Tessa Phillips
Date of Birth: Unknown
First episode: Series 1, Episode 1 Last episode: Series 2, Episode 9 Job: Section Chief Status: Alive (on the run) Portrayed by: Jenny Agutter When Spooks starts, Tessa has been in MI-5 for more than 20 years. Over that time she has become hard and cynical. Like Tom, she heads up a section in the counter-terrorism unit. Everyone thinks she she is content to maintain her position, but she is constantly battling for the upper-hand in the office, and is no stranger to dirty tricks when she wants to get her own way. Tessa has plenty of admirers in the office. Not least Zoe, who looks up to her slick no-nonsense style as something to emulate. However, there is more to Tessa than met the eye, as Zoe finds out. While they are working on a case together, Zoe is shocked that not all of the agents Tessa has on her books are real people. Once the cat is out of the bag, Tessa didn't last long on the Grid; MI5 is no place for traitors. |
She re-appears in series 2 running her own private security firm, but refuses to help out Section D with their request for an Asian agent. Later, she spots an opportunity for both financial gain and revenge. By selling information to the Chala drug cartel she deliberately sabotages an operation that Harry is running, causing the death of an informant with whom Tom Quinn had bonded. Phillips flees the country leaving behind a video for Harry, in which she gloats about trumping MI5.