FEATURE: Spying According To Spooks

For ten series, Spooks (or MI5 in the States) has brought us some of the most amazing drama the BBC has had to offer. From the sublime to ridiculous, we saw spies being all heroic, spies going rogue and the officers of the fictional Section D get dispatched in increasingly interesting ways (although they did have to work hard to top Series One's chip fat fryer...). 

With the new movie, Spooks: The Greater Good looming on the horizon, we decided to take a look at how luminaries such as Harry Pearce or Tom Quinn stop as many secret terrorist organisations, Americans and generally anyone else who threatened our national security as well as they did over those ten years. So we at Assorted Buffery have decided to bring you our comprehensive(ish) guide to How to Spy according to the characters of Spooks.

Please be warned; major spoilers for the Spooks TV series ahead.

Sir Harry Pearce (Peter Firth)

How to Spy: Drink whisky, and lots of it. If you've had a particularly bad day, simply drink more whisky and listen to some stirring classical music, just to add to the pensive mood. As capable of falling in love with colleague Ruth as you are ordering the assassination of a confirmed terrorist, you keep Section D running and let's face it, you're just impossible to kill.

Defining moment: Poisoning the Home Secretary to avenge the (actual) death of Ros Myers 

Secret weapon: Whisky. And the best phone voice ever. 

Current Status: Indestructible. Like Captain Scarlet.

Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfadyen)

How to Spy: Always turn on your morals at the least appropriate moment, then run into the sea in a blind panic and turn up on a street corner somewhere a week later disguised as a tramp.

Defining moment: Returning to kill off a loose end at the very last moment of the series, stealing the finale with his dashing good looks. 

Secret Weapon: A voice that could melt chocolate.

Current Status: God knows...

Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo)

How to Spy: Look cool. Then look a bit confused. Flirt with Sam. Look longingly after Zoe. Look a bit cool again and then die a heroic death.  

Defining moment: "Fuck you, you death-worshiping fascist!"

Secret Weapon: Winnie the Pooh (no, seriously)

Current Status: Triumphantly dead.

Zoe Reynolds (Keeley Hawes)

How to Spy: Secret identities never really worry you. I mean, who wouldn't want to tell a fit Welsh photographer your real name, whilst working an undercover mission on which people's lives depend? Besides, you can always escape "off-the-books" to South America should you completely balls it all up.

Defining Moment: Proving kicking ass and taking names wasn't just a boys' playing field.

Secret weapon: "The tight blue sweatshirt"

Current Status: Somewhere on the Inca Trail.

Ruth Evershed (Nicola Walker)

How to Spy: Panic. Then look longingly at Harry. Refer to GCHQ for no real reason other than exposition. Tell Harry what to do whilst looking longingly at him. Then look worried. Save the day with your wicked research skills.

Defining Moment: Saving Section D's arse so many times that she should be a national treasure. 

Secret weapon: Painstaking attention to detail.

Current Status: *Sob* We're still grieving this one.

Malcolm Wynn-Jones (Hugh Simon)

How to Spy: Without you, the MI5 technical department looked like a member of a boyband (Exposition-Tariq, I'm looking at you). Whether coming up with a convenient technical device to save the day or just hammering away at a keyboard looking like an expert movie hacker, Section D crumbles without you. So much so, they bring you out of retirement.

Defining Moment: Losing it at the death *sob* of Colin, his tech-wizard partner in crime.

Secret Weapon: Mad typing skills and the kind of computer graphics only seen on TV.

Current Status: Being awesome. 

Ros Myers (Hermione Norris)

How to Spy: You are always right. A universe in which you are ever not right simply does not exist. Be tough, kick arse, get your own way and if all else fails simply fake your own death. 

Defining Moment: Oh you know, casually coming back from the dead.

Secret Weapon: Withering sarcasm.

Current Status: Dead. Again.

Adam Carter (Rupert Penry-Jones)

How to Spy: Remember, your wardrobe is your most important asset. That, and a damn good designer stubble chin. Always charm, smile and persuade your way out of trouble. When in doubt, forget your designer labels and get naked.

Defining Moment: Cementing his position in the team by making it to a secret meeting using only a series of costume changes and sandwich board messages.

Secret Weapon: That piercing stare.

Current Status: Exploded.

Zafar Younis (Raza Jaffrey)

How to Spy: You are so damn badass you bring a baseball bat to a gunfight. Literally. So badass that getting rid of you in a suitably outrageous way was just impossible because you beat a guy into submission with a baseball bat. One convenient kidnapping plot later and you fade away into Section D memorial obscurity. But it's OK. Because you are awesome. 

