For: The Spooks For: Spooks!

Spooks is a BAFTA award-winning 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. In the United States and France, the show is aired under the title MI-5. In Canada the program had originally been aired as "MI5" but now airs on BBC Canada as "Spooks". The programme was created by writer David Wolstencroft.

The programme regularly attracts popular guest actors, with performers such as Hugh Laurie, Tim McInnerny, Ian McDiarmid, Jimi Mistry, Andy Serkis, Andrew Tiernan, Anton Lesser, Alexander Siddig and Anthony Stewart Head having appeared.

Season synopses

Main: List of Spooks episodes

Series 1

The series was a critical and popular success, averaging 7.5 million viewers over its six episodes, due to its combination of glossy high production values with fast-paced action/adventure and spy intrigue storylines.

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. 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. This series saw the introduction of another main character, Ruth Evershed in the second episode. It again drew praise, particularly for the fifth episode and the dramatic cliffhanger ending of the series finale. The series averaged 7.1 million viewers.

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.