Spooks/MI-5 Movie Finally Gets a U.S. Release Date, Trailer, Poster

Americans been waiting anxiously for the 2015 movie version of the BBC TV series they know as MI-5 and the rest of the world knows as Spooks. Spooks: The Greater Good opened last May in the UK, but failed to materialize Stateside during the summer. But just as fans were starting to give up hope and think they'd have to import Region 2 DVDs, last month Deadline reported that Saban Entertainment would release the film, under the title MI-5 (no "Greater Good"), in the United States this December! And today we have a trailer and a poster for that release. And it's very different from the UK trailer we saw in March. Check it out below.

Last spring I speculated rather cynically that if I were the U.S. distributor, I would try to get the movie out before Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (the fifth in that series) to capitalize on audience confusion over the title MI-5 (which is of course derived from the name of the British Security Service, and has nothing to do with Mission: Impossible, which it pre-dates by more than five decades). From the poster, which uses imagery, colors and fonts similar to the various Mission: Impossible campaigns, it looks like Saban are doing just that. But coming well after Rogue Nation's hit theatrical run, it seems like they're trying to capitalize on that film's home video release instead. (Rogue Nation hits Blu-ray and DVD on December 15, and MI-5 hits theaters December 4.) I hope that scheme doesn't rub people the wrong way, because MI-5/Spooks was a fantastic TV show and therefore I am certain that the movie will be much, much better than the sorts of similar title cash-ins like Transmorphers released by The Asylum with the specific intention of confusing Grandma during her Christmas shopping.

Peter Firth (The Hunt for Red October) and Lara Pulver (Fleming) return as spymaster Harry Pearce (the only star to remain through all ten seasons of the TV show) and agent Erin Watts (introduced in the final season), respectively, and Tim McInnerny reprises his recurring role as Oliver Mace. The rest of the cast is filled out by newcomers to the franchise, led by Kit Harrington (Game of Thrones). Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty), David Harewood (Homeland), Elyes Gabel (Exit Strategy) and Tuppence Middleton (The Lady Vanishes) round out the ensemble. The strategy of bringing in Harrington as the new star instead of bringing back one of the few survivors of the series (which had a remarkably high mortality rate among its leads!) is clearly designed to make the film accessible to new audiences, while still rewarding seasoned viewers. From this trailer, it really looks like the film manages exactly that! I can't wait for the opportunity to finally see this movie!

MI-5 opens theatrically on December 4, but will be available on DirecTV in an exclusive window beginning a month sooner, on November 5. Watch the trailer below:


Read my review of MI-5: Volume 1
Read my review of MI-5: Volume 2

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 3

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 4
Read my review of MI-5: Volume 5

Posters and Teaser Trailer for Spooks: The Greater Good

Mission: Impossible 5 (now known as Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation) isn't the only spy movie spun off from a successful TV series with the initials "MI-5" coming out this year. As we first learned back in late 2013, the popular BBC series MI-5 (as it was known in America; Spooks to UK viewers), which ran from 2002-2011, is also getting the big screen treatment this year. Spooks: The Greater Good is set for release in Britain on May 8 (lucky Brits!), and two posters and a brief teaser were unveiled at the end of January. They somehow slipped by me until now. So far there is unfortunately no U.S. release date set. Presumably in the States it will be titled MI-5: The Greater Good, so you would think that Fox (who are distributing in the UK, but not confirmed for North America) would want to get it out here prior to Rogue Nation to capitalize on spy fans' confusion. I admit, that's a rather cynical position to take on a movie I'm really excited about, but I'm trying to think like a distributor. The only confirmed regular cast members from the TV series are Peter Firth (featured on the poster above), returning as Security Service spymaster Harry Pearce, and Lara Pulver (Sherlock), who was introduced in the 10th and final season as Erin Watts. Tim McInnerny reprises his recurring role as Oliver Mace, while the rest of the cast is rounded out by newcomers. (The movie is designed to be accessible to first-time viewers as well as dedicated fans.) Kit Harrington (Game of Thrones) leads the pack (and is pictured on the poster below), along with Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty), David Harewood (Homeland), Elyes Gabel (Exit Strategy, A Most Violent Year) and Tuppence Middleton (The Lady Vanishes). Check out the teaser:

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 1

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 2

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 3

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 4
Read my review of MI-5: Volume 5

