Spooks/Characters

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This is the character sheet for Spooks. Under construction.

" Warning! As the series is now finished, and given the high cast turnover rate, there will be SPOILERS!"

MI 5 Section D Staff(As of Series 10)

Sir Harry Pearce (Peter Firth)

The head of Section D, Harry Pearce is the central character at the core of the show, and is the only character to be in every season. He is known for his firm but fair leadership, as well as defending his operatives from trouble. Harry is a skilled Spy, with experience dating back to the Cold War as well as Northern Ireland, but as a result has more than a few skeletons in his closet...

Tropes:

  • A Father to His Men
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Usually related to his time during the Cold War and Northern Ireland.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Although this applies to most of the Spooks characters (especially when the Americans are involved, Harry makes it something of an art form...
  • Good Is Not Nice
  • Guile Hero
  • Heroic BSOD: It takes 10 series but the death of Ruth finally pushes him into one.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Regularly seen pouring himself a glass of scotch after a hard day. When he is interrogated in one episode, his interrogator states that part of the profile of a traitor is recourse to hard liquor; Harry retorts that this would apply to most people in the service.
  • Iron Woobie
  • Luke, I Might Be Your Father: To Sasha Gavrik.
  • Mysterious Past: Harry's actions during the Cold War and Northern Island are mentioned but never full revealed. However, certain events during the former do become major plot points in the final few series...
  • Officer and a Gentleman: He trained at Sandhurst, and had an impressive military career before being recruited to MI-5 during the Cold War.
  • Papa Bear: Harry is incredibly protective of his agents, and you will have hell to pay if you are responsible for threatening them..
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Although in the first two series he is closer to Da Chief, he becomes more willing to break the rules along with his agents than he was in earlier series-although this doesn't mean he was never adverse to bending them....
  • Sophisticated As Hell
  • The Masquerade Will Kill Your Marriage: Harry was divorced by his wife many years ago, as the stress of his lifestyle became too much for her. He also has a son and a daughter, with whom he has a strained relationship.
  • The Spymaster: As well as his own domestic network, he is one of the masterminds of Sugarhorse, a top-secret network of Western-sympathetic agents in the former Soviet Union.

Dimitri Levendis (Max Brown)

Section D field officer in Series 9 & 10. Formerly a Special Forces trooper (the Special Boat Service to be precise). He was one of the few officers besides Harry to survive 'til the end.

Tropes:

Erin Watts (Lara Pulver)

Section Chief during the final series. Also served as provisional Head of Counter-Terrorism between series nine and ten.

Tropes:

  • Action Mom: She is one of the few officers to have a child, and this is set up to challenge Harry and Ruth's cynicism about the possibility of having a meaningful personal life outside of work.

Calum Reed (Geoffrey Streatfield)

Junior Case Officer in series ten, brought on by Erin Watts to replace Beth Bailey. His knowledge of electronics is on par with Tariq, and the two of them often work on that aspect of missions together. Until Tariq dies.

Tropes:

  • Those Two Guys: With Tariq, to the point of being Malcolm and Colin, part two. Takes it hard when Tariq dies in front of him at the steps of Thames House.


Former Section D Staff (Beware of Spoilers)

Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfadyen)

Chief of Section D, Tom is the central character of the show from Series 1-3. An incredibly skilled operative,who increasingly found it difficult to reconcile his personal life with his work life, eventually leading to his being decommissioned. He later reappears in a brief cameo in the final episode as a private assassin whom is hired by Harry to kill those responsible for Ruth's death.

Tropes

Zoe Reynolds (Keeley Hawes)

Junior Case Officer for Section D from Series 1-3.

Tropes:

  • Broken Pedestal: She very much admired Tessa, and was distraught to find out that she was running phantom agents to pocket their payroll.
  • Cunning Linguist: An Oxford graduate in Modern Languages. In Season 2 she is seen translating Serbian, and she is also revealed to be fluent in German.
  • Honey Trap
  • Just Friends: With Danny.
  • The Exile: After the court finds her guilty of manslaughter and conspiracy to murder, Harry manages to secure a deal whereby she escapes jail time - by taking on a new identity and moving to Chile.

Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo)

Junior Case Officer for Section D from Series 1-3.

Tropes:

  • Just Friends: With Zoe.
  • Manly Tears / Tears of Remorse: His first and only kill really does disturb him emotionally.
  • Money Fetish: Upbraided by Harry for fiddling with his credit rating in one episode. However, this fetish makes him a natural at stockbroking when placed undercover in a bank.
  • The Dandy: The team regularly tease him for his penchant for nice clothes and grooming:

Zoe: You, in the army? They don't do designer khaki, mate.

