Official poster for Spooks

Scripted series · BBC One

Spooks

It's a fine line between safety and terror. Meet the rulers.

7.7IMDb142 votesWorth your time
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2002 – 201110 seasons · 86 episodes~60 min per episodeTV-14Ended
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The Nutevio profile

TV DNA

How Spooks actually feels to watch, measured on the traits our editors track across every series.

Signature profile

Spooks reads strongest on Character Depth, Bingeability and Serialized.

Character DepthDefining9.2

How fully written and psychologically layered the ensemble is.

BingeabilityVery strong7.1

How hard it is to stop after one episode.

SerializedVery strong7.0

How much each hour depends on the one before it.

Emotional WeightStrong6.8

How much the series is designed to affect you.

SpectacleStrong6.5

Visual ambition — scale, craft and set-piece filmmaking.

TensionStrong6.5

The sustained pressure the series keeps you under.

Cliffhanger IntensityStrong5.5

How often an episode ends on a hook you can't ignore.

World BuildingLight3.5

The scale, internal logic and texture of the world.

HumourLight2.5

How often the series is genuinely funny, by design.

The story

What it's about

Tense drama series about the different challenges faced by the British Security Service as they work against the clock to safeguard the nation. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, and the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a highly secure suite of offices known as The Grid.

The run

Seasons

10 seasons · 86 episodes.

  • Official poster for Series 1

    Season 1 · Complete

    Series 1

    20026 episodes

    8.4IMDb

    Defending their country, deceiving their friends - it's all in a day's work for the agents at MI5, the Security Service. The elite team tackle organised crime, espionage and terrorist activities, as well as the conflicts and power struggles back in the office. There's a car bomb in Liverpool, a siege in the Turkish embassy and the murder of a double agent, not to mention the difficulty of having to lie to loved ones about who you are and what you do.

    Best episode · S01E02 Looking After Our Own

  • Official poster for Series 2

    Season 2 · Complete

    Series 2

    200310 episodes

    8.6IMDb

    The second series gets off to an explosive start, picking up at the exact moment the first one finished. MI5 agent Tom's girlfriend Ellie and her young daughter are trapped inside a securely sealed house in which a bomb is about to explode, and there's no way out. There's also organised crime, terrorist activities, embassy sieges, weapons proliferation, subversives, anarchists and drug traffickers, not to mention the conflicts and power struggles the elite team has to deal with back in the office.

    Best episode · S02E02 Nest of Angels

  • Official poster for Series 3

    Season 3 · Complete

    Series 3

    200410 episodes

    8.6IMDb

    It is all change in the clandestine world of MI5 when new agent, Adam Carter, joins the team. Tom has been branded a traitor and has disappeared, while Harry is in hospital, seriously wounded, and there is dissension in the ranks. Danny and Zoe seek to clear Tom's name despite the fact he appears guilty and may even be dead. Will Tom, missing since shooting Harry, re-emerge to prove himself an innocent victim of a set-up? And will former MI6 agent Adam Carter, the new edition to the team, provide the drive and enthusiasm so apparently missing? If his track record and the reputation that precedes him are anything to go by, there are going to be plenty of fireworks.

    Best episode · S03E10 The Suffering of Strangers

  • Official poster for Series 4

    Season 4 · Complete

    Series 4

    200510 episodes

    8.8IMDb

    The group are still reeling after the shocking events at the end of the last series. Now rising star Zafar joins the team as they set out to become even stronger in their battle to safeguard the nation. When London comes under terrorist attack Adam is forced to make an impossible decision, Harry must deal with blackmail threats from an old flame, and Fiona faces her own demons when she goes undercover in Syria.

    Best episode · S04E02 The Special (2)

  • Official poster for Series 5

    Season 5 · Complete

    Series 5

    200610 episodes

    8.8IMDb

    Series 5 begins with Britain left reeling after a series of terrorist attacks. Our team believe the attacks cloak a conspiracy to destroy democracy and turn Britain into a 'police state'. Can the team protect the democratic way of life? Zafar goes undercover and infiltrates a home-grown Islamic terror group who are planning a massive attack against London. There could also be serious repercussions for Ruth when she finds out the deaths of seven terrorist suspects in a prison fire were in fact staged by British military intelligence.

    Best episode · S05E08 Agenda

  • Official poster for Series 6

    Season 6 · Complete

    Series 6

    200710 episodes

    8.8IMDb

    Adam and Ros recover to find London facing an even greater threat. While attempting to thwart an attack that could jeopardise a historic peace accord between Britain and Iran, the team unwittingly unleash a deadly killer. But with a virus that mimics the pneumonic plague, there can be no negotiation. And when Zaf is kidnapped by armed mercenaries, the team realises that in a game of the highest stakes they hold none of the cards. As the stuff of nightmares becomes increasingly real, London faces total devastation.

    Best episode · S06E07 The Broadcast

  • Official poster for Series 7

    Season 7 · Complete

    Series 7

    20088 episodes

    9.5IMDb

    Series seven sees officer Lucas North joining MI5. Having spent the past eight years in a Russian prison, Lucas North is welcomed back by MI5 supremo and old friend Harry Pearce, who was instrumental in finally securing his release.

