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+--- Thread: Spooks = Reality... Sort of? (/thread-193.html)
RE: Spooks = Reality... Sort of? - almh - 11-10-2009 10:15 AM
The Royal family don't even get the soft touch all the time. I think it's just a very strict policy on not leaking to the press. And most people wouldn't think of leaking it because of the official secrets act. A spell in prison is an incentive not to go spilling. I think that the most of the things we hear about MI5 and other security services have been checked by them first, and they can also get an injunction preventing newspapers, etc, from printing things that could 'affect the security of the nation.'
RE: Spooks = Reality... Sort of? - Tomsdouble - 11-10-2009 10:58 AM
It must be hard to walk the line (I know, cliche alert) between good telly and reality. I think Spooks does it very well which is why I love the show so much. There must be loads of stuff going on (or has gone on) about which we know next to nothing and we won't know for many years to come. I have just bought the unofficial history of MI5 but it's a huge tome with tiny print so if I glean any interesting info I'll plonk it up here! Who knows, some of this info could be straight out of a Spooks storyline but we'll either never know or not know for a long long time....
I remember reading years ago that when Spooks started the cast were given the opportunity to meet real agents or rather former agents, who I gather were fairly senior. That won't give us much insight as viewers but it must have been interesting for the actors themselves.
RE: Spooks = Reality... Sort of? - almh - 11-10-2009 11:01 AM
Ooh, you've bought it! I didn't know if it was out yet - good read? And Spooks isn't that close to MI5, both MI5 and Spooks both readily admit that. Spooks is not MI5, it is a television show based on MI5, so there are differences between Spooks and MI5 for dramatic effect, because it wouldn't fit in the show, etc.
Only the original cast got to meet the agents, it must have been an amazing experience, to actually talk to people whose job is/was to do what you've got to act.
RE: Spooks = Reality... Sort of? - Tomsdouble - 11-10-2009 11:20 AM
Yeah almh, got the book a few weeks back but only started it. It's HUGE and the print tiny but it is the unofficial version. Let you know what I think when I really get started on it!
Yeah, Spooks vs reality: well the show has to condense storylines into 1 (or more) episode whereas of course agents from MI5 will not operate on that basis (unless life has imitated art). MI5 agents could as you know, spend months undercover just doing very little but of course the show can't really show that.
Yeah, I meant to say about it being the original cast. In an interview with MM he said they got to meet former CIA and MI5 agents who were being very coy about what it was they did.
I'm just glad the show went the way it did, because as you all probably know, Spooks was going to be like Teachers; in other words womanising, hard-drinking slobs, before senses were came to and it became the show we all know and love.......but I presume they have former intel people working as advisors on the show in order to maintain a degree of authenticity?
RE: Spooks = Reality... Sort of? - almh - 11-10-2009 11:23 AM
They might have, although it doesn't really matter about authenticity - how are we going to know what goes on!!! I think they just might make it seem believable, their target is not a documentary but an entertainment program so I think that it will be mostly fiction with facts lightly scattered. Probably the majority of 'tricks of the trade' are made up by Spooks.
RE: Spooks = Reality... Sort of? - Tomsdouble - 11-10-2009 11:30 AM
Yeah a pretty accurate summary, methinks. I often wonder about the 'tricks of the trade' such as Malcolm's gadgets are wonder how much of it is reality (and apparently in 'reality' MI6 love their gadgets, I read a former MI5 officer say about his sister organisation over the river - think back to the 'rock' debacle in Moscow a year or two back; absurd really).
RE: Spooks = Reality... Sort of? - almh - 11-10-2009 02:02 PM
I love how you have reality in inverted commas
Is Spooks not real then? 
RE: Spooks = Reality... Sort of? - Tomsdouble - 11-10-2009 04:17 PM
It's as real as we make it in our heads. When I'm watching it it's as 'real' as anything in this crazy universe!
RE: Spooks = Reality... Sort of? - almh - 11-10-2009 04:21 PM
If not more real than reality!!!
RE: Spooks = Reality... Sort of? - Tomsdouble - 11-10-2009 04:35 PM
We're on the edge of some Baudrillardian reality twist!