Just after "24" aired and began "ground-breakingly" bumping off major characters a small UK series was getting its premiere and taking serious flak from the security services for its "laughable" and "unrealistic" portrayal of MI5. This was the new series from Kudos supremo Jane Featherstone, although credit for its creation is given to David Wolstencroft, its main writer, and it dealt with the hazards faced by a team of MI5 (British Secret Service) agents as they raced to foil plans, stop bombs going off and thwart (or in some cases, engineer) regime changes, all before breakfast.
While the world portrayed in "Spooks" may be far removed from the reality of working for the most secret organisation in the UK --- or may not; they're just that secret you would not know, and if you did, they'd probably have to kill you! --- the dangers they face, the situations they find themselves in and the dramas they go through each week are all too believable. Certainly, there are too many young, sexy, hip people in the organisation, but then, who wants to see a bunch of old spies run around? You have to have a certain suspension of disbelief to enjoy the show, as indeed was necessary with anything from "24" to the new (or old) "Hawaii Five-0", but that's TV drama for you. It rarely accurately reflects reality: when it does, it's called a documentary.
But one of the things that stood Spooks apart from the vast slew of other drama programmes on TV at the time was their willingness to kill of major characters. With an almost gleeful sense of abandon, nobody was safe. 24 may have sprung the odd surprise during its run by allowing some major leads to die, but I don't believe any show before or since has knocked off its main characters so regularly, so much so that it almost became expected. Every few seasons there would be almost an entirely new cast, and while you would think that would grate on viewers, getting used to a whole new bunch of faces, somehow it worked, and we took to the new guys easily, almost but not quite forgetting the older hands.
Even the top man wasn't safe, so much so that when at the end of season seven Harry Pearce, the boss, is kidnapped and a video shown in season eight of his death, you're just not sure. Most series would lead you to think, "Oh, he's the star! They couldn't kill him off! He'll be all right." But with Spooks, you just never knew, and that added an extra element of tension and unease into the programme. When you know the star can't possibly be shot, stabbed, run over, pushed off a bridge or anything else that might lead to his or her death, you get a little inured to the sequences where it looks like he or she has been killed. You know they're going to survive. But not with Spooks.
Anyone was fair game, and you didn't even have to be a big star either. When one of the "back room boys", whom we'd all come to like, meets his end in one of the earlier seasons it's so much a shock it's almost a hammerblow. Even with Spooks' reputation at this point, you think no, there's no way they'd let him die! The guys will come to rescue him. But they don't, and Spooks scores another hit on the disbelief scale. We come to see that anyone --- anyone --- can be bumped off if the story calls for it, and as a result we really worry when one of the guys or girls is in a tight spot and look like they might not make it out, which in most cases they do but there's always the possibility that this time they won't. To add suspense, some of the seasons ended on cliffhangers that hinged on the question of whether someone lives or dies, and you had to wait till next year to find out.
Although the stories seem fanciful, they had an unsettling way of coming true. Without implying that terrorists were watching the show for ideas, there were a lot of parallels in how the stories went and how history turned out soon afterwards. Coincidence of course, but chilling nonetheless. And without the great staple of the spy thriller, the Russians, to take the role of the bad guy in their stories, Spooks found a whole rock-underside full of demagogues, despots, terrorists, oligarchs and corrupt officials, arms dealers, state heads and more to take the part. There are, sadly, no shortage of evil people in the world.
And so to the cast. As I mentioned, this is fluid to say the least, so each season (or episode) I'll mention any changes. When the series begins we have, working from left to right:
Zoe Reynolds, played by Keeley Hawes. Keeley would of course later find fame in "Ashes to ashes", another Kudos production and spinoff from "Life on Mars", both of which we will be featuring here later in the year. Maybe. Zoe is the youngest recruit to MI5, and desperate to prove herself both as an agent and as something other than the "token girl".
Tom Quinn, played by Matthew McFayden. Tom is the senior agent, the man in charge of the day-to-day operations and the man who takes command "in the field". He comes across as a little cold, as perhaps life in MI5 has made him, having seen so much death and horror.
Tessa Philips, played by Jenny Agutter (yes, the show attracted some major stars, both of TV and film). She is the senior case officer for Section K, the division the Spooks work for.
Sir Harry Pearce, played by Peter Firth. Head of counterterrorism and the overall boss here. Pearce is the only one who would last through all ten seasons (sorry if I gave anything away there!)
Danny Hunter, played by David Oyelowo. Another junior officer, who joins about the same time as Zoe Reynolds. The two find themselves supporting one another emotionally as Tom has little time or patience to ease anyone into a life as a spy.
Helen Flynn, played by Lisa Faulkner. Helen is a junior administation officer, but her role will only last up to the second episode, resulting in a shock scene that flooded the BBC switchboard with complaints when it was first aired, and was the first time Spooks sent a broadside across television viewers' bows, showing they were not going to be just another show.
There are other characters, some who go in and out of the series in various roles, some who become integral to it as support characters, but we will introduce and talk about them as they arrive. For now, the is the main cast that took to the air with the first ever episode of a show that was to pretty much take British (and later American) TV by storm.