Defining Moment: Dealing with a racist who'd already locked him in a cupboard and accused our Zaf of attempting to down an airplane.

Secret Weapon: A freaking baseball bat.

Current Status: We refuse to believe those photos.

Lucas North (Richard Armitage)

How to Spy: Being a spy is far easier than it looks. In fact it's often best not to use your brain at all. Rely on your superiors whenever you can, run into the odd moving vehicle and not to worry if you lose your target along the way. Oh and your name is JOHN by the way, that's JOHN. 

Defining Moment: Attempting to kill everyone in Section D. Including Harry. Seriously, who does that?

Secret Weapon: Going batshit crazy at inappropriate moments.

Current Status: Very dead. Which to be honest, is probably for the best.

Sarah Caulfield (Genevieve O'Reilly)

How to Spy: Perfect accents are a sign of a spy with too much time on her hands. Just go in there wavering Bostonian vowels a blazing and shag the nearest dimwit who's a few handguns short of an arsenal. Let's face it, we all knew she was a bad egg even before she somehow managed to throw a man twice her size down a fancy stair well. 

Defining Moment: Travelling from Boston to New York via Georgia in the space of about 30 seconds. Her vocal coach needs sacking.

Secret Weapon: Hulk-like strength without the unflattering green complexion. 

Current Status: Assassinated (Cor, they don't last very long do they?)

Dimitri Levendis (Max Brown)

How to Spy: It's a tough life being a sidekick, especially one who has all the character development of a wooden spoon. So give it your best frown, remind everyone you haven't yet turned into a cardboard cutout and only show emotion when defusing a bomb... again.

Defining Moment: We only actually remember him defusing a bomb and possibly shagging a target.

Secret Weapon: A well-practiced frown.

Current Status: Desperately seeking a personality.

Erin Watts (Lara Pulver)

How to Spy: Eyeliner. Heels and eyeliner. That's the secret. Oh and a damn good blow dry. 

Defining moment: Who are you again?

Secret Weapon: Erm, unhelpful killer heels?

Current Status: Getting her hair done and then sashaying into Spooks: The Greater Good.


Disclaimer: We hold no responsibility for anyone who actually attempts to spy according to the above techniques. Leave it to the sharp-suited professionals and catch Spooks: The Greater Good in cinemas on May 13th, with Kit Harington and the indomitable Peter Firth returning as Harry Pearce.

- Jen and Becky

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TV REVIEW: Ripper Street - Our Betrayal Part 1

‘Our Betrayal, Part 1’, was by enlarge the Ripper Street episode we’ve been waiting for all series. With a strong character focus and a reasonably simple plot, free from overly flowery language and crowded narrative arcs, it was actually rather enjoyable to watch. And just as I was beginning to doubt I would ever type those words.

The tortured and bereaved Sergeant Drake (Jerome Flynn) having not been seen since the death of his wife six months ago, Inspector Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) and young Flight (Damien Molony) have been left to run H division without him. Despite Bennett never having seemed to play too vital a role in proceedings before, it seems that in his absence this is easier said than done. A jewellery conman is on the run, and it is left to Flight to find him. However, when the search takes him into the territory of Inspector Shine, played by Joseph Mawle with as effective a sly menace as ever, we are presented with a man who, at best, has divided loyalties, and at worst, is a traitor and a mole in the camp of the hand that feeds him.  Meanwhile, life gets even trickier for Jackson (Adam Rothenberg). Still living with Reid, having been kicked out by Lazy Susan – sorry, Long Susan (MyAnna Buring), it is understandably awkward when his trouble-making long lost brother turns up from South Africa sporting a rather large uncut diamond.

This diamond however, at least in Jackson’s eager eyes, could be the very thing to save Long Susan and her brothel from the slimy clutches of Silas Duggan (Frank Harper). Things haven’t improved much in that department since last week’s episode,  with Duggan moving into a room in, as he puts it, ‘his house’. His bargain to Susan remains on the table (thankfully that’s all he puts on the table) – namely that he will lift all debts should she agree to spend just ‘one night of pleasure’ with him. Yum. He has made it clear, too, that he wants no one but her. Susan is understandably concerned about this, as unlike poor former employee Rose (Charlene McKenna), who has been wandering Whitechapel in search of Drake for months, Susan knows ‘what it is like to lie with the man she loves’, and is anxious about selling her body –despite having built a career overseeing dozens of girls doing that very thing.

