Undercover Lovers
Keeley Hawes fell for her Spooks co-star Matthew Macfadyen last series. but will he still be smitten after seeing the disguises she had to wear for the new series of the spy drama?
Spooks was a hit with viewers from the start, but news of a real-life romance between the show’s two stars Keeley Hawes and Matthew Macfadyen sent ratings soaring even further.
The pair fell in love while they were filming the spy series and were an established couple when they returned to shoot the second series earlier this year.
It’s from the June 2003 issue of TV Quick Magazine. HILW Yahoo group uploaded the scans on 27 May 2003. I think I made up the date.
Matthew was single when he got together with the former model, but the situation was more complicated for Keeley, who left her husband of just five months to be with her co-star.
She has a son Myles, two, and the marriage split is obviously still very raw as she is reluctant to discuss her private life or even what it’s been like working alongside her lover.
Keeley plays MI5 agent Zoe Reynolds in the drama, and Matthew is her boss Tom Quinn. they work for the top-secret counter-terrorism department headed by Harry Pearce (Peter Firth), alongside Tessa Phillips (Jenny Agutter) and fellow spy Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo).
Although some of the storylines seem far-fetched, the recent months make the show extremely topical and Keeley admits the terror threats have put her off using the London underground.
‘I live in central London and so I don’t often go on the tube, but I wouldn’t want to go on the tube with my little boy,’ she says.
In one episode of the new series, the team deal with a simulated poisonous gas explosion in London.
‘I read the script for it and thought, “This is bananas — this is over the top.” then I saw a very similar real story on the front of the evening standard newspaper about a terrorist attack exercise, which was extraordinary.’
Keeley, who starred in last year’s raunchy BBGC2 drama Tipping the Velvet as a bisexual music hall performer, is one of Britain’s most beautiful actresses.
But she’s anything but glamorous in some of the disguises she has to take on in the new series of Spooks.
As an undercover agent she has to adopt different personas including a video shop manager, a schoolteacher, a secretary and, most surprisingly, a cleaner.
‘I has to wear a green overall which wasn’t attractive,’ laughs the 27-year-old. ‘but I think I was quite a tidy Mrs. Mop. I hope I don’t look too much like Mrs. Overall from Acorn Antiques!’
Before they started work on Spooks the actors met a group of former spies as part of their preparation.
‘They were very blasé about their jobs and talked about spying as if it was part of everyday life,’ says Keeley.
‘Most of them were men, but one of them was a woman. she was about my age and she wasn’t glamorous at all. in fact, none of them were. they found the whole James Bond perception of what spies are like quite funny.’
By Clair Woodwan for TV Quick Magazine.
(Source: HILW Yahoo Group, transcript by keeley-hawes.co.uk)
Ashes to Ashes 3.03 behind-the-scenes photo tweeted by Dean Andews. “Is it Keeley or mrs overall??”