Worricker: Turks & Caicos Premieres Tonight on PBS

American audiences finally get to see David Hare's long-awaited follow-up to 2011's gripping spy drama Page Eight tonight on PBS's Masterpiece Contemporary. Worricker: Turks & Caicos airs in most regions at 9pm ET, but local PBS stations are always unpredictable, so you'll definitely want to check your local listings to be sure not to miss it. Bill Nighy's veteran MI5 agent Johnny Worricker returns, materializing in the faraway islands of Turks & Caicos after leaving his government position (and London) at the end of Page Eight. But we all know spies never retire. This time, an order from the CIA puts Worricker back to work. Once again, Nighy is backed up by an all-star cast, this time including Christopher Walken (A View to A Kill), Winona Ryder (Star Trek), Helena Bonham Carter (Fight Club), Dylan Baker (The Tailor of Panama), Rupert Graves (Sherlock) and, returning from Page Eight, Ralph Fiennes (Skyfall). David Hare (Saigon: Year of the Cat) again writes and directs the 2-hour feature. Next Sunday, PBS airs the conclusion of the Worricker Trilogy, Salting the Battlefield. Both Turks & Caicos and Salting the Battlefield are already available to pre-order on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon as well. They come out next week, on November 18.

Empire Offers Details on the Spooks/MI-5 Feature Film

Empire (via Dark Horizons) has the first details on the new big-screen movie version of the long-running UK spy series Spooks (known in the U.S. as MI-5)—and this picture of series star Peter Firth (The Hunt for Red October) reprising his role of spymaster Harry Pearce, and newcomer Kit Harrington (Game of Thrones) as MI-5 agent Will Crombie. Director Bharat Nalluri (a veteran of the series) told the magazine that the movie, Spooks: The Greater Good, will have a much larger scope than the TV show. "The canvas is huge on this," he said. "We’re running from Moscow to Berlin to London. It’s a story of the old world and new world.... We’ve got motorbikes, attacks on convoys, huge sniper sequences in the middle of London. It’s set piece after set piece." The movie is designed to be accessible to new viewers who haven't seen the show, so it will largely focus on new characters. Harrington will be joined by fellow newcomers Tuppence Middleton (Cleanskin, The Lady Vanishes), Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty) and Elyes Gabel (Exit Strategy). The only other series veteran officially slated to return is Tim McInnerny as Harry's slippery colleague on the Joint Intelligence Committee, Oliver Mace, though Nalluri also hints that Matthew Macfadyen, who starred on the show's first two seasons and then made a surprise appearance in the series finale, might pop up as Tom Quinn. The movie's plot finds MI-5 mired in scandal after letting a terrorist escape during a routine handover, and Harry's career in shambles. "You could say that Harry is having a Nick Fury moment," says Nalluri, alluding to events in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. When Harry disappears amidst his agency's turmoil, it's up to Crombie to get to the bottom of the disappearance and find out what's really going on. The movie is scheduled for release in Britain in 2015; I really hope they get a U.S. distributor as well! The series was pretty excellent, and the prospect of it transitioning to a regular film franchise sounds like a very promising one to me.

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 1

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 2

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 3

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 4
Read my review of MI-5: Volume 5

Tradecraft: Spooks Feature Film Cast Expands

Deadline reports that Kit Harington (Game Of Thrones) and Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty) have joined the previously announced Peter Firth in Spooks: The Greater Good, the feature film continuation of the popular and long-running UK spy series Spooks (known in the U.S. as MI-5. According to the trade, "Harington plays an ex-MI-5 operative brought back in by Ehle’s deputy chief to uncover how a terrorist escaped custody during a routine handover." The feature, directed by frequent series helmer Bharat Nalluri, is scheduled to shoot early next year. Further cast announcements are expected soon; it's still unknown if any other series cast members whose characters survived will be joining Firth. I have yet to see Game of Thrones (I know, I know...), but I saw Harington on a panel at Comic-Con and he exuded leading man charm. Ehle is always good (and especially in Zero Dark Thirty), so I have no doubt she'll make a good addition to the Spooks team too.

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 1

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 2

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 3

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 4
Read my review of MI-5: Volume 5

Tradecraft: Spooks/MI-5 Revived For Theatrical Movie

BBC's Spooks, known in America as MI-5, ran for ten seasons and concluded in 2011, making it one of the longest running spy series in television history. Now it looks like the show may find a new life in feature films. Variety reports that series star Peter Firth, who played spymaster Harry Pearce, will star in the theatrical feature Spooks: The Greater Good for Shine Pictures and Kudos. Series producers Jane Featherstone and Stephen Garrett will team up with Ollie Madden (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) to produce the film, from a script by series writers Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent. Bharat Nalluri, who helmed both the series pilot and the series finale as well as lots of episodes in between, will direct the movie as well. The producers are seeking international distribution partners at the American Film Market. According to the trade, "In the film, a terrorist escapes from the custody of MI-5, the British intelligence service, during a handover. The head of counter-terrorism is blamed, and then disappears himself. His protege is called in to help uncover what happened." So far Firth is the only actor attached, but I'm sure a few more familiar faces from the series (well, from the few who survived all the way through anyway) will turn up, probably joined by some heavy-hitting guest stars. Personally, I'd love to see Hugh Laurie reprise his Season 1 role as Firth's condescending MI-6 counterpart Jools Siviter!

