Spooks
- Monday 13 May, 9.00pm, BBC ONE
 Matthew
Macfadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Jenny Agutter, Peter Firth
and Lisa Faulkner lead the cast of Spooks - a major new drama
series for BBC ONE starting Monday 13 May (9.00pm) - which gives
a unique insight into the secret world of MI5.
The attacks on America last September signalled the beginning of
terrorism on a new terrifying scale. In March this year, MI6 announced
it was doubling recruitment of front-line officers for the new "war
against terrorists".
Back at home, we officially face the biggest threat to national
security since the Second World War. For the first time since the
end of the Cold War, a spotlight is shining on our national Security
Service, MI5. And for the first time since the early 80s, spies
are back on our TV screens in Spooks - a drama about the highly-charged
modern world of "five".
Bizarrely,
the team behind Spooks were way ahead of world events. The scripts
were written, and the project green-lit, well before September 11
last year. Perversely, the events of that day gave an extra dimension
to the show.
"It really pushed the boundaries of what was credible,"
explains Series Producer Jane Featherstone from Kudos Productions.
"We had to up the ante in some of the storylines in response
to the audacity of the al-Qa'ida attacks."
Through
the adventures of "Section B" - a crack team of spies
in MI5's counter-terrorism department led by Matthew Macfadyen as
Senior Case Officer Tom Quinn Spooks unlocks the secret world
of the 21st century Security Service.
As
Featherstone points out, popular notions of what makes a spy - from
James Bond to Austin Powers via George Smiley have long been
due an update. Under MI5's modern remit, its officers deal with
anything from terrorist plots and immigration rings to arms smuggling
and the drugs trade. Their job is to outwit the world's smartest
criminal minds using their powers of perception and deception.
Notes
to Editors
The full Spooks press pack is
available in pdf
format (571KB). You may require Adobe Acrobat Software to read
PDF files which can be obtained here.
Find
out about the Spooks website.
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