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For more information, go [http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/spooks/ here] (Non-UK spoilers) and [http://www.aetv.com/tv/shows/mi5/mi5_homepage.html here].
 
A [[Spin -Off]], ''[[Spooks Code 9 (TV)|Spooks Code 9]]'', aired in 2008. Poor critical reception and ratings means it's not likely to be coming back.
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=== This show provides examples of: ===
* [[Actor Allusion]]: [[Robin Hood (TV)|This isn't the first time]] Lara Pulver has taken {{spoiler|[[Richard Armitage]]}}'s job.
* [[And the Adventure Continues]]: The show ends on a particularly bittersweet version of this.
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** Ros also kills a Russian dude ''with a fork'' and threatens another one with a pen to the eyeball. In the same episode. [[Lady of War|Without significantly messing up her hair.]]
* [[Compromising Memoirs]]: The Rose Bed Memoirs.
* [[Crapsack World]] - Terrorists around every corner, corruption in every rank of the government, allied governments not giving a damn about Britain's survival, Russia openly slaughtering British agents in the street, and [[Anyone Can Die]] taken to [[Kill 'Em All]] proportions (by this point it's safe to assume that basically all the current major characters will not survive). Oh, and if ''[[Foregone Conclusion|Code 9]]'' [[Foregone Conclusion|is still canon]], the [[It Got Worse|London will be destroyed]] sometime after the end of the series.
* [[Cruel and Unusual Death]]: Several
* [[Defictionalization]] (some terminology and catchphrases invented in this series are now used by the real MI-5)
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** A common example is to use terminology that was accurate at one point but is now outdated, perhaps due to issues with classified information. For example, the Alternative Seat of Government base under the Cotswolds is known as "TURNSTILE" in the series, that code name being one used some time in the past (and in any case the base has been decommissioned since 2004).
*** To be fair, the episode in which "TURNSTILE" is referenced (''I Spy Apocalypse'') aired in 2003, when the base was still active.
* [[Did You Just Scam Cthulhu]] / [[Mugging the Monster]]: far too many politicians [[Realpolitik|try to use]] [[Badass Israeli|Mossad]] [[Too Dumb to Live|for their own ends]], usually via manipulation and mis-direction One very highly placed lawyer managed to manipulate them into taking out an [[MI 5]] op team. [[Alas, Poor Villain|Let's just say]] [[Family -Unfriendly Death|that he did not live long.]]
* [[Dirty Coward]]: How Adam describes a rival agent {{spoiler|who was helping rogue Mossad agents to take hostage and kill Saudi officials}} for this when he kills himself rather than face the team.
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|Lucas.}}
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* [[Heroic Sacrifice]] (several)
* [[Heroic BSOD]]: several agents have issues with maintaining a stable reality. This [[Freak Out|does not end well.]]
* [[Hey ItsIt's That Guy]]- {{spoiler|[[The Sarah Jane Adventures|Rani's dad]] works for Indian Intelligence, while Jo Portman [[Doctor Who (TV)|sang a musical number]] and [[Star Wars|Emperor Palpatine]] is a sleeper agent working as a Chemistry Professor.}} [[Sherlock|The Leak]] in (Series 2, Episode 10 is Sherlock Holmes!
** In only the second episode [[Pirates of the Caribbean|Mr. Gibbs]] is a nasty Fascist {{spoiler|who shoves Lisa Faulkner's head in a deep fat fryer}}.
** in Series 1, the head of [[MI 6]] is [[House (TV)|House]]!
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* [[Locked in A Freezer]]: Whole episodes have taken place in a locked-down grid, most notably "I Spy Apocalypse" and "Diana".
* [[The Lost Lenore]]: {{spoiler|Fiona, to Adam}}.
* [[Mad ScientistsScientist's Beautiful Daughter|Mad Dictator's Beautiful Daughter]]: Ros's introduction more or less fits the trope, although her [[Heel Face Turn]] has less to do with falling for the hero (it takes her several episodes even to ''like'' any of her new colleagues) and more to do with realizing that her father and his cronies are selfish, murderous, and being bankrolled by the Russian mob, and she's far more badass in her own right than the category would tend to suggest.
* [[Make the Bear Angry Again]] (Season 7)
* [[The Mole]] {{spoiler|Various [[Acceptable Targets|Americans and MI6 agents]] throughout the series, plus Connie in season 7.}}
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* [[Moral Dissonance]]: Lampshaded by Danny when he has to assassinate a scientist planning to sell weaponized plague to terrorists, who references a line spoken by Tom in the very first episode that stated killing in the name of life is still wrong.