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 1

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 2

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 3

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 4
Read my review of MI-5: Volume 5

Closed Circuit Trailer

Somehow I hadn't heard about this one until now, when it's less than a month away. Closed Circuit is a new London-set thriller about lawyers caught up in a terrorism case involving an MI5 asset starring Eric Bana (Hanna), Rebecca Hall (Iron Man 3), Ciaran Hinds (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Jim Broadbent (Any Human Heart) and Julia Stiles (The Bourne Ultimatum). It's written by Steven Knight (Eastern Promises, Redemption) and directed by John Crowley (Is Anybody There?), but Focus Features is billing it as "from the producers of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," (that would be Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner) which is a surefire way to get my attention at least! Oddly, unlike Tinker Tailor and Skyfall, we Americans get this Brit thriller first. It opens in the U.S. on August 28, and in the UK November 1.

Tradecraft: Page Eight Becomes a Trilogy... With a Killer Cast

We knew that Bill Nighy was keen to do a sequel to David Hare's superior 2011 TV spy thriller Page Eight, but we've heard very little on that front for a while now. I was about to give up hope when today news came (from Deadline) that there would be not one, but two sequels to form "The Worricker Trilogy." Nighy and Hare are both returning, the former reprising his role as MI5 officer Johnny Worricker and the latter once again writing and directing. As with the first film, which co-starred Michael Gambon, Rachel Weiscz, Judy Davis and Ralph Fiennes, Hare has lined up stellar casts for his follow-ups. According to the trade blog, Skyfall's Fiennes and Strike Back's Ewan Bremner will reprise their Page Eight roles in the second movie, Turks & Caicos, joined by Christopher Walken (A View to a Kill), Winona Ryder, Helena Bonham Carter (who has, amazingly, never made a spy movie before, I don't think), Dylan Baker (The Tailor of Panama), Zach Grenier (24) and James Naughton. Then Page Eight's Judy Davis, Kate Burdette and Saskia Reeves will return for the third film, Salting the Battlefield, as will Fiennes, Bremner and Bonham-Carter, joined by Casino Royale's Malcolm Sinclair.

Deadline also provides a few details on the plots of these sequels, but they contain mild spoilers for the first movie, so if you haven't seen Page Eight yet, go ahead and do so! If you have, then you'll remember that its conclusion found Worricker leaving both the service and the country, heading off to Turks & Caicos. But if he thinks he's out of the spy business, he's quickly proven wrong. In Turks & Caicos, he runs afoul of the CIA, who force him "to deal with a group of ambiguous Americans who are on the islands for a high-level conference." Meanwhile, "an old girlfriend is being asked to betray her boss in London in order to establish an illicit connection between the prime minister (Fiennes) and dark goings-on in the war on terror." The final entry, Salting The Battlefield, finds Worricker and that old girlfriend together on the run from MI5 "until Worricker returns home to confront the prime minister in a duel of wits." I'm so thrilled to learn we'll see more of Johnny Worricker! I love smart spy television of this nature, and the Brits do it better than anyone. I'm just a little disappointed that there's no mention of Rachel Weiscz reprising her role.

Shadow Dancer Trailer

Here's the trailer for Shadow Dancer, the 1990s-set Clive Owen spy drama we first heard about two years ago from Man on Wire director James Marsh. Owen plays an MI5 operative who coerces a single mther (WE's Andrea Riseborough) into spying on the IRA... which means spying on the members of her own family. Gillian Anderson plays Owen's manipulative, duplicitous boss. (At least those are the adjectives I infer from the trailer.) Shadow Dancer, which came out in Britain last year, opens Stateside on May 31.

Book Review: Dead Line by Stella Rimington

Stella Rimington’s Dead Line, part of a quartet of novels that kicked off Vintage’s Pocket Lizard line (distinguished by their distinctive black page edging) last summer, might very well be my favorite Liz Carlyle book yet. I’ve enjoyed them all so far, but Secret Asset and even the highly enjoyable Illegal Action lacked the oomph of the former MI5 Director General’s debut novel, At Risk. Happily, Dead Line is just as thrillingly page-turning as that one, and offers a wide array of equally memorable characters. In fact, while her previous novels tended to trade off points of view between MI5 agent Carlyle and her usually unidentified antagonist (and occasionally her able assistant Peggy), Dead Line expands its points of view to encompass tons of characters, all making up the same grand tapestry and all coming together as pieces of the puzzle and the plot, forming a huge panorama of the London spy scene. We get inside the head of not only Liz and some of her colleagues, but also agents of the CIA’s London Station (new territory for Rimington, who’s thus far eschewed the Cousins in her novels), Syrian intelligence operatives, Mossad agents, a couple of innocents caught up in the spy game, and of course that nebulous antagonist.

