Spooks series 9
 Richard Armitage returned as MI5 officer Lucas North in the ninth series of the BBC spy drama. It was broadcast on BBC One in the autun of 2010.
The BBC's announcement of the beginning of the series includes an interview with Richard Armitage about the new series and about the new characters.
The series was filmed in and around London in the spring and summer of 2010. It was Richard's third and final series in Spooks as the agent who spent eight years in a Russian jail before returning to the Grid to resume his career with MI5.
New cast members include Sophia Myles and Max Brown, both possible recruits to the Grid. Richard worked with Sophia Myles in The Four Alice Bakers at the Birmingham Rep in 1999. Also joining the show are the acclaimed theatre actor Simon Russell Beale, as well as Iain Glen and Laila Rouass.
Richard confirmed in an interview in the Sunday Mirror (30th May) what seemed clear from the explosive ending of the eighth series, that Hermione Norris (Ros) has left Spooks. But Robert Glenister, who played the Home Secretary for part of that series, will return. However, the new Home Secretary will be played by Simon Russell Beale. Iain Glen plays a man from Lucas's past.
In the same interview, Richard was asked about what was next for Lucas. "Lucas isn’t who you think he is. It’s always been hovering there, whether or not he’s a double agent." [1] As he admitted to Lorraine Kelly on GMTV, "He's not who I thought he was either, which is really interesting." [2]
In an interview with Digital Spy, he elaborated on this. "It's interesting because you have to just rethink the character and retrace your steps and go back and make sure that everything fits and rework things that don't work. It's very exciting. And I think this series is very much about identity. All of the characters from the very beginning are not what they seem. All of the new characters that come in actually turn out to be slightly different from what you think." [3]
Laila Rouass plays a doctor, Maya, who's an old flame of Lucas's. "We were shooting in a hospital on the South Bank the other day and it was like those Carlsberg adverts - if Carlsberg did hospitals, what the hospital would be like. It was super clean, and Laila Rouass walked down the corridor as a doctor and I was like, 'This is definitely a Carlsberg hospital'." He continued, "I think he's had a string of quite disastrous love affairs. This one is particularly different and it's quite hard to tell you without revealing too much of the story but Lucas isn't quite who you think he is and she's part of that story, so there's a whole other character that's contained within Maya." [3]
Finally, he said of Lucas, "He does have to go off the radar quite a lot this series, but I think he's made a habit of doing that so it doesn't raise too many eyebrows. It's just the way he operates. But it's quite a good way of concealing your tracks. If you're used to being a maverick, then people don't get surprised when you start acting strangely. And he does behave quite strangely this year." [3]
Links
BBC Spooks website
Official website of the real MI5
Sources
[1] Interview in the Sunday Mirror, 30th May 2010
[2] Interview with Lorraine Kelly on GMTV, 4th May 2010
[3] Interview with Digital Spy, 5th May 2010
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