# Spooks (2002)

> A tense British drama following a team of MI5 officers in The Grid at Thames House as they race to protect the nation from threats.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/3847

## Facts

- Seasons: 10
- Episodes: 86
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, thriller
- Created by: David Wolstencroft
- Network: BBC One
- Cast: Peter Firth, Miranda Raison, Nicola Walker, Hugh Simon, Rupert Penry-Jones, Keeley Hawes, Hermione Norris, David Oyelowo
- TMDB rating: 8.3/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0160904/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: tense, paranoid, gritty, relentless, serious

## What critics say

Acclaimed by audiences as a tense, intelligent British spy drama whose later seasons grew markedly stronger.

## Synopsis

Spooks (2002-2011) is a British national-television spy thriller series created by David Wolstencroft for BBC One. Peter Firth plays Harry Pearce, the steady head of a team of MI5 officers based at Thames House, where the group works in a secure suite known as The Grid. Around him, Nicola Walker, Rupert Penry-Jones, Keeley Hawes and Hermione Norris play officers whose lives are repeatedly pulled into operations against terrorist cells, foreign agents and domestic plots. The engine of the show is the race against the clock: each episode is built around a threat that must be identified and stopped before it reaches the public, and the cost of every decision falls on the people making it. Across ten seasons it runs as one continuing, serialized saga, with seasons of six to ten episodes that escalate both the stakes and the personal entanglements of the team. The mood is taut and paranoid, with brisk pacing, shadowy offices and a steady dread that rarely lets up. Set in early twenty-first century London, it sits in the tradition of a British state-security drama and will appeal to fans of Alias, 24 and Line of Duty who want a demanding, morally grey thriller.

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- [Line of Duty (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/40007)
- [Roadkill (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/93065)
- [Hunted (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/41354)
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- [Five Days (2007)](https://ember.film/tv/3964)
- [Treason (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/119265)
- [Strike Back (2010)](https://ember.film/tv/29979)

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