Spooks: The Greater Good

After ten hugely successful seasons, the BBC original drama Spooks returns, this time hitting the big screen with the help of Kit Harington. Spooks: The Greater Good opens up with Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) facing a new crisis: a terrorist has escaped from MI5 custody during a handover. Blamed for this failure, Harry is forced to resign as a head of counter-terrorism. With nothing else to lose and suspecting a breach at the highest levels of MI5, he disappears and decides to handle the situation in his own terms. Meanwhile, Will (Kit Harington), a young former agent, is brought back to find Harry and turn him in. However, he is soon facing the choice between helping Harry in his mission to find the traitor within the British intelligence, or to keep following the orders of this same organisation.

The best thing about the film is that it has managed to maintain the style of the show. The fast-paced, well-acted television drama found its success in great writing and gripping stories that were full of last minute twists; no character was safe, making Spooks all the more exciting. The Greater Good has the same mood to it and is shot in the same cold, blue-toned style as the series. Well-known characters, such as Harry, Malcolm (Hugh Simon), Oliver Mace (Tim McInnerny) and Erin (Lara Pulver) also make a comeback, while plenty of new faces are thrown into the mix for good measure, including Jennifer Ehle and Elyes Gabel. Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington gets one of the leading roles, trying to move from the well-known image of Jon Snow and into the depths of an intelligence thriller. Indeed he proves that he can handle an action role south of the Wall, too.

Fans of the series will be happy to see the return of Spooks; it looks just as good on the big screen, having saved its signature cinematography and storytelling style, while the scale is brought up a notch. However, it does work well as a standalone British thriller, too, as little back story is needed to understand the plot. All in all, Spooks: The Greater Good does justice to the original television drama, as a gripping, well-made thriller that sees Peter Firth back in action. The truth is, not many series succeed once they make it to the big screen – this one does it right.

Lyubomira Kirilova

Spooks: The Greater Good is released nationwide on 8^th May 2015.

Watch the trailer for Spooks: The Greater Good here: