Spooks
Spooks is back - and with a bang. The BBC's slick and stylish spy series returned this week, only for one of its main characters to be blown out of the show by a car bomb. It's never been quite as good since the utterly mesmerising Tom Quinn took early retirement from MI5, but this week's episodes have proved that Spooks remains compelling viewing.
The success of Spooks can be attributed to a number of factors - the writing, acting, camera work, film editing and suspense-inducing soundtrack, to name but a few. Each of these we can rightly celebrate as examples of excellence in their field. Spooks, however, is greater than the sum of its parts, and as such has established itself as the most patriotic show on television. Arguably this, more than anything else, is the secret of its success.
The patriotism that beats at the heart of Spooks was captured brilliantly in Monday's episode when Sir Harry Pearce stated, 'British power stays in British hands; somewhere in that sentence lies the essence of my job description.' And so it is that each week Harry and his team work around, and against the clock, to save Britain from all manner of attacks on her national security. Along the way we, the viewers, are surreptitiously invited to reflect on the ethics of international espionage - what means does the end of national security justify? What price are we prepared to pay for that security, and to what extent are those who guard our security dehumanised in the process?
These are all questions worthy of serious reflection, and Spooks is to be applauded for raising them. However, in order to do so Spooks cannot help but go out of its way to play on our fears for our security in a post 9/11 world. But it plays on them only to reassure us that all will be well. The sub-text of Spooks is that precious little evil is plotted against our country that our security services don't know about - even if their intelligence comes at the eleventh hour. Correspondingly, we can entrust our security to the technology of MI5 and the brave men and women of the service who will give their lives for Queen and country.
Spooks, therefore, issues a covert challenge to the biblical worldview that God alone is the source of our security (Psalm 18, 31, 59; John 10:27-30). True, that might sometimes be worked out through human agencies, but Scripture is clear as to where our loyalty should ultimately lie. There is no place for 'double agents' in the kingdom of heaven; we should act on this intelligence.
Nigel Hopper
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