Series 10 - Episode 6 Discussion

[Gillymac]

(28-10-2011 07:17 PM)Tea Lady Wrote:  I'm not quite sure what you mean by "to be rid of it" Gillymac. Do you mean the Harry/Ruth relationship? Do you mean the "thing" that kept many many people watching Spooks and helped attract a new generation of fans? Do you mean the relationship and on screen chemistry that kept millions of people glued to their tv sets (not 100 viewers, I beg to differ) and had the critics praising Peter and Nicola from the rafters?

This relationship helped Kudos. Fact. They used this relationship and it helped the series last as long as it did.

I wanted an alternative ending. I am not a unicorn fancier and many H/R fans are also not. I just get the feeling "we" are all being clubbed together like a single entity. I have previously stated my ideas for an alternative non fluffy ending and won't repete these. Just because you are a Harry/Ruth fan does not make you a complete nutter, dressing in blue wrap dresses all the time and going to bed wearing a "Harry loves Ruth t-shirt." I would not have bombarded Kudos with anything if there had been an alternative, happy/open/non Ruth death ending. And I certainly would not have asked for a "Terry and June" type spin off show.

And not for one moment, my dear lady, did I suggest that you would - as has been stated repeatedly on this forum, we all come into this from our own POV and fortunately, although we may never see entirely eye to eye on the outcomes we would have wished for the characters, we can have a thoughtful, well reasoned debate about it. Everything you say about H/R helping Kudos is true. Of course it is. They are television producers, and as such, their job is to grow their audience share as much as they can. With a "blokey" show like spooks, that means attracting more women, be that by engaging 'eye candy' actors for the younger demographic or developing a bittersweet, doomed romance for those of us with a more *ahem* mature outlook.

I suppose what I'm getting at when I said "be rid of it" is the sub-section of H/R fans who are fuelling the current unseemly hullabaloo, and of which TeaLady you most certainly are not a member. It was this sub-section I was referring to when I mentioned the figure 100 - personally, I think I flattered them with that, and I certainly didn't mean to. We are all spooks fans at the end of the day, it just angers me enormously that these few people are claiming to speak for us all - regardless of our own particular reasons for watching spooks.

If what we wanted, wished or aspired for our favourite fictional characters, was in anyway feasible or marketable, we would be television makers not television viewers.

Really, truly, what do they think they will actually achieve with their unpleasant campaign? They've now dragged Helen James Productions, who make the behind the scenes features, into the fray. Nice one. What if Kudos decide not to use this company in future now because of this furore? They've clearly been in contact with them about it. Real live people, with homes, families and the rest of the responsibilities that we all have, potentially out of work. Honestly - is it worth that? Because a television show we all loved has come to an end? If you feel you can justify it, go ahead, I'd be interested to read it.

My final thoughts on this matter are thus: Spooks is not and never was all about one particular group of fans (or sub-section of a larger group) - it was for all of us, and I for one am deeply saddened and hurt, that in a week where we should be celebrating 10 years of amazing, thrilling, heartstring tugging television, performed with consumate professionalism by some of the finest actors this country has ever produced, the only voices the programme makers, writers and (worst of all IMHO) the actors are hearing are those of anger, hatred and bile. You do not speak for me, that's for damn sure.

***Post edited with apologies 1/11/11 as deleted section apparently innacurate***