  • Dying Moment of Awesome: His final words to the terrorist holding him and Fiona hostage: "Fuck you, you death-worshipping fascist!".

Helen Flynn (Lisa Faulkner)

Junior Case Officer for Section D in Series 1.

Tropes:

  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Hand and face burned in a chip pan then shot in the head. The sheer gruesomeness of it almost got the show cancelled.
    • "Gruesome" may be overselling it a bit. The face dunk and headshot both went unseen by the audience since the camera was more focused on Tom's reactions to the scene.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Her death only two episodes into the first season was extremely shocking, and was the first of many signs that this is a show where Anyone Can Die.

Malcolm Wynn-Jones (Hugh Simon)

Technician and Data Analyst for Section D from Series 1-8, when he retires. He also makes an appearance in Series 9.

Tropes:

  • Crossword Puzzle: When Adam wants something decoded quickly, he says "Quick as one of your crossword puzzles".
  • Intelligence Equals Isolation
  • MacGyvering: During a grid lockdown, he and Colin manage to build a robot with which to communicate with the outside world using only the materials in their office.
  • Mission Control
  • Non-Action Guy
  • Omnidisciplinary Scientist: There is virtually no technical subject, from computer security to chemical weapons to explosives, that Malcolm does not seem to be an expert on.
  • The Rainman: In the script for one of his first episodes, he is described as being "an odd-looking man in a bow-tie. He sounds almost autistic--a walking intelligence encyclopaedia."

Colin Wells (Rory MacGregor)

Technician and Data Analyst for Section D from Series 1-5

Tropes:

  • Crossword Puzzle: Apparently a big fan of cryptic crosswords
  • Kill the Cutie: Of all the team, Colin is the most harmless and the least regularly exposed to danger, which made his execution at the hands of rogue MI 6 officers all the more cruel.
  • Lovable Nerd
  • Non-Action Guy
  • Playful Hacker
  • Those Two Guys: While it is clear that Malcolm and Colin are best friends, the significance of it for the two background characters becomes clear when Colin dies, and Malcolm angrily tells Harry "He wasn’t just some geek who did crossword puzzles, he was my bloody best friend!”.

Tessa Phillips (Jenny Agutter)

Senior Intelligence Analyst during the first series. Also listed as Chief of Section K.

Ruth Evershed (Nicola Walker)

A senior intelligence analyst. Ruth was seconded to Section D from GCHQ in 2003 (Season 2); this was her dream job, as she hated GCHQ for having "too many bloody mathematicians". As part of her transfer, she was required to pass details of MI 5's operations on to GCHQ. Tom discovered this, and quickly turned her. She is present from Season 2 - Season 5, and again from Season 8 - the finale of Season 10.

Tropes:

Adam Carter (Rupert Penry Jones)

An agent from MI 6 that Harry "borrows", Adam becomes a permanent addition to the team, taking over Tom's role as Section Head (and central character) from Series 3-7. He is killed in the first episode of Series 7 attempting to get a Car bomb away from an area with people.

Tropes:

  • Adult Fear: His nightmares are not of what will happen to himself, but that something will happen to his son Wes and he won't be there.
  • The Ace
  • Doting Parent
  • Happily Married
  • Heroic BSOD: Several times in Season 5, revealed in the season finale to be the delayed effects of PTSD and Survivor Guilt after his wife Fiona's death in the previous season.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Dies driving a car rigged with explosives to an empty square so that there would be no civilian casualties; had he bailed a few seconds earlier, he might have survived.
  • Hat, Coat, Accent: He first appears as a crazy homeless man, who stumbles upon Zoe, Danny, Sam, Ruth and Malcolm having a secret meeting while on the run. However, he quickly breaks character to tell them that they are being bugged and followed, before biding them time and annoying their pursuers.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Played with (when Ruth accidently calls him Tom) but averted. Although it is clear that Adam is the same kind of character as Tom, it is averted by the fact that Adam is introduced while Tom is still around (albeit on the run), thereby higlighting their contrasts; Adam has a more casual and affable persona, in addition to his qualities as The Ace. Also, it helps that Tom is more or less broken at this point. However, after Tom leaves, it is clear to Adam that the team don't quite yet entirely trust him as a replacement.
  • Spy Couple: With Fiona.

