Spooks

Spooks is a British television drama series, produced by the independent production company Kudos for the BBC One network. The title derives from a popular slang term for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 agents. The programme was created and is chiefly written by David Wolstencroft. It is known as MI5 in North America.

Starring Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Jenny Agutter and Peter Firth, the initial series of six one-hour episodes was screened in the spring of 2002. The series was a critical and popular success, combining glossy high production values with fast-paced action/adventure and spy intrigue storylines. The second episode was remarkable for the violent killing-off of a character who had been presented to the audience as a regular in the first two episodes, surprising viewers who would thus have expected her to have been rescued. Regularly drawing seven to eight million viewers, a longer second season of ten episodes was screened in 2003, again drawing praise, particularly for the dramatic cliffhanger ending of the season finale.

A third season, again of ten episodes, has finished production and is due for transmission on BBC One in October 2004. The programme regularly attracts popular guest actors in individual episodes, with actors such as Hugh Laurie and Anthony Stewart Head having appeared in the first two seasons.

In the United States, the series is screened on the Arts and Entertainment Network under the title MI5. This is due to the fact that the word 'spook' is an old racist slang term for African Americans, and the network did not wish to risk the possibility of causing offence. Due to the need to insert commercial advertising breaks, the episodes shown on A&E are heavily edited versions, with each 59-minute instalment being edited down to roughly 45 minutes for US showings, often causing some narrative problems for American viewers. The full versions are, however, available on DVD in that country.