The action begins when an asset in Cypress gives the MI6 station chief there credible intel on a threat to an upcoming Mideast peace conference to be held in Gleneagles, Scotland, which will be attended by the Prime Minister, the American President and the leaders of Israel and Syria, among other distinguished dignitaries. The asset hasn’t got much information, however—just the names of two British citizens somehow connected with the coming attack. He doesn’t even know how they’re connected. That’s up to Liz to suss out—once the intel has finally made its way from MI6 to MI5 in a manner not quite as timely as taxpayers would probably hope for, but probably sadly accurate given Rimington’s career experience. It’s fascinating to track the disbursal of this intelligence to other parties. Rimington demonstrates well what a valuable commodity good intel is in the intelligence community, and how jealously guarded it is by those who possess it. MI6’s Geoffrey Fane, a character familiar to regular readers of this series who shares a shaky professional history with Liz, is the man who controls it. He then doles it out in small doses to his colleagues in MI5 (since it pertains to a domestic threat, which falls under their purview), the CIA (since the threat also concerns the American President), Whitehall, and eventually the Mossad. Fane doesn’t give any of his supposed allies quite the whole picture, withholding different bits from different parties—partly to protect his sensitive source, and partly to ensure that his own agency remains in control of this information for political reasons. Naturally, had all the parties had total access to the details all along and cooperated, it would have taken them a lot less time than it does to piece together exactly what’s going on. Regrettably, I suspect this lack of full cooperation or trust between various agencies on the same side still goes on in both Britain and America, even more than ten years after 9/11 and the ensuing overhauls of the Intelligence Community. But while the real-life scenarios are frightening, this sort of inter-agency politics makes for wonderful reading!

Rimington demonstrates not only her intimate knowledge of the spy profession, but also her knowledge of spy literature with some nice nods to le Carré, Graham Greene and others. I particularly appreciated the Greene reference. Anyone who’s read or seen the movie of Our Man in Havana will have a good guess as to the true value of the intelligence received by Syrian agent Ben Ahmad from an asset at secret rendezvous in a vacuum cleaner shop!


Dead Line moves along at a brisk pace not because it’s wall-to-wall action (although Liz is the victim of a harrowing assassination attempt this time around), but because of the characters themselves and their relationships with each other. The solution to the mystery depends not only on Liz assembling clues in the right order, but also on her cracking the code of how to deal with each of her colleagues in such a way as to get all the information she needs out of them. That’s a slow and tedious process, but it doesn’t read that way. All of the characters are interesting and well-rounded. As in the other books, we’re treated to glimpses into Liz’s personal life as well as her professional one. A subplot in Dead Line, for instance, involves her apprehension about and eventual acceptance of the new man in her widowed mother’s life. All of Rimington’s spies are human beings as well as secret agents, attempting to balance their social and professional lives in the same way as anyone else with a demanding job.

Perhaps because of her persistence in portraying realistic intelligence operations as opposed to Bondian world-in-peril plots, Rimington’s books tend to fizzle out a bit in their denouements rather than explode. That’s true again to some extent in Dead Line (though less so than in the preceding two books), and probably keeps it from reaching the heights of At Risk. But even if we guess the enemy’s plot before Liz does, it’s still a satisfying finale and an even more satisfying journey to get there.

For the third time in four books, Dead Line once again features a rogue intelligence agent turning against his or her service and aligning him/herself with terrorists. Whereas previously I’d groaned a little bit at that 24/Spooks-ish device, this time it actually solidifies itself as an intentional theme in Rimington’s writing, and not an accidental cliché. Liz herself summarizes this theme when she wonders, “Who said the Age of the Individual was over?”

“What I always find surprising,” muses another character, “is that with all our sophisticated technology and the big bureaucracies we work in, a single person can still do so much damage.”

Liz ponders this and replies, “Well, when you think about it, so much of our work is about the actions of individuals—not governments or bureaucracies. That’s what makes it so fascinating. If it were just about process or gizmos, do you think you’d want to be doing the job?”

“Absolutely not,” concludes her colleague emphatically. “And neither would you.” And neither would readers. Ultimately, it isn't the process or the gizmos that keeps fans returning to the genre time and again. It's the characters. The individuals. And with a keen insight honed by years spent observing and analyzing such individuals and their behavior for a living, Rimington always manages worthy contributions on this front to the spy fiction genre.

