Key
NW = Nicola Walker
SL = Shazad Latif
MB = Max Brown
PF = Peter Firth
RA = Richard Armitage
LR = Laila Rouass
SM = Sophia Myles
Executive Producer: Being a spy is about playing other characters.
SM: My grand entrance in this show is undercover as an impoverished Russian whore.
MB: At first you don't know who he is, and then you see him walk into the Grid at the end after saving the day and you meet the kind of fun, brave Dmitri for the first time.
RA: It's one of the things we investigate a lot in this series, our identities and deceptions. I've realised in this series that Lucas is actually probably a better actor than I am. I mean he really has managed to fool people for a long time as to, you know, who he is, what he's doing, how he does it. You know the characters and the mantles that he takes on in order to do his job and he becomes more skilful at it all the time.
LR: It's just keeping up the lies, isn't it? That's what it is, and having this whole new identity. It's kind of this fantasy isn't it, just being somebody new.
SM: I think I'd find it really, really difficult to be convincingly undercover without a script.
PF: You need to be completely grey and sort of disappear, and not be... not stand out in any way.
SL: You have to gain people's complete trust. Be able to turn on them as soon as you need to, to survive.
NW: There's a great deal of betrayal this year *laughs* Everyone's monitoring each other on the Grid, and that's the first time I've noticed this ever doing that.
MB: Everybody's reading each other's characters and working out who they can trust, so it's uh, it's interesting.
Director: And as Lucas' real persona starts to surface the issue of betrayal slowly turns on the team themselves.
NW: Harry not believing... You not believing Ruth, devastating. Because I thought you would, I presumed he would believe me, and he doesn't believe me.
PF: Yeah, that's a first.
NW: Yeah, that's a huge betrayal.
Director: You've got some very, very intense drama happening between actors who've worked a lot together over the last few series.
RA: They know each other, but they don't really know each other, you know, as Lucas has proved. They all believed in Lucas, they believe in him but he isn't the man they thought he was. It's all about appearance. These guys are really good actors to each other, so actually they're not able to forge relationships based on any kind of truth, with anyone.
MB: There isn't time to have a personal life with him, he's a spy *laughs* There isn't time to have a personal life being a spook in make-believe either.
NW: They all share this common problem that they have no private life and the job has become everything for them.
RA: And I think that's why Maya is so crucial to this whole story; because it's one moment where it's like electric and it's real, and it's probably the only moment I think Lucas has had for three series where everything falls away.
Executive Producer: It's all about sort of truth and lies and all that, and secrets and lies. And somehow, I think, holding on to yourself within that. You know, that's why Harry Pearce has been such a remarkable character along the years.
Director: You have to be able to decide, "If I do 'X', which produces this sort of damage, it'll actually in the long run save a lot more." And I think that's a very tough way of living your life and I think it must be very, very lonely.
NW: That sort of numbing effect of the job on Ruth is very interesting. Even though Harry had her husband murdered and a boy sent home without his father, she still loves him.
RA: Ruth says that you kill somebody and you're not fine, but you say you're fine and then you come back to work the next day. So I think there is, um, a high price to this job.
Executive Producer: Tom Quinn had an exploding conscience. The weight of the job led to a point where he couldn't hold everything together any more. Adam, we went down the post-traumatic stress disorder route. Everyone talks about Ros, "the ice queen", but there was such heart behind the toughness. She cared so much about her job and about the people in it, and I think that's why people loved her. And love all our characters, actually.
SM: I think the heart of Beth is very good. And I think she's in this because she does have a vested interest in making the world a better place.
Executive Producer: A lot of people went to places like Iraq after Saddam fell, in the private sector, and made an awful lot of money, and Beth is a product of that world.
MB: Dmitri came from Special Boat Services. The guys like the SAS but they do everything above, below, on the water. So these guys are like the toughest as they come, really.
SM: What I like about these two new characters in the show is I think they really bring an essence of... a bit of lightness to it.
MB: They kind of, you know, take it with a pinch of salt at first and give each other sideways glances when it gets a little serious. I remember first day working in here and just being blown away, really, by the surroundings and the gravitas of being on the Grid for the first time.
SM: I get the giggles quite a lot, uncontrollably, on my own, just because the tension in the rooms and in the scenes is so fraught. And Peter Firth is really naughty, 'cause he knows that I have the tendency towards corpsing.
NW: And he has a twinkle in his eye that is impossible to resist.
Executive Producer: We were in the edit, and we were watching it, and, "Oh, there's something between them!"
PF: Nicola's married, which is a bit of a hindrance to my intentions. So I have to just live through the character, really, and play out my...
NW: Me too, for the same reason *laughs*
PF: So we're having a love affair. Fortunately, everyone watching can share it. *laughs* Slightly voyeuristic, but that's the nature of drama. And next year, we may even get the consummation, so stay tuned. You know? (NW and PF laugh, NW crosses her fingers)
Director: Harry Pearce passed all the loyalty tests. He's more loyal than the Prime Minister himself. He is the bedrock on which this country is built, which is why he's head of MI5. But when it comes to Ruth, finally, there is a chink in his armour.
SL: Harry has to make big decisions, whether to sacrifice Ruth or to save her. And it's a dilemma, it's a good... Yeah, it's brilliant. It's good drama.
PF: It's the only time in the whole series that Harry has compromised his professional duty for personal feelings, and I think that's a measure of...
NW: Yeah, except you don't.
PF: Oh yes I do!
NW: You don't, 'cause it doesn't mean anything!
PF: Well, no, but apparently it looks like I do.
NW: And that... No! No...
PF: Am I not keeping up?
NW: No! It's like being married *laughs*
PF: See... *laughing* And, as in most marriages, she's the clever one.
NW: No!
PF: And I'm just tagging along and chopping wood. (both laugh)
NW: You're the man I think I am, and... you're the man I think I am. You're the man I think... *laughs*
PF: Yeah, I'm the man you think I am, ultimately.
NW: If Albany had been really, sold it to the Chinese, I'd have gone "Harry, how could you have possibly done... I'm not worth...", she wouldn't have felt that she was worth it.
PF: I don't agree.
NW: (gasps audibly)
PF: I think this is the moment that...
NW: Gee, that's interesting.
PF: You know, it's come at the right... This time, certainly in Harry's life, that he's somewhat disenchanted with being a tool of the state.
Executive Producer: I actually think Harry's always, still, despite everything, is consistent. There is a line he still cannot cross, even if it meant he would have to sacrifice his love for this woman. I think he's questioning himself, but more, he's questioning the world. Because it comes at a very high price. Because there is a lot of death and there is a lot of loss.
RA: It's quite a big price to pay, isn't it? To say, "Okay, I'll give you everything. I'll give you my life, I'll give you my identity, and then I will die for my country." And what do you get back? You don't get anything back.
LR: Real life's not really like that, though, is it? Is it?
PF: No, it's the cost of being a TV spy. I think, you know, this is high-octane hokum.
Executive Producer: You want those moments, you want those amazingly heightened operatic moments, but you want them to feel authentic and real. And I think that's what we achieve. It's the most exciting television show there is.
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