolm Treen were the location managers. Kudos wished to explore series ideas that saw beyond typical . Stephen Garrett decided on developing a spy drama after coming across John le Carr. He felt the benefit of a spy show is that rather than in a crime drama where the protagonists take their work home with them, spies are given the added dimension that they cannot reveal their work even to their loved ones. In the meantime, Wolstencroft, who wrote Psychos, was also developing a spy drama, albeit as a film. When Kudos contacted him, they agreed they should work together to create a television series based on his idea, which was not to glamourise the world of spies, instead showing the audience that spies work in a . Kudos later pitched the show to all the major British television networks; however none of them were as enthusiastic as Kudos, as they did not see the potential of a post- Cold War spy series. After the commissioning teams from the networks were replaced, Kudos again pitched the show, albeit reinvented, and as a result Lorraine Heggessey, controller of BBC One, commissioned the show after planning to introduce . Wolstencroft was influenced by American television to make the episodes pacier. According to Oyelowo, Wolstencroft's scripts included more spy terms, stating . His dialogue tends to be the most chewy. He also took inspirations from novels including le Carr. Wolstencroft pitched the story, and then each writer wrote 3. As a result, the episodes were rewritten to take account of the events to assure the audience that the show is about fighting terrorism. According to Wolstencroft, the attacks . Meanwhile, a scene in which Tom and Patrick strip naked to ensure they are not bugged came from the producers' sources.? It's the ultimate betrayal. Suddenly you're in a relationship with a complete stranger. You discover your partner has always been acting in some way, that he's always been at an emotional distance. If someone's lied that much, how can there ever be any trust in your relationship again? The idea was originally going to be used in the series finale. However, the producers did not know how to fill in episode two, so the death was moved up. According to Wolstencroft, the inclusion of Helen's death was to give the audience the message that . According to Wolstencroft, he felt that anybody who works in such an occupation with high responsibilities tends to have humour around, and that those people make jokes even though they have seen . This became the basis for creating Jools Siviter. Among these were Danny's obsession with money and spending, by hacking into a credit card database to fool it to give him a better credit rating, and the discovery that Tessa is running phantom agents to pocket their money. Those storylines were intended by Brenton and Wolstencroft to show the audience that the MI5 officers are tempted by money. This storyline was based on Mike Baker, whose wife did not know he was a spy for the first six months they were together. The same episode also introduced the sexual tension between Danny and Zoe. Filming was usually done with long lens cameras, which proved difficult for the crew as many filming location were short on space. The cameras allowed for more intimate filming as opposed to shoulder- operated cameras. The downside to the hand- held cameras was that they can only shoot four minutes worth of footage from each film stock. In addition, the operators at first hated using the cameras. To cover it, sometimes Macfadyen had to hide the left side of his face from the camera. At other times, the actor wore sunglasses. Certain cast members, including Oyelowo, handled firearms at some point in the series. To maintain gun safety, two weapons experts were on hand to train the actors during rehearsal. However the Grid set, the offices of the protagonists, was filmed in a closed medical school in Kensington. The scenes leading up to Mary's apprehension in . The same episode made use of Covent Garden. In the latter's case, the actors were filmed on the top floors, where the wind forced the actors to raise their voices so the sound unit could hear them. The last two episodes held several scenes filmed at a high- end house in Highgate owned by a silk merchant, in particular the opera house and bar Jools frequents. The editors would work on two episodes simultaneously. Although the sequences were presented in a similar vein to the American action series 2. Nalluri thought of it independently after visiting a pub one night after filming wrapped up. The producers agreed that adding credits would be a waste of time, and that the viewers would pay no attention to them. However, they also saw this as an opportunity; as Spooks is a spy show, Wolstencroft had the idea that it would be . The series began broadcasting on 1. May 2. 00. 2 on BBC One during the 9 to 1. Monday night until 1. June 2. 00. 2, with the exception of the fourth episode, which was viewed on Tuesday 4 June starting at 1. Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee. The episodes were also repeated on the digital channel BBC Choice. However, each episode had approximately ten minutes edited out to accommodate for advert breaks. The DVD release of the series in America contained the uncut episodes. BBC Two, and was down to seven million. Out of the 1. 0,0.
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