    Best episode · S07E07 The Mole

  • Official poster for Series 8

    Season 8 · Complete

    Series 8

    20098 episodes

    9.4IMDb

    The eighth action-packed series finds the team in a race against time to rescue Harry, who has been kidnapped by rogue Russian agents. But as they dig deeper into his disappearance, they find a trail that leads to Iraq, and a conspiracy that involves the CIA, MI6 and some missing weapons-grade uranium. Could Harry know where it is? And how is former team member Ruth Evershed, recently returned to the security of MI5 having fled her new life in Cyprus, connected to it all?

    Best episode · S08E06 Bankruptcy

  • Official poster for Series 9

    Season 9 · Complete

    Series 9

    20108 episodes

    9.3IMDb

    It’s a new world for the Spooks team: Ros’s death and a new coalition parliament herald in an era of re-assessment of the role of Britain, MI5 and even the life of a Spook. Faced with Ros’s barely attended funeral, the team come to question what a person sacrifices when they become a spy, provoking Harry to make an unexpected offer to another member of the Team. Further challenges await Harry in the form of the new Government and colourful new Home Secretary, William Towers. Working for a government doing whatever it takes to stop the country from sinking into historic economic disaster in their first year in office, Harry’s instincts are challenged as he is forced to bend to the will of those more powerful. There are some new faces on the Grid. Beth Bailey – an ex-mercenary who wants to hang up her boots in Iraq and find a more meaningful existence, defending the realm. Desperate to impress, she leaves some vital details about her past off her application form. Then there’s Dimitri Levendis: ex-SBS (Special Boat Service) who proves how capable and heroic he is in an impossible situation.

    Best episode · S09E04 Chinese Prize

  • Official poster for Series 10

    Season 10 · Complete

    Series 10

    20116 episodes

    9.5IMDb

    In the tenth and final series, secrets tumble out when former foes of Harry Pearce during the Cold War fly into London to negotiate a partnership between Russia and the UK.

    Best episode · S10E06 Deportation

Where the series peaks

Best Episodes

The hours that define the show, ranked by audience response and editorial signal.

Still from Nest of Angels

S02E02

Nest of Angels

9.2IMDb5 votes

A fellow agent informs Tom that young boys and men from a mosque in Birmingham are being trained as suicide bombers. They need an undercover spook, but who should or can go?

9 Jun 200351 min
Still from The Suffering of Strangers

S03E10

The Suffering of Strangers

9.2IMDb5 votes

It's Fiona's birthday, and she's not going to forget it! While inspecting a possible Islamic terrorist safe house, they are kidnapped. With the threat of his son's, his wife's and Danny's life, Adam must choose who won't live to see another day, Fiona or Danny? The prime minister's life is in danger. Will MI5 give into the kidnappers demands? But then to everybody's surprise... Danny makes the ultimate sacrifice.

13 Dec 200452 min
Still from Smoke and Mirrors

S02E10

Smoke and Mirrors

9.2IMDb5 votes

Tom ignores Harry's demands to end his relationship with CIA officer Christine Dale. Christine hands Tom a secure communication which she has accidentally received from high up in the CIA. It says that an American assassin has come to the UK for a hit and that the CIA are going to take him out, without informing Five or any of the security services. Tom can't tell Harry what he knows so enlists Danny and Zoe to help him. However, things start to go wrong and tonight's episode is all 'Smoke and Mirrors'. Will the truth be uncovered before something goes terribly wrong? Has Tom gone bad?

11 Aug 200352 min
Still from Looking After Our Own

S01E02

Looking After Our Own

9.0IMDb5 votes

Tom and Helen must go undercover and befriend the wife of a suspected hardcore racist in order to prevent a racewar. Meanwhile Zoe and Tessa learn that a boatload of refugees is due to dock at Dover in the next few days. Things worsen when the operatives realise the two things may be connected and their covers may be blown.

20 May 200252 min
Still from Project Friendly Fire

S03E01

Project Friendly Fire

9.0IMDb5 votes

Tom Quinn has disappeared after shooting his boss Harry Pearce. He also stands accused of assassinating the Chief of Defence Staff. Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee Oliver Mace uses this a pretext to launch a punitive investigation of MI5. Zoe, Danny and the team must prove Tom innocent and save the service from government takeover.

11 Oct 200452 min
Still from The Lesser of Two Evils

S01E06

The Lesser of Two Evils

8.8IMDb5 votes

Patrick McCann, an IRA leader claims to have information about a nuclear attack on the UK mainland, can MI5 trust the IRA enough to give them what they want in return; 36 hours free of surveillance, free to do whatever they wish?

17 Jun 200251 min

Recently aired

Latest Episodes

Still from Kidnap

S10E05

Kidnap

9.5IMDb2 votes
16 Oct 2011

The craft

Key Crew

Directing, writing, production, camera, music and editing.

Executive production

Direction

Cinematography

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