Spooks prepares to bow out with final series
Lara Pulver
IT’S been one heck of a ride but after a decade of high-octane spills and thrills, the hit MI5 spy show Spooks, hailed as a benchmark for British drama, is finally bowing out.
Unflinching in the face of danger, the spies (aka spooks) have gained a reputation for departing at the most unexpected times.
Matthew Macfadyen’s character Tom Quinn opted for early retirement in 2004, while his successor Adam Carter (Rupert Penry-Jones) was with the show for four years until an explosive exit, heroically driving a bomb away from a parade.
Now, as Section D is left reeling from the double agent betrayal of Lucas North, played by Richard Armitage, new leader Erin Watts steps in to take the helm.
Ambitious and tenacious, Lara Pulver says Watts is determined to make her mark: “She’s moved swiftly through the ranks and Section D has poached her, knowing she’s a young, forthright, woman,” says the glamorous 31-year-old actress. “She’s extremely organised, efficient and uses the head of MI5 Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) as a mentor."
He just stepped off the set that’s known to Spooks’ millions of fans as ’The Grid’ – the name given to Section D’s headquarters – and looks like she means business.
Given what’s happened to her predecessors, Pulver went in understanding that Spooks was never going to be a job for life.
“You take it as it is and roll with it,” she says. “It’s wonderful slipping into a product that already has a great following.
"To come into that ready-made product is both daunting and exciting.”
The final series will focus on Harry Pearce’s past and a guilty secret that could bring his tumultuous relationship with Ruth Evershed (Nicola Walker) to a head.
It’ll also involve what Pulver describes as “a cat and mouse game” between her character and Pearce.
“When you’ve idolised someone for so long, when you meet them, you see cracks in a person you thought was flawless. It opens your mind to who they are and what it means to be a spy,” she explains.
“There’s a wonderful line in one episode: ’The hardest thing about being a spy is you never truly know who anyone is and it’s a lonely job’. That, for me, encapsulated everything.”
Spooks, BBC1, Sunday 9pm
Daily Post North Wales
Unflinching in the face of danger, the spies (aka spooks) have gained a reputation for departing at the most unexpected times.
Matthew Macfadyen’s character Tom Quinn opted for early retirement in 2004, while his successor Adam Carter (Rupert Penry-Jones) was with the show for four years until an explosive exit, heroically driving a bomb away from a parade.
Now, as Section D is left reeling from the double agent betrayal of Lucas North, played by Richard Armitage, new leader Erin Watts steps in to take the helm.
Ambitious and tenacious, Lara Pulver says Watts is determined to make her mark: “She’s moved swiftly through the ranks and Section D has poached her, knowing she’s a young, forthright, woman,” says the glamorous 31-year-old actress. “She’s extremely organised, efficient and uses the head of MI5 Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) as a mentor."
He just stepped off the set that’s known to Spooks’ millions of fans as ’The Grid’ – the name given to Section D’s headquarters – and looks like she means business.
Given what’s happened to her predecessors, Pulver went in understanding that Spooks was never going to be a job for life.
“You take it as it is and roll with it,” she says. “It’s wonderful slipping into a product that already has a great following.
"To come into that ready-made product is both daunting and exciting.”
The final series will focus on Harry Pearce’s past and a guilty secret that could bring his tumultuous relationship with Ruth Evershed (Nicola Walker) to a head.
It’ll also involve what Pulver describes as “a cat and mouse game” between her character and Pearce.
“When you’ve idolised someone for so long, when you meet them, you see cracks in a person you thought was flawless. It opens your mind to who they are and what it means to be a spy,” she explains.
“There’s a wonderful line in one episode: ’The hardest thing about being a spy is you never truly know who anyone is and it’s a lonely job’. That, for me, encapsulated everything.”
Spooks, BBC1, Sunday 9pm
Daily Post North Wales
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