Dead Line is as exciting and satisfying a contemporary spy novel as I’ve read this year. While readers of the whole series will be rewarded with developments in long-term personal relationships and character growth from book to book, there’s no reason why a first-time reader couldn’t plunge into the world of Liz Carlyle with this book. In fact, I’d recommend it. If you’ve never given Rimington a try but enjoy the less spectacular, more realistic side of spy fiction and find well-written political in-fighting as exciting as car chases and gunfights (as I do), you’ll find a lot to enjoy in Dead Line. And it doesn’t hurt that the American paperback edition comes wrapped up in a particularly satisfying physical package, either! I’m a big fan of the Vintage Pocket line on a judging-a-book-by-its-cover level alone. These books are a good size (smaller than your average trade paperback, but larger than a mass market one), a good texture (yes, that matters to me) and very attractive thanks to that black page edging. I hope all of Rimington’s novels end up reissued in this line.

Tradecraft: When the Nemesis Becomes the Hunted (and She's Still Melissa George)

The Melissa George spy series formerly known as Nemesis and even more formerly known as Morton is now known as Hunted, according to The Hollywood Reporter. (Note to producers: of those three options, the correct title is Nemesis. Please go back to that. Thank you.) Hunted is created and written by Frank Spotnitz (Strike Back, The X-Files) and directed by S.J. Clarkson (Hustle). The trade recaps what we (mostly) already knew about the plot thusly: "George [Alias] plays Sam, a spy who has just escaped an assassination attempt by a member of her own team and goes back to work undercover as a nanny, not knowing who tried to kill her or who to trust." Spotnitz has been experimenting with the European TV production model, and collaborated with UK production company Kudos (MI-5) on Hunted, shooting on location in London, Scotland and Morocco. “The showrunner model works very well in the US,” Spotnitz told the crowd at the MIPTV conference in Cannes, “but it’s a different creative culture [in Europe]. I’ve been trying to take the best of both worlds and I’m still in process of figuring out how to do that.” One thing he's taken from the UK world is a short season. The trade reports that "the first season will follow the same storyline over eight hours, and Spotnitz and his team are already thinking about upcoming seasons and different locations, though nothing has been confirmed just yet." Hunted will air this fall on BBC1 in the UK and Cinemax in the U.S.

New Spy DVDs Out Recently: M:I, MI-5, English and Eurospies Both Real and Fake

Once again, I'm behind here, with another massive catch-up round-up. There have been a lot of spy DVDs released in the past few weeks, all of them good stuff. As always, if you're inclined to buy any of them, you can support the Double O Section by doing so from the provided Amazon links!

MI-5: Volume 10

Now American fans get to see what British fans saw on TV last fall: the final season of the BBC's long-running spy drama MI-5 (known as Spooks over there). Unlike the last few seasons, MI-5: Volume 10 actually has a few special features (albethey disposable and spoiler-filled ones) including "Top Ten MI-5 Moments" (as chosen by the cast and crew) and "Harry’s Game," devoted to MI-5’s most constant character [Harry Pearce, played by Peter Firth]." I'm looking forward to seeing how ten seasons' worth of twists and turns pays off in what I hope turns out to be a satisfying finale! Retail is $29.98 for the 2-disc set, containing all 6 episodes.

Killers Are Challenged

Finally, we gat the long-awaited third film in the "Bob Fleming, Agent 077" series of Eurospy movies on DVD! Following Secret Agent Fireball (starring Richard Harrison) and the unforgettable Fury in Marrakesh (a prequel in which Stephen Forsyth took over the lead role), which both came out on PAL discs from the Swedish company Fin de Siecle Media, the middle film in the series, Killers Are Challenged (aka 077 Bob Fleming - Man in Casablanca) is now available as an All Region PAL title from another Swedish label, Njuta Films. Killers Are Challenged (1966) was directed by prolific Italian filmmaker Antonio Margheriti (often credited as Anthony Dawson), whose only other Eurospy movie was the thoroughly entertaining Lightning Bolt, starring Anthony Eisley. (Unless you count the giallo Naked You Die which has a few vague spy elements and even a cameo from "James Bond.") Personally, I really enjoy Lightning Bolt, but the infallible Eurospy Guide rates Killers as a better film, so I'm quite eager to see it! Susy Anderson, the beautiful Sdenka from Mario Bava's Black Sabbath (in her only spy role) and the delectable Wandisa Guida (from Lightning Bolt) co-star. No Eurospy movie ever relied too heavily on a plot, but for those who care about such things, here's the official description: "Three scientists discover an alternative energy to oil. Two of them die under mysterious circumstances, while the third - Coleman - is protected by CIA agents in Geneva. Special Agent Bob Fleming is instructed to go to Casablanca with the researcher's identity in order to investigate the mysterious deaths. He convinces Coleman's wife to work - with the rest of the women around him trying to kill him." You won't find this one on Amazon, but the import DVD, which does feature an English audio option, is available from Diabolik DVD for $21.99.

