I was delighted to see an advert on BBC 3 yesterday afternoon advertising the beginning of a new series of Spooks. It's one of the only BBC dramas I make a point of watching, but as the advert progressed, I noticed that there was a new cast, (younger, pimplier, and most importantly, missing the nothing short of gorgeous Danny Hunter) and a new location - Manchester. Call me a snobbish southern-dweller, but MI5 dramas just don't work in Manchester. When the London Eye is missing from the skyline, it's not MI5.
But I decided to give it a chance anyway - it was a Sunday night after all, and the Olympic coverage for the day was over. Five minutes on, as always, I was proved right.
Script: Optional. Narrative: Non-existent. Acting Ability: None whatsoever.
Set in 2012, the story goes something like this. Olympics-Bombs-Mass Evacuation of London - recruitment of younger spies-who typically save the day. With lots of guns, blood and fast-paced plot collapse, Spooks Code 9 falls flat on its face in terms of being the next big thing.
Perhaps they set the bar too high by twinning it with Spooks. If you've got a good series, don't do a spinoff. This has only worked once in history - and that was Cheers, and Frasier - which had a character in common. Code 9 has nothing in common with Spooks, and is more of a 'Grange Hill with Guns' (Jordan, 2008) which could work quite well if it was marketed as such.
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