[ Trivia ]
Did you know...
- Spooks is broadcast as MI-5 in America, because "spook" is a derogatory term for a person of colour in America.
- For much of the first series Tom wears dark glasses because the actor, Matthew Macfadyen had burst a blood vessel in one of his eyes
- The lamp shades hanging from the ceiling of the Grid in series 1 are actually bins from Ikea turned upside down.
- During production all files relating to the first series of Spooks were labelled "Prawn" to "throw people off the scent".
- The boiling fat which killed off Helen Flynn in series 1, episode 2 was actually cold tea.
- When Osborne has been assassinated in series 1, episode 2 an MI5 agent approaches Tom and Harry in the churchyard and whispers something in Harry’s ear. He actually says – "the goose has landed". This scene had to be shot several times because the two actors couldn’t stop laughing.
- In the series 1 finale (the scene where Tom is talking to Ellie through the letterbox), the crew had to construct a giant letter box so that enough of the interior of the house could be seen through it.
- At numerous times throughout Series 1 close-ups of intelligence files show that all the information is the same and all relates to Mary Kane's terminated pregnancy from series 1, episode 1.
- The scene in series 1, episode 1 where the cat escapes from the house was based on a real MI5 training exercise, as was the scene in series 2 episode 1 where an old school friend almost identified Zoe whilst she was on an op.
- If you pay close attention, you'll spot that many of the themes of the film The Third Man are echoed in the finale of series 2, including the appearance of a previously thought dead character.
- Several of the episodes have different titles in the US - for example, the season 1 finale "The Lesser of Two Evils" became "Mean, Dirty, Nasty", and the season 2 finale "Smoke and Mirrors" became "Pit of Secrets".
- In series 3, episode 1, the Morse Code message that Ruth sends to Harry reads "JIC CLOSING GRID".
- The show had hand doubles for several actors, including Nicola Walker and Hugh Simon, because they couldn't type quick enough!
- Up until series 6 none of the episodes had any on-screen credits when first broadcast.
- The technique of 'guerilla filming' was used numerous times in the series. This is when two characters are kitted out with microphones and walk through populated, public places delivering their dialogue whilst being filmed covertly. On some of these occasions they didn't even tell the police they were filming. The most notable scene of this type was in series 10, episode 4 when a terrorist was strapped with a suicide bomb. Peter Firth commented (at the Greatest Show in the Galaxy) that he worried that was a bit to close to the line as, had anyone seen the character in question, they would have assumed that he was carrying a real bomb which would have led to mass panic.