Despite the obvious hypocrisies of her position, however, the storyline is a moving one. In fact it’s been one of the better storylines of the series, as well as one of the most underused. Her final resolution on the matter is little short of heart-breaking, particularly as she has always been one of a very small number of women in the show with any kind of independence or freedom. To watch that being slowly eroded does not make for easy viewing. Her relationship with her estranged husband underpins it all of course, although again we’re left unsure whether their marriage is indeed broken beyond retribution. Set alongside the relationship between Rose and her beloved Bennet, we’re left wondering if there is any hope in Whitechapel at all for wives, husbands and would be lovers. Never fear though, Inspector Reid is on the case, with amorous feelings of his own… I don’t really want to discuss that any further as I found it more than a little awkward.

Moving on, then, to new boy Flight, who in all honesty as had plot device sewn into his waistcoat since he first stepped on the screen, particularly as he has been perpetually  picked up and dropped like a yo-yo depending on what else has been happening in the episode. To that end, his involvement in the betrayal was one of a few elements to the episode which did not feel wholly believable. There needed to have been at least a couple of signs along the way that he was not to be trusted, and, unless I nodded off for half the series, which admittedly is quite likely, there have been none. Also feeling unbelievable were the series of co-incidences which brought Bennet back to H division. Epic as the moment of his prodigal return felt, it was all just a little, or a lot, too convenient. I also found it rather amusing that it had seemingly  taken Rose six months to notice that Jackson was no longer living at the brothel, but in the grand scheme of all things Ripper Street that’s probably by the by.

Fingers crossed this momentum can be kept up for tomorrow night’s finale- that way I might even depart the series with a couple of positive things to say.

Jen

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TV REVIEW: Ripper Street - A Stronger Loving World

I would apologise at the lateness of this review of Ripper Street, ‘A Stronger Loving World’, but to be honest it’s taken me this long to get my head around the different broken fragments of the episode.

Racial tension began as the order of the day, when a Church is torched, leading to widespread blame of the Jewish community. A subsequent attack on a synagogue as well as some crafty pamphlet font comparison work (as you do) leads H division to investigate the possibility that both attacks were carried out by the same party. Rose (Charlene McKenna), after the discovery that Long Susan (MyAnna Buring) can no longer financially support her, left brothel for slightly less green pastures, which consisted largely of her drinking gin alone in a public house. Befriended by a mysterious cult-like group, Rose finds herself in an oddly luxuriously decorated abandoned building, with food and a roof over her head for as long as she needs it. Only the pages of religious doctrine littered about, as well as all the references to ‘Father’ suggest that anything sinister is afoot – but are the cult too good to be true? Meanwhile, Bella Drake (Gillian Saker), wife of Bennett (Jerome Flynn) mysteriously disappeared, only to return a day later with her strange long lost Uncle, Gabriel Cain, played be a gloriously Captain Hook-like be-bearded Paul Kaye. It’s up to Bennett and Rose to figure out what’s going on, conveniently bringing together the (vague) threads of the storyline in the process because, of course, they are were all connected.

In another vastly confusing episode, Paul Kaye was able to really stand out as the sinister cult leader, creating an artificial family of followers all of whom, naturally, adore him. He looked every inch the part (the inches, of course, being the beard) and was wholly believable as a man capable of manipulating not only poor innocent Bella but an entire group of people into a deluded suicide pact at his behest. Second only to this performance was that of Jerome Flynn, who was heart-breaking as the distraught newlywed who finds his happiness disappearing in front of his eyes almost as quickly as it materialised in the first place. It was just a shame that, having been so, er, shortlived, (bit of a spoiler there, I apologise), the happiness itself, in the form of Bella, didn’t quite pack the emotional punch it could have had she been a more established character. Again with Ripper Street, the detective’s wives are little more than expendable plot devices, doomed to further the action with graceful deaths and emotional breakdowns, but never to add anything to it. In a stunning act of self-awareness, however, Inspector Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) seemed to begin to realise this here, giving Bennett all the time he needed to mend his broken personal life. I couldn’t help but wish that this had been the focus of the storyline instead, but alas no such luck, especially with the homeless Jackson (Adam Rothenberg) drunkenly stumbling about the place like a dodgy Jack Sparrow impersonator.

With such a potentially interesting start, we were once again sent spinning off into a wild vortex of a tangent with this episode. As has so often been the case with Series 2 of this show, the episode we ended up with was completely different from the one we signed up for at the start of the show, to the detriment of any themes established in the first quarter of the episode. Present as ever was The Scene, in which all the confusing madness is explained, although here this served more to frustrate than inform.

I really hope it can get enough of a grip on one single narrative thread to make the final episodes work. With the recent announcement of the cancellation of Series 3, it would be cheering if the show could go out with more of a confident bang than a perplexed whimper.

Jen 

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TV REVIEW: Ripper Street - Threads of Silk and Gold

I hate to begin a review on a pun (this is a lie) but during Ripper Street Episode 5, ‘Threads of Silk and Gold’ I have to say I found said thread, in terms of the plot at least, rather difficult to get a hold of.

The episode began with a pair of young lovers, specifically a pair of young telegram messenger boys, discussing their plans to run away together- away from a society which does not accept them. Soon, however, we find ourselves in a case of mistaken identity, as another telegram boy is killed in one of the lovers’ places. Upon further, well inspection I suppose, of the victim, Inspector Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) and his team discover, through some potentially grisly post mortem examination from Jackson (Adam Rothenberg) that this boy, and presumably several of the others, were selling themselves to business men for a bit of money on the side. And so the plot thickens, leading our trio to the doors of the men who used the services of the telegram boys, particularly as one likely client, or companion as he seemed to prefer to think of himself, is now also dead. Reid and his men must consider the business affairs surrounding the situation in order to surmise what may be happening, leading them to the characteristically shady world of Whitechapel’s banking system. Presumably not a banking system much more reputable than the UK banking system of today.

There was much potential here. The social context of homosexual relationships in Victorian London, in a time when to love a member of your own sex was a harshly punished crime, was an interesting one to choose, particularly after the equally weighty themed ‘Become Man’. The show’s basis in contextual fact had a human face here, especially as the issue seemingly so troubled Captain Serious himself, our humble leader, Inspector Reid. Sadly, as is so often the case with Ripper Street, and I do tire of banging on about it (believe me) it felt like a wasted opportunity. There was no real spark to the episode (well there was, but it had nothing whatsoever to do with main plot – more on this shortly), nothing to incite the passionate response this issue so sorely deserved. It was left to Jerome Flynn’s thoughtful, respectful silence in the presence of the bereaved boy, towards the end of the episode, to convey all the sympathy and respect the episode just didn’t quite manage by itself. Don’t get me wrong, he did it rather well, we just needed more than one look from him and several moments of sympathetic blustering from his boss to feel that this had been executed efficiently.

 

Meanwhile, the loyal and trustworthy Reid was having problems of his own. Since it was revealed to the audience that his wife, Emily, has now been institutionalised due to her prolonged and ultimately delayed grief over the death of their daughter, not to mention the ‘false hope’ and betrayal from her husband, Reid has, in a staggering event of chronological convenience, been, well, flirting, frankly, with ‘Become Man’ MP Jane Cobden (Leanne Best). Much as the analytical nerd in my enjoyed the fact that the character featured in two episodes which make sense as a pair, particularly in terms of sexuality and character development, appearing the second to bring this theme to fruition, the whole thing just didn’t feel very Reid-like. Whilst he did have an affair in Series One, he was at least a tiny bit traumatised by guilt over that one, whereas now by contrast it seems that 30 seconds worth of dialogue about his poor (forgotten!) wife is the only license he needs to play tonsil tennis with another dark haired beauty. Given that the man struggles to make any decision with pondering it later over whisky with Bennett, seemingly wracked by something akin to guilt (although that may just be the earnestness again), this rapid emotional rebound just didn’t sit right with me.

On though, to the spark of the episode I mentioned earlier. Out of nowhere, almost at the end of the episode, after The Scene where all is revealed very quickly in hushed voices against an overly loud musical backdrop, came a scene the like of which I dare say we have not seen in Ripper Street before. Packing a huge, not to mention unexpected, emotional punch, came the seeming demise of the marriage between Long Susan (MyAnna Buring) and Jackson. Having discovered that he has gambled away what was left of her money in a misguided attempt to help her, Susan doesn’t rant, doesn’t rail, doesn’t throw a heavy household object at his head as we’ve seen her do before and like he expects, even asks her to, but simply, quietly, tells him to ‘get out’. Following on from her new found opinions and strength of character from Become Man, an episode I now definitely consider to definitely be the episode’s pair (if such decisions are indeed made at Ripper Street towers), this was a fascinating development.

In fact, ladies and gentlemen, I think that moment is a likely contender for the accolade I’ve just made up – moment of the series so far. It’s just a shame the rest of it was such a tangled mess of telegram uniforms, actors with confusingly similar haircuts and a devastating lack of thread – silk and gold or otherwise.

Ripper Street is next on Monday night, 9pm BBC One.

Jen

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