Spooks to end after 10 series.
I can’t say I’m totally shocked by this news, but Kudos have announced that the superb Spooks will come to an end with it’s 10th series.
CEO and Creative Director of Spooks production company Kudos said “we didn’t want to get to the point where the BBC said, “We don’t really want another one, we wanted to kill it off in its prime”, which I can totally understand. Better to end your own show than have a network cancel it on you.
I love Spooks, and (like a number of Kudos’s productions) it’s been a flagship drama for BBC1. I’ll be very sad to see it go, but 10 years is a good run, and as they are the one’s stopping it, they’ve promised the story will come to a proper end, and not be left hanging.
Now we know it’s Spooks last season, i wonder if any of the old hands may pop up again?..
Well, those that haven’t been killed in some horribly brutal way…
One thing you can say for Spooks, like 24, none of the key characters were safe from being removed in some inventive (and sometimes grizzly) way!.. You had Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo) – Executed, Colin Wells (Rory MacGrego) – Hanged, Fiona Carter (Olga Sosnovska) – Shot by ex-husband, Zafar Younis (Raza Jaffrey) – Killed by terrorists, Adam Carter (Rupert Penry-Jones) – blown up in a car bomb, Ben Kaplan (Alex Lanipekun) – Throat cut, Connie James (Gemma Jones) – Killed defusing a nuclear bomb, Jo Portman (Miranda Raison) – Shot by fellow officer Ros Myers (Hermione Norris)… who was then herself killed in an explosion! Out of all of them though, it’s Lisa Faulkner’s character Helen Flynn literal face-to-face encounter with a deep fat fryer that still haunts me!
Lara Pulver joins Spooks
Not all the cast left in body bags though. Some actually managed to walk away… albeit not always of their own free will. Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfadyen – last seen in Series 3 Episode 2) decommissioned (basically for growing a conscience), Zoe Reynolds (Keeley Hawes – last seen Series 3, Episode 6) – messed up an undercover op and was sneaked out of the country to hide in Chile, Malcolm Wynn-Jones (Hugh Simon – last seen Series 9, Episode 3) – Retired and Tessa Phillips (Jenny Agutter – last seen Series 2, Episode 9) – fled the country after sabotaging an operation. I’d love to see Tom or Zoe back for a guest spot, although i suspect it’s rather unlikely.
I’d say its also a fair bet Lucas North/John Bateman (Richard Armitage – last seen at the end of Series 9) is also probably still alive after his vanishing act from a roof last season, but we’re may not see him as Richard is currently off being Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit.
Adding to series 9’s returning cast are Lara Pulver (Robin Hood, True Blood) playing new section lead Erin Watts, and Geoffrey Streatfeild (The Other Boleyn Girl) as new IT guru Calum Reed. Also popping up this series are Alice Krige (Borg Queen in First Contact) and Jonathan Hyde (Titanic, The Mummy).