Mandrill

In the vein of the Jean Dujardin OSS 117 films and Black Dynamite, the Chilean action thriller Mandrill is a modern film conceived to look like it was made in another era. Only while those are parodies, this one is played relatively straight. The setting is South American, but the flavor is pure Eurospy. I've wanted to see this ever since I first heard about it when it played the festival circuit a few years ago, and I'm very excited that now I can, thanks to Magnet Releasing, who have released Mandrill on DVD and Blu-ray with English subtitles. (I think there's also a dubbed option, which might actually be appropriate for this sort of film.) Special features include the trailer, "Behind the Scenes of Mandrill" and "Anatomy of a Fight Scene." Retail is $26.98 for the DVD and $29.98 for the Blu-ray, but both, of course, are considerably cheaper on Amazon.

Mission: Impossible - The '89 TV Season

Presumably originally intended to coincide with the DVD release of the latest Tom Cruise blockbuster before it ended up being a big hit and lasting in cinemas for longer than likely expected, the second season of the 1988-90 revival series of Mission: Impossible instead hit DVD a few weeks ago, beating its theatrical cousin by a month. And what a joyous occasion it is for fans of classic spy television: we now have the final season of Mission: Impossible TV episodes containing the final appearances of Peter Graves as the one and only, real Jim Phelps. It's hard to believe that the first theatrical Mission (in which Jon Voight played a very different character named Phelps) came just five years after this DVD set leaves off. The two incarnations of the brand seem worlds apart. This 4-disc set (containing all 16 episodes of the revival's second season) represents my own preference. These episodes aren't as good as the Sixties and Seventies ones, but they're still highly enjoyable and, for me, more fun than the movies. Speaking of that original series, one of its stars, Greg Morris, returns to the revival once more reprising his role as Barney Collier in the two-part season premiere, "The Golden Serpent." (Those episodes, which were bundled as a film in Europe, are directed by old ITC hand Don Chaffey, who helmed his share of spy fare like The Prisoner, The Avengers, The Baron and more back in the Sixties.) Morris' son, Phil, is a regular on the revival, playing Barney's son Grant. The other regulars this season are Tony Hamilton, Jane Badler and Thaao Penghlis. Happily, for the first time ever on any Mission: Impossible DVD set from CBS/Paramount, there are even some bonus features! Not many, granted, but some. We get four episodic promos (including the trailer for the feature version of "The Golden Serpent") and the priceless "Holiday Promo," which features Peter Graves and the rest of the cast in snug winter sweaters in front of a Christmas tree wishing audiences season's greetings! It may not be that 1997 Diagnosis Murder episode "Discards" (which guest starred Phil Morris and Barbara Bain, reprising her Cinnamon Carter role from Mission's earliest seasons), which I would have loved to see included, but it's pure gold for Graves fans and likely the source of a screengrab that will feature on my Christmas post next winter! Retail on Mission: Impossible: The '89 TV Season is $39.98, but Amazon's got it way cheaper: just $25.49 right now. Complete your collection today!

You can also order Mission: Impossible: The '88 and '89 TV Seasons, which bundles the entire revival series together for just $69.98 (or less on Amazon).

Johnny English Reborn

Johnny English Reborn, the unexpected eight-years-after-the-fact follow-up to the 2003 Rowan Atkinson spy spoof Johnny English, made a mint overseas but failed to have much impact in America. Hopefully more U.S. viewers will discover it on DVD and Blu-ray DVD Combo, courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment, because it's a very funny spy send-up. In the pantheon of spy spoofs, it's not as good as the Jean Dujardin OSS 117 movies, but it's way, way better than any of the Austin Powers sequels. If you liked the original Johnny English (which is making its North American Blu-ray debut to coincide with this release), you'll like this one too. I laughed pretty much all the way through it. The DVD release includes a commentary track with director Oliver Parker and writer Hamish McColl, deleted and extended scenes with director intros, a gag reel, and a featurette on "The Wheelchair Chase." The Blu-ray/DVD combo has all that plus four more featurettes ("The English Files: The Making of Johnny English Reborn," "Working With Rowan," "Gadgets" and "English in Hong Kong"). So that's the one to get. Retail is $29.98 for the DVD and $34.98 for the BD/DVD Combo, but of course both are significantly cheaper on Amazon.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: MI-5: Volume 10 Hits U.S. Shelves Early Next Year

