[spoilers] Sir Harry Pearce - Return of the Jedi (#3)

[Silktie]

Ironically, when Spooks started, PF wasn't that well known. So for me, this isn't a case where most people started watching because he was in it. A lot of Harry fans fell in love with the character first and then discovered PF as an actor and the rest of his body of work. In that sense, then, it doesn't yet create a problem for the show. I think it only becomes problematic if the creators actually want to get rid of a character, but is afraid to because they fear that the actor is too iconic to do so.

Another issue which I think is sometimes overlooked, is that even though Spooks has made a name for killing off its characters, this is almost always done because the actor playing the character in question wants to leave and go on to bigger and better things. So once again it is my impression that Harry is not kept alive and in the show because the creators are too afraid to kill him off, but because they are happy to keep an interesting and well-portrayed character in their show.

For all the talk that the show won't survive if Harry leaves, I don't think that's necessarily the case. In the same way that a lot of people who came to watch the show for Richard Armitage will now not bother to watch since he is no longer in it, there are a lot of people who will stop watching when PF leaves. But there will be many more who will still watch for the stories. And whoever they bring in to replace him will in all probability bring his/her own support base as new viewers to the show. This is the way of long-running TV shows, and I don't think Spooks is any different.

I, for one, am very happy that PF is willing to stick around for so long, as it allowed the writers to gradually develop a truly fascinating, heroic, tragic and fallible character, which goes a long way in explaining why he's so popular. Don't we all love to know that there is someone out there willing to sell off pieces of his soul, to do both good and horrible things, all to keep us safe? Harry's appeal for me lies to a great extent in that he is not a perfect man; a one-dimensional knight in shining armour who always does everything right. He fails, he makes mistakes, but always with good intentions. Long may he live on.