For years ITV looked for a show that would be the perfect replacement for The Professionals.
Ironically it was the BBC who managed to find the perfect substitute with Spooks.
No surprise it was during the time of Greg Dyke as Director General of the BBC. Dyke was a former ITV executive who worked at London Weekend Television, the company which made The Professionals.
Dyke once famously said he would never ever work for the BBC. He then shaved his beard off to apply to be DG and later said it was one of the best jobs he ever had.
Under his time as DG, the BBC increased the long running populist dramas it had.
Spooks was a series which tried hard to remain up to date. By the time it had been transmitted it had incorporated the events of 9/11 and even borrowed the split screens of the series 24 which had been broadcast a few months earlier.
The first episode starts off with a car explosion in Liverpool. A doctor has been killed and her daughter badly injured.
British Secret Service think it could be various organisations including Irish terrorism who could be responsible. The suspicion falls on a Pro Life group linked to an American activist whose husband is in death row in Florida.
The main characters of the first episode are Tom Quinn, Zoe Reynolds and Danny Hunter. Some remain more in the background such as Helen Flynn who will face the heat in forthcoming episodes. Harry Pearce is their stoic boss at MI5.
This is a tense exciting opener. You see them acting as a team as they face a race against time to stop other explosions.
I forgot that in this early episodes there was more of a concentration on the operatives private lives. Zoe is looking for another place to stay. Tom has a girlfriend but he has not told her what he does for a living which is causing issues.
Spooks would go on to become a classic.
Ironically it was the BBC who managed to find the perfect substitute with Spooks.
No surprise it was during the time of Greg Dyke as Director General of the BBC. Dyke was a former ITV executive who worked at London Weekend Television, the company which made The Professionals.
Dyke once famously said he would never ever work for the BBC. He then shaved his beard off to apply to be DG and later said it was one of the best jobs he ever had.
Under his time as DG, the BBC increased the long running populist dramas it had.
Spooks was a series which tried hard to remain up to date. By the time it had been transmitted it had incorporated the events of 9/11 and even borrowed the split screens of the series 24 which had been broadcast a few months earlier.
The first episode starts off with a car explosion in Liverpool. A doctor has been killed and her daughter badly injured.
British Secret Service think it could be various organisations including Irish terrorism who could be responsible. The suspicion falls on a Pro Life group linked to an American activist whose husband is in death row in Florida.
The main characters of the first episode are Tom Quinn, Zoe Reynolds and Danny Hunter. Some remain more in the background such as Helen Flynn who will face the heat in forthcoming episodes. Harry Pearce is their stoic boss at MI5.
This is a tense exciting opener. You see them acting as a team as they face a race against time to stop other explosions.
I forgot that in this early episodes there was more of a concentration on the operatives private lives. Zoe is looking for another place to stay. Tom has a girlfriend but he has not told her what he does for a living which is causing issues.
Spooks would go on to become a classic.