Upcoming Spy DVDs: MI-5: Volume 10 Hits U.S. Shelves Early Next Year

Confirming what we already suspected, the BBC America Shop blog (via TV Shows On DVD) reports that Americans can expect the current, final season of MI-5 (the long-running British spy series known as Spooks in the UK) on DVD "earlier next year." I'd imagine that's supposed to read "early next year," as we're used to MI-5 seasons coming out in January, and it's pretty hard to get much earlier than that. That means that for once, the US release will be nearly in sync with the UK one, which comes out at the end of November. Presumably this was the endgame in mind when BBC released two volumes of MI-5 in the U.S. this year (Volume 8 in January and Volume 9 in June), making it possible to catch up in time for the final season. Sweetening the deal, the blog reveals that there will be some special features on this final release, which is nice, since early seasons offered a wealth of bonus material but the last two have been bare-bones. The extras mentioned at this point include the "Top Ten MI-5 Moments chosen by the cast and crew and 'Harry’s Game,' devoted to MI-5’s most constant character [Harry Pearce, played by Peter Firth]." The show's series finale airs in Britain tomorrow night, and it was reported earlier this week that a fan-favorite character who departed the series many seasons ago would make a welcome (if fleeting) return. Cover art and price for the Region 1 DVD set are not yet available.

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 1

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 2

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 3

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 4
Read my review of MI-5: Volume 5

A Former Star Returns For Spooks/MI-5 Series Finale

A Former Star Returns For Spooks/MI-5 Series Finale

Digital Spy reports that one of the few former stars of Spooks (known in the US as MI-5) whose character managed to leave the series alive will return for the show's finale, which airs in the UK next week. The site couched their report in spoiler tags, so I won't reveal who (though fans can probably count the number of survivors on one hand, so it shouldn't be too hard to guess), but if you don't care about that you can find out by following the link here. I will say that the person in question is probably my favorite Spooks character (or second favorite after Harry), so I definitely welcome their return.

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 1

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 2

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 3

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 4
Read my review of MI-5: Volume 5

Tradecraft: Red Station Gets Adaptation

Tradecraft: Red Station Gets Adaptation

According to The Hollywood Reporter, production/management company Benderspink has optioned the film rights for Adrian Magson's spy thriller Red Station. The trade reports that "the story centers on an MI5 agent named Harry Tate who takes the fall for a drug bust gone bad. As punishment, he is sent to Red Station, an outpost in Georgia that is the home of washed up operatives. After two other agents go missing, Tate finds himself embroiled in a plot involving a Russian invasion of England and corruption and conspiracy at the highest level of the British government." Sounds cool! Sort of like The Prisoner meets Salt? Hard to tell from a brief synopsis. Obviously I'm not personally familiar with Magson's books (Red Station is the first in a planned series), but David Foster, who alerted me to this story, has covered them plenty at Permission to Kill. You can read his review of Red Station here, and a round table interview including Magson here.

Official: Spooks (AKA MI-5) is Ending

Confirming what was first hinted at in a May press release for the American release of the Volume 9 DVDs, the BBC has confirmed that Spooks (known in America as MI-5) is indeed coming to an end after ten seasons. The Guardian reports that the decision to end the popular long-running spy drama comes from the show's producers at Kudos, and not from the network. They say they wanted to see it go out "in its prime" rather than see it cancelled by the BBC down the line. Whether or not it's actually still "in its prime" is a matter for fans to debate, but the series has seen amazing longevity thanks to the producers' ability to reinvent it again and again with a constantly changing cast. (I don't think I've ever seen another spy show kill off as many lead characters, a fact that kept the series unpredictable, since viewers knew no one was ever safe.) According to the newspaper, the 10th and final season will focus on Peter Firth's character, Harry Pearce (the head of counter-terrorism at MI-5) which is entirely appropriate as Harry is the only remaining character who's been on the show consistently since Season 1 and thus its de facto true lead. While it's had its ups and downs, I've really enjoyed Spooks overall, and I will be sad to see it go... but I agree with Kudos that it can't run forever. I look forward to seeing how they wrap it all up. I hope that some of the few past stars who actually survived will return! (Most of all I'd like to see Harry Pearce go another round with Hugh Laurie's condescending MI-6 man from Season 1, Jules Siviter. That seems unlikely, however, given Laurie's House commitments.)
Thanks to The Harry Palmer Movie Site's Kees Stam for the alert on this one!

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 1
Read my review of MI-5: Volume 2

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 3

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 4
Read my review of MI-5: Volume 5

New Spy DVDs Out This Last Week

I'm a week late with this, but that kind of works out because as far as I know there are no major spy releases out this week. As of last week, though, America is finally caught up with Britain on seasons of MI-5 (known as Spooks in the UK), for the first time in the series' nine-year run! Because of a weird yearly January release schedule, we've always been a whole year behind, which kind of sucks when the storylines are often closely tied in to contemporary headlines. Now we're on the same page, just in time for the show's last season, due to air this fall in the UK and presumably to come out on DVD here next January. Last week's BBC release of MI-5: Volume 9 is a 3-disc set, retailing for $39.98 (though it's cheaper on Amazon). For once, there are no extras whatsoever, which is unfortunate, as the show's early seasons were packed with bonus features, and recent ones had featured at least a few. Oh well. Maybe that's the trade-off for finally getting a season half a year earlier.