* [[More Expendable Than You]]: An interesting variant is season 8. {{spoiler|The British Home Secretary and Pakistani President have been left paralysed in a room rigged to explode. When Ros and Lucas show up for the rescue, Lucas is heartbreakingly forced to leave Ros and the Home Secretary behind. If the President dies there could be nuclear war, and Lucas is the only one strong enough to carry him.}}
* [[Murder Dot .Com]]: In Season 8 a group of eco-terrorists kidnapped a load of [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Corrupt Corporate Executives]] to host a live trail and execution on the internet if the businesses were unethical (and of course, [[Kangaroo Court|they were]]). The Jury was an internet vote.
* [[Never Mess With Granny]]: And never, ''ever'' {{spoiler|be alone in a locked room with Connie.}}
* [[Our Hero Is Dead]]: noticeable for subverting this rather harshly. There is a very good chance in this show that if it looks like the hero is dead, they [[Kill Them All|probably are]]. And if they manage to [[Not Quite Dead|escape a near-death experience]], expect [[Heroic BSOD|the emotional trauma to manifest in their behaviour]].
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* [[Redemption Equals Death]]: {{spoiler|Connie, who redeems herself with a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to stop London being destroyed.}}
** However, this is then [[Averted]] at the end of series 10, {{spoiler|when a memorial garden with the names of the operatives KIA across the series is shown. Connie's name is not there, and neither is Lucas North's.}}
* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: at the beginning of season 5 {{spoiler|Collingwood and [[Visionary Villain|his group]] of [[Well -Intentioned Extremist|Well Intentioned Extremists]] try to ''[[Knight Templar|rewrite the face of British democracy]]''. They believe that [[Democracy Is Bad]] and that [[The Evils of Free Will]] and [[The War On Terror]] will [[Anarchy Is Chaos|destroy England]], and hence they must [[The Empire|head the new government]] with [[Big Brother Is Watching|stringent new security measures]] and [[Room 101|detention centres to house people who disagree with them]].}} The entire scheme is so ridiculously blatant (including {{spoiler|staging Acts Of Terror}}), so deeply steeped in a corrupt [[Propaganda Machine]] (backed by [[The Ministry of Truth|malicious representatives of England's Security Services]]), and so heavily relies on [[Orwellian Editor|Orwellian Editing]] of [[Reality Is Unrealistic|the facts at hand]] that ''no one'' had prepared for it. In fact, the entire thing is so outrageous that [[Cassandra Truth|no one believes MI5 when they first expose it]].
* [[Revolving Door Casting]]
* [[Running Gag]]: "KGB." "FSB."
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** And Helen, of course.
* [[Sacrificial Lion]]: {{spoiler|either Danny or Fiona, depending on your point of view.}}
* [[Shell -Shocked Veteran]]: Lucas North, who spent many years being tortured in Russia.
** Even though he'd been captured and tortured gruesomely by a number of rival intelligence agencies, Adam Carter was able to remain optimisitc about his work {{spoiler|until his wife was shot dead by her ex-husband, a Syrian agent}}, which pushed him into an [[Heroic BSOD]] that he never really got over.
* [[Shoe Phone]]. Subverted in "Nest of Angels". An Algerian agent listens politely when he's shown a number of disguised communication/bugging devices for his mission to infiltrate a radical Islamic group. The next scene shows him dumping this highly compromising equipment into a canal.
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* {{spoiler|[[Villain Protagonist]]}}: Lucas.
* [[The War On Terror]] (first British series to feature it)
* [[Well -Intentioned Extremist|Well Intentioned Extremists]]: In addition to several Villians of the Week from the earlier series (most memorably, Collingwood and his cohorts from "Gas and Oil"), at least two season arcs from the later years (six and eight) are built around massive conspiracies consisting of such individuals.
* [[Western Terrorists]]: This trope is fully [[Justified Trope|justified]], as [[MI 5]] is (or at least, it ''was'' when the show started) concerned with domestic security akin to the American FBI, and not exclusively terrorism. The first series was written prior to 9/11 (although some cursory references were inserted after the fact) when Irish splinter groups, xenophobic race-baiting, and economic rioting were the prime sources of potential turmoil.
** And to be fair, some of these would be justified post-9/11 as well, given a quick glance at [[Real Life]].
* [[Will They or Won't They?]]: {{spoiler|Ruth and Harry.}}
* [[Would Hit a Girl]]: Jo, in particular, seems to get roughed up a ''lot''.
 
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