British spy drama MI-5 keeps its cast guessing
Success in television is sometimes measured by whether the real-life people whose jobs are portrayed on screen enjoy a show.
By that standard, the spy drama “MI-5” is a huge success. The British series, which airs on A&E in this country and whose first season is available on DVD Tuesday, has developed quite a following among the U.K.’s intelligence community.
“Apparently Thames House (MI-5’s headquarters) is empty on Monday nights, and they all love to discuss our goings on,” series star Keeley Hawes tells Zap2it.com by phone from London. “They’re all in with a bag of crisps and a beer, so we hear. It’s a little bit fantastic, but I like to believe it’s true.”
The show, called “Spooks” in its home country, follows a group of MI-5 counter-terrorism agents led by the cerebral Tom Quinn (Matthew MacFadyen). Hawes (“Tipping the Velvet“) plays Zoe Reynolds, a young agent who’s been at the center of several ethical dilemmas over the show’s two seasons.
The series has drawn comparisons to “24,” although it doesn’t use the real-time conceit the Fox thriller does. “MI-5” does share with its American counterpart a fondness for jaw-dropping plot twists, including the killing of major characters.
“I think that’s why people like it so much… It’s not safe,” Hawes says.
Viewers were up in arms early in the show’s first season, when a character played by soap star Lisa Faulkner was suddenly and gruesomely killed. “Lisa is a very well-known TV star, and it’s sort of unheard of to do that to a character. That kind of set the trend.”
“It’s a good way to work, because it keeps you on your toes.”
The demands of American commercial television mean that episodes of “MI-5” are about 10 to 15 minutes shorter here than in the United Kingdom. Those scenes are restored on the DVD set, giving viewers a better sense of the characters’ lives outside work. It’s what drew Hawes to the series in the first place.
“It’s so much more enjoyable to do that (personal) stuff as an actor than the spy stuff,” she says. “From what I’ve seen of the next scripts, you’ll get to see more of the inner life. It’s a much better range for (Zoe).”
Hawes recently began work on the show’s third season, which picks up right after another major twist — Tom appeared to turn against MI-5 in the second-season finale. She’s looking forward to seeing where the show goes from there.
“I think it will go somewhere good. They always tend to pull something out of the bag. Howard Benton, who’s written the first two episodes, and (creator) David Wolstencroft, who’s written the second two, are such fabulous writers, and they know the show better than anyone. They’ve done some lovely stuff.”
By Rick Porter for zap2it.com.
(Source: highbeam.com)