Behind the Scenes of ‘Spooks’

Q&A with the cast and crew of the hit BBC series

As part of TCM Crime Scene, an annual festival of crime in literature and on the screen, a panel of ten actors, writers, directors and producers from the groundbreaking BBC series ‘Spooks’ gathered in the ICA, London, to talk shop with a cinema full of loyal fans. The session was enthusiastically chaired by Arian Wootton, co-director of the five-day event.

The packed cinema applauded excitedly at the introduction of the ten panellists, which included original series star Matthew Macfadyen, whose role as Tom Quinn launched his successful international career (we assume that his wife and former co-star Keeley Hawes was home with the kids); long-term cast member Hugh Simon (Malcolm Wynn-Jones); Miranda Raison (Jo Portman); Jane Featherstone and Steven Garratt (joint managing directors of Kudos Productions); Simon Crawford-Collins (head of drama at Kudos Productions); writer Howard Brenton; and directors Bharat Nalluri and Omar Madha.

90 minutes literally flew past as the panel discussed everything from the series’ conception, writers fighting over the opportunity to kill off characters, and the ‘accidental’ decision to fry a woman’s head in boiling oil to blowing up cars in Westminster.

Read on about the series development

Related Tags