Fiona Carter (Olga Sosnovska)

Adam's wife, and a senior case officer seconded from MI-6 at Adam's request, partly so that she could spend more time with her husband and son. Present from series 3 to series 4, when she is killed by her Syrian ex-husband.

Tropes:

Zafar Younis (Raza Jaffrey)

A Junior Case Officer in Section D from Series 3 to Series 6. He was transferred at Adam's request for a mission involving an Islamic terror cell - which turns into the kidnapping of Danny and Fiona. His move is made more permanent in Series 4. Kidnapped by two different mercenary groups at the start of series six, and later tortured to death.

Tropes:

  • Combat Pragmatist
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • The Charmer
  • Token Religious Teammate: Justified, in that Zaf's background allows him to infiltrate Islamic terror cells more convincingly than others. Also subverted in that while Zaf is of a Muslim background, he's not very devout - though he does find misrepresentations of his culture and religion annoying.

Joanna "Jo" Portman (Miranda Raison)

A field operative in Section D from Series 4 to Series 8. Formerly an aspiring journalist, Adam recruited her himself when she showed unusual tenacity and guile in finding out who he was, alerting Zaf and Ruth to an approaching kill squad, and gaining an hour of phone recording of the villains. She was active until Series 8, when she was killed as a human shield.

Tropes:

  • Action Girl: More so later on.
  • Break the Cutie
  • Heroic BSOD: During Series 7; when she and Adam were captured by the Redbacks, she was not only tortured, but repeatedly raped. She has frequent visions of her attacker, which distress her to the point of compromising missions and even endangering her life.
  • Boyish Short Hair: From Series 6.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Though she was cunning and resourceful to begin with, by Series 5 she had become noticeably more physically capable.

Rosalind "Ros" Myers (Hermione Norris)

First introduced as an MI 6 section chief and a member of Collingwood's conspiracy, she leaves Six and joins MI 5 after betraying said cabal. Took the rank of Senior Case Officer and served as number two to Adam Carter in series five and six. Succeeded Adam as section chief in series seven. Killed in a hotel explosion at the end of series eight.

Tropes:

Connie James (Gemma Jones)

Senior Intel Analyst for Section D in series six and seven. Had previously served in the same role before retiring prior to the start of the series. Harry initially seeks her out because her flat is located on top of a decommisioned bioweapons lab which the team members use to interrogate intelligence operatives who might know of an antidote to a viral outbreak. During this, he re-recruits her to the section. Dies at the end of series seven, when the conventional detonator of a just-disarmed suitcase nuke goes off in her face.

Tropes

  • Combat Pragmatist: Sadly, against another section member.
  • Lady Drunk: Displays aspects of this trope.
  • Never Mess with Granny
  • Iron Lady
  • Running Gag: She still frequently refers to the FSB as the KGB, not having noticed much of a substantial difference since the name change.
  • The Mole: Double subverted. Initially falling under suspicion of this midway through series seven, an audiotape from her dead ex-lover (one of the Sugarhorse name-holders) initially cleared her. The Reveal that she was recruited to the FSB as a double-agent in the 80s, and had passed the names of Sugarhorse operatives to the Russians, came in her second to last episode. She also framed Harry for the same, and later killed Ben Kaplan after realizing he had easily accessible evidence of this.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Her decision to disarm the nuke, even after realizing the conventional detonator will blow up seconds after the nuclear core is removed. Also takes the opportunity to confess to selling out Lucas to the Russians.
    • Averted in-universe, at least to those in charge of the dead officers memorial, which skips straight from "B. Kaplan" to "J. Portman".

Ben Kaplan (Alex Lanipekun)

Junior Case Officer in series six and seven. First introduced as a journalist in a casual relationship with Jo, he becomes embroiled in the activities of Section D after pursuing a story concerning Adam Carter. Joins MI 5 full-time at the end of series six. Throat slashed by Connie James in the seventh episode of series seven.

Tropes:

Lucas North aka John Bateman (Richard Armitage)

Tom Quinn's predecessor as Section Chief, prior to the start of the series. Imprisoned in Russia for eight years after a botched operation, he was returned to MI 5 at the start of series seven, and quickly reinstated as a Senior Case Officer. Spent two series as Ros Myers' number two, before regaining his post of Section Chief in series nine. Threw himself from a rooftop in the last episode of series nine, after his Mysterious Past prior to MI 5 was brought into the open.

