Spooks - Series 9 DVD Box Set

RRP: £39.99

Best Price: £10.67

There’s an irony to the fact that the United Kingdom has one of the strongest traditions of espionage in the world, but on the whole no budget to produce a counterpart to 24, or Alias. Even James Bond, the absolute pinnacle of the super-spy Brit, is funded on the whole by American film and, increasingly, tailored for that market. How do you make television - publicly funded television at that - that can really do justice to the expensive business of secret UK operations?

Spooks, the show that first aired now almost ten years ago, found the answer with its stylish, intelligent dialogue and characters that were placed, on a weekly basis, in impossible situations. Less gun battles, more battles of will and wit. Written by the absolute best in UK TV, Spooks is always willing to take risks, the be unflinching with the dilemmas faced in spying on the country whilst protecting its privacy. Of course, Spooks still delivers some excellent action sequences, with ticking clocks on bombs and gunfire here and there - but it’s a show played to its strengths, with the twist of its plot the real draw that keeps you watching. It’s also, much like its American counterparts, a show where nobody is safe - however central their character, it’s a genuine possibility that anyone could be lying, conspiring, or heading out to their death.

In series nine, the team is still reeling from the death of Ros, but Lucas (Richard Armitage) must pull his troops back into order to thwart the usual run of national security risks - including bomb attacks on the Houses of Parliament and a plot to assassinate the US president. But with the appearance of shadowy figure Vaughn (Iain Glen), Lucas must face up to some dark secrets from his past - secrets that could threaten not only him, but the entire ministry.

It’s a particularly strong season from Spooks - one that takes events to a new personal level by the end, for both Lucas and Harry (Peter Firth), the show’s longest-standing character. The closing moments of the series are undoubtedly some of the most tense scenes that the show has ever produced - and make an excellent hook for the impending season ten.
It’s not a big-budget American thriller, but Spooks is simply a fantastic show in its own right - not one to miss.

This box set contains all eight episodes of season nine in their entirety.