The big interview Spooks star Rupert Penry Jones is worn-out after new baby keeps him up Nerves are jangling on the set of Spooks as star Rupert takes his bad temper out on the hit TV show’s cast.
He may project the image of an ultra-sophisticated MI5 agent but beneath the cool veneer Rupert Penry Jones is only just keeping it together.
Yet that’s just perfect for his latest character twist.
Rupert, who plays Adam Carter, the swashbuckling undercover operator in hit BBC1 spy drama Spooks, admits a lack of sleep due to a newborn baby makes his nerves jangle just as his steely character shows signs of a nervous breakdown.
The lanky actor is padding around in stocking soles in a dressing room in a disused south London office block which houses the interior set for the high-octane series.
Today’s filming schedule is all over the place — the cast are being called away when they least expect it and it’s getting on their nerves.
But they’re used to bad moods with Rupert. The 35-year-old, who lives with Ballykissangel actress (and voice of recent Marks & Spencer TV ads) Dervla Kirwan and their two kids, says: “The toughest thing about having no sleep at night is you come in and snap at the first person who bothers you.
“Learning your lines with a baby around is actually all right, you get used to that. I’ve been learning my lines on Spooks for years now and they come quite easily.”
“But your nerves get frayed and I find myself being bad tempered.”
Thankfully, his raging demons seem sedate — for now — and Rupert’s feeling frank.
While he’s happy about becoming a dad for the second time, he’s not so chuffed the Spooks production budget has been slashed, nor with some of the series’ more outlandish storylines. Sleep deprivation might make most of us grouchy, but it makes this guy frank.
He says: “It’s been tough since the baby came.”
“I didn’t get to bed until 4am this morning. The truth is I actually get more sleep when I come to work.
“So if I get this interview out the way then it means I can get back to sleep again.”
Best crack on then.
Rupert — who briefly dated Kylie Minogue in the late ’90s — has been with the Spooks team since 2004.
Since then, he’s seen off all manner of security threats to the country as well as several high profile cast members.
Blazing a trail in 2002, Spooks was an immediate hit with the public, who warmed to then-leads Keeley Hawes and Matthew MacFadyen.
The pair forged a good relationship which still continues years after their coming together on set, with a baby due this month. But if the lovebirds’ act was a tough one to follow, Rupert has pulled it off with aplomb, landing roles in anything from BBC’s Krakatoa to the forthcoming TV adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion off the back of Spooks.
He says: “The last few years have been really good and Spooks has given me the kind of career I didn’t have before.”
“It was kind of weird when everyone else left. I don’t think I even knew that Keeley was leaving at the time, and in a way it was like a total change of staff in the workplace.”
“But everyone who came in has been fantastic.”
Carrying one of the BBC’s highest profile dramas is a burden relished by the actor, whose brother Laurence played Fletch in The Bill.
He says: “I have a lot more work to do now than I did in the first year. But I’m happier when I’ve got lots to do, happier than when I’m just sitting around. I was nearly killed off at the end of the last series and I’m sure I’ll probably be kicked off at the end off this one.”
Fans will recall how series four ended with Adam taking a bullet in a typically tense episode which suggested M15 boss Harry (Peter Firth) was responsible for the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
There are no prizes for guessing the series’ main man survived.
Rupert says: “But it was touch and go, obviously.”
“Those were weird scenes to film. I had a prosthetic chest lying across the top of me and all these medics supposedly operating on it.”
“It was a little like an out of body experience, in fact.”
But while bullets might not kill him off, they’ve certainly rattled Adam’s previously hardy resolve.
“The cracks are definitely starting to show now,” Rupert says.
“After all that he also has someone almost die in his arms in this series, and that’s what triggers flashbacks and nightmares.
“So for him, this series is all about trying to do a tough job and being on the verge of a nervous breakdown.”
No matter how tired he is, his babyshredded nerves might not be as raw as his character’s.
Rupert confesses the gulf between pretend MI5 and the real deal is almost embarrassing. He says: “I’ve spoken to a few guys who have done this job for real and I guess they think it’s a little bit ridiculous because of the things we deal with in an hour.”
“Clearly there’s always a lot more going on.”
“But the thing I do find interesting is that the people who normally do this job are generally in their 20s and 30s, which is incredible when you think they’re all over Europe risking their lives.”
“But they burn out young too. And they don’t get paid as well as you might think.”
“In fact, I think we get paid more than they do.”
No doubt. After all, you wouldn’t expect the man who has been dubbed ‘the UK’s answer to Jack Bauer’ (Kiefer Sutherland’s character in US drama 24) to be earning buttons, would you?
The same can’t be said of the show’s production costs.
Despite being high on action and stunts, Rupert insists the show has been subject to budget cuts as its success continues.
“I’ve heard that some of the guys on 24 really enjoy Spooks,” he says.
“But the production values over there are so much higher, whereas here the budgets actually go down once a big show like this is up and running and successful.
“It’s very frustrating because you want to get better yet are being given less money.
“The knock-on effect is that it means we all have less time to prepare, and so things get a little more difficult. But while it gets harder, the show gets better.
“I really have no idea how they do it.” Last year’s series was met with raised eyebrows all round after the show’s publicists maintained an episode about a terrorist attack in London — complete with the prime minister being called away from a global summit — was filmed BEFORE the London bombings.
This time around, we can expect echoes of the Jean Charles de Menezes shooting and December’s Buncefield fuel depot gas explosion.
Coincidence or not, the terrorist storyline fired up passions among viewers by touching on an emotive subject — something Rupert thinks is an important part of Spooks‘ appeal.
He says: “What I’ve enjoyed more about this series is we’re focusing less and less on fundamental Muslim terrorism. But there’s a lot more political intrigue going on.”
And there’s also a new leading lady. Cold Feet and Wire in the Blood star Hermione Norris has joined the cast as a feisty foil for Adam.
Rupert’s delighted. He says: “It’s been brilliant to have her around. An actress who is as powerful as she is, and who has as much to offer as she has, is a brilliant thing for the show. It needed that.”
“Adam was much more on his own before, but now there’s someone there who can tell him where to go and get him out of trouble.”
And, of course, Hermione has her fair share of sleepless nights with a toddler of her own.
Rupert says: “There have been some discussions about how you deal with babies and work. But it’s been great to have her around. I’ve been wanting to work with her for years.”
Spooks, BBC1, Sun, Sept 17
By Paul English for The Daily Record.
(Source: highbeam.com)