Tropes:

  • Broken Ace: Comes packaged this way. In fact, press material from Kudos basically says this and also that he's trying to rebuild his skills and regain his former prominence.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: His lengthy imprisonment gives him some major issues, especially when it becomes plot-relevant.
  • Heroic BSOD: Has a few of these in series seven and eight due to his imprisonment. Maya's death pushes him into one that leads to his suicide.
  • Driven to Suicide: Reaches this at one point in his imprisonment. Flashbacks show his attempt to hang himself - an attempt interrupted by his lead torturer, Darshavin, helping to further imply that Lucas might be Stockholmed.
    • Reaches it again at the end of series nine. This time, no one stops him...
  • Interrogated for Nothing: For years, he was subjected to waterboarding for information about 'Sugarhorse', which he knew nothing about. Though Harry did.
  • Loss of Identity: Undergoes this after becoming trapped between "Lucas the Hero" and "John the Monster". Ultimately kills himself after being unable to reconcile the two, and destroying everything he cared about in both lives in the process.
  • Prisons Are Gymnasiums: Sort of. Straight after he gets back, Lucas asserts that being in a Russian prison has made him stronger and more wary than ever; Harry retorts that he's half-starved and running purely on adrenaline.
  • The Mole: Subverted and Inverted. Seen passing intel to Russian contact and ex-wife Elizavieta, he later reveals that it was "junk intel" designed to get the Russians to trust him so he could find out their plot against Britain. Spends the next several episodes pumping his Russian connections for information to help MI 5 in its own mole-hunt.
  • Stockholm Syndrome: Invoked by Harry concerning Lucas and his former torturer Darshavin. Ultimately subverted.

Tariq Masood (Shazad Latif)

Technician and Data Analyst. Hired in the second episode of series eight as a replacement for Malcolm. Poisoned in the second episode of series ten.

Tropes:


Other agency personnel

Jools Siviter (Hugh Laurie)

MI 6 Section Chief in Series 1

Tropes:

Woman: Do you mind awfully not doing that?
Siviter: Are you a Nazi, madam?
Woman: I beg your pardon?
Siviter: I mean, we Wagner fans are a rum lot. I myself bugger skinheads. So kindly don't tell me what I can or cannot do.

Christine Dale (Megan Dodds)

CIA agent stationed in London, and later love interest to Tom Quinn. Appears in Series 1-2, and briefly in 3.

Tropes:

Michael Collingwood (Nicholas Jones)

Head of Counter-Terrorism at MI 6 at the beginning of series five. Also the visionary of a conspiracy working to turn Britain into a virtual police state.

Tropes:

  • Knight Templar: A firm believer of "saving the village by burning it down". First manipulates al-Qaeda cells into attacking Britain, then stages his own terrorist attacks, all in the name of getting a series of anti-terrorism measures in place that would effectively erase civil liberties in the name of national security. He also assassinates and then discredits key members of Parliament who oppose his plans, and later throws others in jail.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Harry.

Oliver Mace (Tim McInnery)

Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee.

Tropes:

  • Corrupt Bureaucrat
  • Knight Templar: Though slightly less so than Collingwood; Oliver Mace saw the Tom Quinn incident as an opportunity to neuter and subjugate MI-5 for the government's purposes.
  • Smug Snake: Never seems to have quite the control on his various gambits as other characters in similar positions of power. Dear god is he arrogant about said position, though...

Bob Hogan (Matthew Marsh)

Senior CIA liaison to the United Kingdom, stationed at the US embassy at Grosvenor House. Having initially appeared as an enemy after feeding MI-5 false intelligence, he and Harry have a relationship that is strained at best.

Tropes:

  • Eaglelander Type II: As well as being unambiguous about the supremacy of American interests and cavalier about the interests of other countries, Hogan has made his disdain for the UK and its place in the "special relationship" quite clear.
  • Jerkass
  • Turncoat: He eventually leaves CIA, and sold Adam and Jo over to the Redbacks.
  • With Friends Like These...

Sarah Caufield (Genevieve O'Reilly)

A CIA officer assigned to liaison with Section D at the beginning of series eight. Switftly enters into a relationship with Lucas North. Turns out to be an undercover Nightingale operative.

Tropes

  • Knight Templar: As with the other CIA Nightingale operatives, is willing to push India and Pakistan into NUCLEAR WAR for the sake of defeating Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
  • The Mole: For Nightingale. Revealed when she kills her station chief rather than be revealed as such.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: At first, seems to be a very belated version of this for Christine Dale, right down to her relationship with Lucas. Subverted due to her intentional duplicity.

