Superfans Needed for Shine Group Film

[Tea Lady]

Thought I’d do a quick report for the forum, as myself and TheGrandTour found ourselves being interviewed for the Shine Group promo film last Thursday. Originally I was supposed to be just the bag carrier for TheGrandTour, but I was persuaded at the last moment to join in the interview. I will try and write down some of my answers to the questions I was asked as well. I can’t remember verbatim though.


We were met at St Pancras at around 10:45am by a car and we were driven to the Albert Embankment, opposite Lambeth Palace. We were told to look for a three person film crew. As we stepped out of the cab, there was a three person film crew standing right there in front of us. We bounded over and introduced ourselves, only to embarrassingly discover they were not from Shine. Luckily the lady had seen another film crew and pointed us in the right direction.

We were introduced and the lady interviewer “H” offered to buy us a coffee in a little place near Lambeth Bridge. She ran through the questions we would be asked and she explained that we should not look at the camera, and remember to repeat her question in our answer, so our answers made sense. Sounds logical but I don’t think I would have thought of that, if H hadn’t pointed it out.

We then went to the Embankment and stood together with the Houses of Parliament to our right and Thames House to our left, behind us. We were to be interviewed together. The sound guy put the microphones on us and they checked the light. We were stopped quite a few times by the sound of helicopters, emergency vehicles and changes of light. The result being we had to start again and repeat again what we had just said. We even had to stop for Big Ben and someone dragging a large suitcase along on its wheels. It made me realise why it takes a whole day to film 5 minutes of footage!

After an hour or so we were a bit cold (I was freezing and my hair was all in my face with the wind ) but we kept going. The questions they asked us are below. Some of my answers are in red. I tried my best to answer on behalf of fellow fans.

The questions were:
- how and when did we first meet each other?
- when did we become fans?
- what was the reason you became a fan?
- Did we like spy stories before we became fans?
- favourite character? (Harry)
- favourite series? (7)
- favourite scene? (I said, as I feel Harry is Spooks, mine is a Harry centred scene being 8.1, when Harry sees his lost love for the first time in 2 and a half years. You see his force field crumble just for a moment. He’s scared which is something you don’t really see from Harry Pearce.)
- saddest moment? (Danny’s death where he sacrificed his life for Fiona because she had a family and a son.)
- favourite storyline (I mentioned the Harry/Ruth storyline and Sugarhorse from S7.)
- how did we meet the cast?
- why do we love Harry? (I talked about his strength, the fact he never gives up which is evident right up to the final minute of the last episode. I suggested they should make a spin off series called “Harry The Wonder Years.” )
- what do our partners think about our spooks obsession? (I said he had got used to it now and wasn’t so worried after he started meeting some of my Spooks friends. I mentioned an American I met up with in New York for some beers. )
- how did spooks change our lives? (mentioned my friends from American, Spain, Australia etc)
- how would we sum up Spooks in one sentence? (I said something about it being a real rollercoaster ride which I wouldn’t have missed for the world. Sounds a bit tacky I know. )

After an hour and a half, we finished and went back to St Pancras for beer and warmth. A good and unusual morning indeed. We have been told we can have a copy of the film.

Thanks to the Shine Group, Nitrus for posting the email and TheGrandTour.