She doesn't do it too often, but I love it when Agatha Christie ventures into spy territory in her mysteries. (And I would really love to see adaptations one day of her few straight-up espionage novels like They Came to Baghdad or Destination Unknown one day.) Agatha Christie's Poirot Movie Collection Set 6, out last week from Acorn on DVD and Blu-ray, contains one such venture in "The Clocks," when Poirot is recruited by the British Secret Service to look into some murders in Dover involving possible German spies on the eve of WWII. And, of course, there are secret documents to be recovered. As a bonus for Bond fans, Tomorrow Never Dies' Admiral Roebuck Geoffrey Palmer turns up as another Admiral. Plus, as the title indicates, it's one of those Christie mysteries that depends on clocks and timetables, and who doesn't love those? The other mysteries in this collection are "Three Act Tragedy" and "Halowe'en Party." Retail is a typically steep $49.99 for the DVD and $59.99 for the Blu-ray.

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 1
Read my review of MI-5: Volume 2

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 3

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 4
Read my review of MI-5: Volume 5

Read my review of Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Movie Collection Set 4
Read my review of Agatha Christie's Marple: The Geraldine McEwan Collection

Trailer For Cinemax's Strike Back

Cinemax has released a trailer for their "new" original series Strike Back... and apparently it debuts much sooner than I thought: this summer!  (I'd assumed it was a fall show.)  "New" is in quotation marks because, as previously reported, this is actually the second season of the UK series Chris Ryan's Strike Back, which aired over there on the satellite network Sky.  But despite being the second season, it's got new stars and a new, more American format (ten hour-long episodes instead of three hour-and-a-half episodes).  Yet it's not a remake, as evidenced by the different UK trailer (below), which makes it clear (somewhat surprisingly) that Spooks/MI-5's Richard Armitage, who starred in the first season, is still involved.  (There they're calling the new series Strike Back: Project Dawn to differentiate it from the original.) However, it looks like he'll be sidelined in favor of the new actors (including an American lead, played by an Australian)... most likely because he's tied up down in New Zealand shooting two Hobbit movies.  (Luckily, that didn't stop Martin Freeman from continuing his UK TV show, though... and he's the star of The Hobbit!) It seems like a good arrangement to me: maintain continuity from the first series but make the second friendly to new viewers as well.  I imported the Region 2 DVDs of the original series and what I put on briefly looked good, but I still haven't had a chance to watch it in earnest.  I'll post a review when I do.  That said, I think the new Cinemax version looks cool, too!

First Glimpse of Page 8 in BBC Promo

Amidst clips of the (awesome) new season of Doctor Who, upcoming episodes of Luther and lots of other BBC programs, this BBC Original Drama trailer offers spy fans a tantalizing first glimpse at David Hare's upcoming spy movie Page 8, starring Ralf Fiennes, Bill Nighey, Michael Gambon and Rachel Weisz.  As we first heard late last year, Page 8 follows Nighy as an MI5 ­operative who believes Weisz's character represents a threat to him. Gambon plays the Security Service's Director General. With a cast like that, I'm really looking forward to this.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: More Details On MI-5: Volume 9

Season 10 to be the series' last?

We already knew that the next volume of MI-5 DVDs (known as Spooks in the UK) would hit American shelves this July as opposed to next January.  (All the other seasons had been released in January, keeping American audiences over a year behind on the show's storylines.)  Now, thanks to TV Shows On DVD, we have the artwork as well.  And, thanks to the official copy, we also have a strong indication that Season 10 will be the final season.  (If true, I'll be sorry to see it go.  MI-5 has had its ups and downs, but I always look forward to the next season, and overall the show has done a good job handling a constantly changing core cast.)  BBC will release MI-5: Volume 9, a 3-disc set, on July 12.  The SRP is $39.98 (though it can already be preordered for cheaper than that on Amazon).  No extras were announced in the press release, which the editors of TV Shows On DVD take to mean there won't be any.  That would be unfortunate, as the show's early seasons were packed with bonus features, and recent ones had featured at least a few. Here's the BBC description:

The penultimate season of the hugely successful, long-running drama introduces a host of new characters. Relations between the CIA and MI5 reach breaking point over mysterious hackers. And a horrific truth about Lucas' past is uncovered by Harry when they come face to face in a compelling interrogation. Friendships are tested to the limit, Harry and Ruth's bond intensifies and the depth of deceit leads to the ultimate game of cat and mouse.

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 1
Read my review of MI-5: Volume 2

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 3

Read my review of MI-5: Volume 4
Read my review of MI-5: Volume 5