Arkady Katchimov (Stuart Wilson)

The head of the FSB's London operations. He oversees the Prisoner Exchange in which the team gets back Lucas North after his eight year imprisonment in Russia. He intends to use Lucas as a mole in MI-5. Shot dead by Harry as revenge for Adam Carter's death.

Tropes:

Katchimov: Adam Carter was a courageous fellow. But there are always more courageous fellows out there, waiting to step into the breach.

Viktor Sarkisian (Peter Sullivan)

Katchimov's successor as head of the FSB's London operations. He runs the kill squad that hunts down Lucas, Ros, Harry and Connie in the Series 7 finale. As a trade for assistance in finding and disarming the nuclear threatening London, he kidnaps Harry and sells him on to Amish Mani, a rogue Indian secret service officer and nationalist fanatic who had had a part in a plot that Harry thwarted some years ago. He is shot dead by the same person he sold Harry on to.

Tropes:

Bernard Qualtrough (Richard Johnson)

A retired MI 5 spycatcher. Approached by Harry near the end of series seven, episode three, to help figure out who had compromised Operation Sugarhorse. Swiftly revealed to have ulterior motives in working with Harry.

Tropes

  • False Friend
  • The Mole: Information provided by Lucas from memories of his torture lead to Harry discovering Qualtrough's trechery in the fifth episode. Revealed to be Connie James' handler (and recruiter) two episodes later.
  • Treacherous Advisor: The only person Harry feels he can talk to about the breach in Sugarhorse is one of its conspirators.


Members of government

Nicholas Blake MP (Robert Glenister)

The Home Secretary in the British government from Series 5 to Series 9. Harry regularly briefed and liaised with Blake, and he was one of the few politicians who Harry respected. Killed by Harry at the beginning of Series 9, when it was revealed that he was one of the architects of Nightingale.

Tropes:

Andrew Lawrence MP (Tobias Menzies)

Blake's successor as Home Secretary, when Blake is forced to resign over incriminating photographs. Suspected by the team of being a Nightingale agent, he proves his heroism at the end when he dies with Ros in the hotel.

Juliet Shaw (Anna Chancellor)

National Security Coordinator in Series 4 and 5. She is described by Harry as right wing and ruthless, determined to protect British interests at any costs. Their different ethics lead them to butt heads frequently, but Harry has a certain level of respect for Juliet. In series 5, she is paralysed from the waist down by a car bomb set by the Sir Jocelyn Myers' conspirators. She reappears toward the end of Series 6 as the head of Yalta.

Tropes:

  • Deep-Cover Agent: The ruthless, cut-throat politician who was apparently out to protect British interests at any cost is also the head of Yalta, a syndicate of influential individuals devoted to subverting American hegemony.
  • Iron Lady
  • My Country, Right or Wrong
  • Realpolitik: A government memo that makes it into the hands of first an eco-terrorist group and then MI-5 lays the framework for a foreign policy agenda: to quickly seize oil and other natural resources, and to maintain a monopoly on these resources in a post-climate change world. When Harry confronts her with this, she coolly explains why no country in the world can even hope to meet half the terms of the Kyoto protocol, and so the rational thing to do is to pre-emptively maximise British gain in the inevitable resource conflicts to follow.

Civilians and other characters

Wesley Carter (James Dicker)

Adam and Fiona's son. Though both adore him, the pressures of the job mean that neither of them get to spend as much time with him as they'd like. When Fiona dies in Series 4, Wes is raised by his father, and a nanny called Jenny. Eventually, he loses his father too.

Catherine Townsend (Caroline Carver)

Harry's daughter, who took her mother's maiden name after the divorce. Harry hadn't seen Catherine for many years when she turned up on a mission they were running. She is a filmmaker and political activist, involved in the Palestinian liberation movement. She has a complicated relationship with Harry, though she finally reconciles with him at the end of the episode, promising to call him and talk to him regularly. Harry, for his part, clearly loves and feels protective of her, though he still sees her as the naive, impulsive young girl he remembers before the divorce.

Tropes:

  • She's All Grown Up: Harry has trouble putting aside his instinct to step in and protect her. Danny rather rebukes him for treating her like a silly little girl; he describes her as smart and funny.
  • Visit by Divorced Dad: Harry reveals himself after Danny reveals that he's an MI-5 officer. They finally reconcile after he shows her the poetry his wife was teaching to her A-Level English class when she was a baby, which makes Harry tear up.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist
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