The first series of the British spy drama television series Spooks (known as MI-5 in the United States) began broadcasting on 13 May 2002 on BBC One, and ended on 17 June 2002. It consists of six episodes. Spooks follows the actions of Section D, a counter-terrorism division of the British Security Service (MI5). 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 1999, though the company initially faced friction from television networks, which saw no potential in a post-Cold War spy show. The producers later successfully pitched the series to the BBC after the network's commissioning teams were replaced. Four episodes were being written when the September 11 attacks took place, and the some scenes were rewritten to take the event into account to show the audience Spooks's goal of fighting terrorism. The producers were advised by former intelligence officers from the Security Service, KGB and Central Intelligence Agency. Filming took place from November 2001 to March 2002.
The first series was seen by an average of 7.49 million viewers, and received generally favourable reviews, with some critics comparing it to American espionage-based series such as 24. The second episode attracted controversy after a scene that depicted the brutal death of main character Helen Flynn (Lisa Faulkner) attracted more than 250 complaints. As a result of the series, MI5's website saw a surge in applications to join the organisation. The first series 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 series was released on DVD on 16 June 2003 in Region 2, 18 August 2003 in Region 4, and 13 January 2004 in Region 1.
Episodes
Cast
Ten main cast members are listed in the first series. Matthew Macfadyen plays primary protagonist and senior case officer Tom Quinn. Creator David Wolstencroft found Tom to be the most fun, yet hardest character to write for due to him being the main character. 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. Keeley Hawes plays junior case officer Zoe Reynolds. Hawes was attracted to the parallels between acting and spying. The actress described Zoe as "a feisty little number. She can be quite cold and you don't really know her," and the series sees "flashes of how she can be". David Oyelowo plays fellow junior case officer Danny Hunter. Oyelowo first became aware of the show when his agent brought him the script, and was quickly intrigued by the project, and wanted a part to play in it. He downplayed his enthusiasm to get the part. Macfadyen, Hawes and Oyelowo were initially wary of playing the lead characters even though the actors were in their mid-twenties, but eventually felt that they earned the right to be in the series.
Peter Firth plays the head of the counter-terrorism department, Harry Pearce. Firth was interested in the series after hearing of Brenton's involvement in the project, and thought Spooks was "special" and "different" from British television at the time. Firth would "pepper" the dialogue with quotations from famous classical works, with moral and religious philosophies. Jenny Agutter plays Tessa Philips, senior case officer for Section K. The actress described Tessa as "hard edged" and "not a nice person", but straightforward and not initially expected to be corrupt. She realised that although Tessa would start off as a peripheral character, her role would build as the series continued. Tessa's story was described by a BBC press release as being about "the dangers of corruption from within". 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. The producers created Maisie because they believed that children are often "the best spies of all". Hugh Simon plays technical officer Malcolm Wynn-Jones, and Greame Mearns plays MI5 officer Jed Kelley.
The first series also sees a number of recurring characters and guest appearances. Rory MacGregor appears in two episodes as Colin Wells, an MI5 technical officer. American actress Megan Dodds appears in the first episode as CIA liaison Christine Dale. The producers were impressed enough by Dodds' performance that they wished to see her return in the second series. Kevin McNally appears as Robert Osbourne, the antagonist of the second episode. The producers felt the actor was suitable for the role, as was the case with Debra Stephenson, who played his wife Claire. In the fourth and fifth episodes, Hugh Laurie appears as Jools Siviter, a department head of MI6, an organisation depicted as "old school" compared with MI5. Laurie based his performance on Barry Foster's portrayal of the head of MI6 in Sweeney!. Meanwhile, also in episode four, Anthony Head, best known for his work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer at the time, played Peter Salter. Despite his status as a former Buffy regular, Head still had to earn the role from his audition.
In episode five, Tim Pigott-Smith plays Hampton Wilder, a character who was based on Richard Nixon and Jeffrey Archer. In the same episode, Naoko Mori appeared as a lover of Danny's; Mori previously appeared in Psychos, another series produced by Kudos. In the finale, Irish actor Lorcan Cranitch plays Irish splinter group terrorist Patrick McCann. Cranitch had previously appeared in several other dramas as Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) operators.
Production
Crew The first series of Spooks was produced by Kudos Film and Television for the BBC. David Wolstencroft was credited as 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. The producers hired Brenton for his "radical" and "provocative" style. By the time he was hired it had been sixteen years since he last wrote for television.
The producers from Kudos spent up to three months meeting several potential directors to work on the show, but none shared their views about the show's style until Bharat Nalluri. The style the director used was inspired by Bollywood films, as well as American television. According to Wolstencroft, Nalluri "directs as I see." Three directors were chosen, each working on two episodes; Nalluri directed the first two episodes, Rob Bailey directed the next two episodes, and Andy Wilson directed the last two episodes. 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.
Conception Kudos began to develop the show after producing the Channel 4 medical drama series Psychos in 1999. Kudos wished to explore series ideas that saw beyond typical "precinct-based dramas" (crime and medical). Stephen Garrett decided on developing a spy drama after coming across John le Carré novels at a Waterstone's bookstore, and came to realise that MI5 or MI6 had not been featured as the setting for shows before. 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 "shitty job". 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 "braver", "dynamic" and "pacier" shows to attract a younger audience for the channel.
Writing The two main writers, Brenton and Wolstencroft, had different styles and influences in their scripts. Wolstencroft was influenced by American television to make the episodes pacier. His chosen writing style was a mixture of the "grittyness" of le Carré's works and James Bond-like fantasies. While writing the series, the writer introduced a set of "MI5 terminology", terms used by the main characters in the series. According to Oyelowo, Wolstencroft's scripts included more spy terms, stating "we curse David Wolstencroft often. His dialogue tends to be the most chewy," and the actors had to learn them as if they spoke as such on a daily basis. Brenton, meanwhile, adopted the same writing style based on early episodes of Taggart, a Scottish-based crime drama; the writer was impressed by the show's ability to add more to the plot halfway through. He also took inspirations from novels including le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Mirren wrote "One Last Dance", which he felt was difficult to write as he had to tie two main storylines together. Brenton and Wolstencroft collaborated to write "Lesser of Two Evils" due to timing constraints. Wolstencroft pitched the story, and then each writer wrote 30 pages of dialogue.
The pilot originally underwent thirty rewrites and four separate story ideas before the BBC was satisfied. Similarly, the second episode went through four rewrites. After four episodes were written, the September 11 attacks took place, resulting in three thousand deaths in the United States. 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 "sidewinded" the show, "perversely made it as relevant as can be", and "commuted a great sense of responsibility" on Spooks.
Throughout both the writing and filming, the writers were advised by ex-MI5 officers who gave insight into how the characters operate and how their personal lives would be affected. Among them were Nick Day, who worked in counter-terrorism in the Security Services, Viktor Abramkin, a UK-based former KGB officer, and Mike Baker, an ex-CIA agent. When including terrorists, the BBC often has the responsibility to portray people with as much balance as possible for both sides. The first series's finale was heavily researched, as the episode was based on real life instances in which terrorists had agreed to work with the authorities in Colombia. Meanwhile, a scene in which Tom and Patrick strip naked to ensure they are not bugged came from the producers' sources, who also advised the producers how to tail targets without being spotted.