Career Spooks

Spooks - Lucas North (2008 - )

Lucas North is an ex-MI5 operative who is back from a period of being in prison in Russia and he’s brought back with a spy swap. Before Lucas was captured in Russia he was probably one of the best spies in his field. He was brilliant. He was on the brink of taking over Section D. It’s the central core of Lucas’ being is to find out what it was he paid the price of those 8 years for. It’s almost a father-son relationship because, I think, Lucas was a protégé of Harry’s but it’s been damaged. There’s an ex-wife who was left behind when he was caught in prison. The memory of her is the thing that’s kept him going even though she was his ex-wife. (Spooks PR interview, October 22, 2008)

The British spy series, "Spooks", ("MI5" in the US and France) follows the operations of the Counter-Terrorism Department, "Section D", part of the British secret service (MI5). It was created by David Wolstencroft and first aired in 2002. The only remaining member of the original cast is Peter Firth, who plays section head, Sir Harry Pearce. In 2008, season 7, Richard Armitage joined the team as Lucas North, the leading male agent.

I fought hard to make him look as shocking as possible. I lost a stone in weight, and wanted to shave my head ... (Anglophenia, "Robin Hood's Richard Armitage Wants Your Respect, Not Your Knickers", October 20, 2008)

The leather's gone completely. There was a brief (from the Spooks producers) to say Lucas North wasn't allowed any leather at all, apart from shoes. So there isn't a hint of leather in this character's costume. ("Spooks New Boy Plays Double-Agent", BBC Newsbeat Entertainment, October 27, 2008)

… That’s one of the main reasons I took the job, because it was like nothing I’d ever done before character-wise.
I was also attracted to the actual practicalities of what the characters do, the fact they have to be good actors when they infiltrate their way into various situations.
I was fascinated by the day-to-day working process.
(“I’d make a rubbish spy”, Sunday People, October 26, 2008)

But I had to decide who he was before he was in prison and what happened to him in prison and who he is now. So he’s really finding his feet in the world as I was finding the character. That’s where Lucas is at. (BBC Radio 6, Chris Hawkins, 6 Music, November 3, 2008)

He's malnourished but physically he's fit. In prison he put himself through a torturous routine to keep himself going. He was about to break mentally and in order to stop that from happening he kept his body working. ("The Spy Returns", BBC Press Office, Programme Information, Network TV Week 44, December 24, 2008)

He has no knowledge of how damaged he is emotionally, until memories start to work their way to the surface.

There are glimpses that make you realise he is struggling to adjust, but as a spy he keeps it well hidden. ("The Spy Returns", BBC Press Office, Programme Information, Network TV Week 44, December 24, 2008)

The region 2 dvd can be pre-ordered at:

Amazon.co.uk

They do this brilliant thing where they can create the image of a rather large bomb but with very little debris. It means you can put the actor quite close to it. ("Spooks: Farewell Ross?", Manchester Evening News, Ian Wylie, November 27, 2009)

In this series he enters into a relationship with CIA liaison officer Sarah Caulfield who has trouble written all over her. From the minute he sees her she’s this incredibly beautiful, statuesque, powerful woman who is irresistible but also plays power games and gets off on that struggle. ("Richard Armitage: Spooks 8 is Darker and Intense!", What’s On TV.co.uk, November 6, 2009)

On a good day it takes about two hours to put them [tattoos] on. But they can break up if you sweat. I’m wheeled on to the set, told to stand stll and not touch anything – and they rub off on the sheets. ("Spooks: Richard Armitage", Manchester Evening News, October 29, 2009, Ian Wylie)

I think it works very well with Ros as the Head of Section and Lucas and Ros are working really well together. There’s a lot of banter between them, which I really enjoy. They’ve got the same sense of humour and, I think, the same sense of danger. ("Spooks, Richard Armitage Extras", The Life of Wylie, October 29, 2009, Ian Wylie)

I have been practising my serious face, my Spooks look, and also my Spooks lean ... That's when you lean across the table when you deliver something really serious. Rupert Penry-Jones coached me in a lot of these things. ("A New Kid on the Grid", Metro.uk.co, Emma Jean Sturgess, October 21, 2008)

If I’m offered the role of the hero, I immediately look for the antihero within! … I see everything in terms of an outer skin and an inner skin. (“Richard Armitage joins the cast of Spooks”, Times Online, October 18, 2008)

There are moments when you think: "OK, I'm diffusing a bomb now and I don't know where I've got this skill from, but I seem to have it". That's when you start to laugh. ("A New Kid on the Grid", Metro.uk.co, Emma Jean Sturgess, October 21, 2008)

You start to breathe in and out, but when the water just fills everywhere up it just hits you. It changed my opinion completely. … I realised that it really is a form of torture that shouldn’t be used. I only lasted five to 10 seconds, and the sound of my voice crying out to stop isn’t me acting. The psychological damage of doing that to someone for even a minute would be indescribable. (“Spooks actor subjected to real waterboarding for TV show”, Telegraph.co.uk, October 28, 2008, Chris Irvine)

Production Details

Cast
Harry Pearce - Peter Firth
Ros Myers - Hermione Norris
Adam Carter - Rupert Penry-Jones
(1 episode)
Lucas North - Richard Armitage
Connie James - Gemma Jones
Ben Kaplan - Alex Lanipekun
Malcolm Wynn-Jones - Hugh Simon
Jo Portman - Miranda Raison

Producer
Katie Swindon

Directors
Colm McCarthy
Peter Hoar
Edward Hall
Sam Miller

Rupert set the bar by doing his own stunts. I saw him roll over the bonnet of a car in series six so I froze the TV to check and it was him. I asked him how they insured him to do that! I couldn’t possibly not do my own stunts now. I’ve done fight sequences and a torture sequence, which was a bit scary. It’s different to Robin Hood. That’s fantasy fighting, but this is proper hardcore. You beat the s*** out of someone and it looks real. (“Richard Armitage: Spooks”, Digital Spy, Simon Reynolds, October 17, 2008)

You’ve got one episode which is about financial terrorism and one episode about cyber warfar where you see the economy driven into the ground in the space of an hour. Don’t you think that’s incredibly good writing to make a prediction like that? (“Spooks: Richard Armitage”, Telegraph.co.uk, Serena Davies, December 24, 2008)

On the surface Lucas is an amiable character but eight years in a Russian prison has had a profound effect on him. His personality is divided between who he was before he was imprisoned, the prisoner and the person he has become. He has an outer façade which is personable, but underneath is somebody who has been through a big trauma. He is aware he is playing catch-up with the world. … (“Meet Lucas North, the Spook with a haunted past”, What's On TV.co.uk, October 20, 2008)

Writers
Neil Cross
Russell Lewis
Richard McBrien
Christian Spurrier
James Moran
Ben Richards

The dvd boxed set of the series may be purchased at:

Amazon.uk (region 2)
ABC shop online (region 4)
EzyDVD (region 4)

SERIES 7

SERIES 8

Production Details

Cast
Harry Pearce - Peter Firth
Ros Myers - Hermione Norris
Lucas North - Richard Armitage
Jo Portman - Miranda Raison
Malcolm Wynn-Jones - Hugh Simon
Ruth Evershed - Nicola Walker
Tariq Masood - Shazad Latif
Sarah Caulfield - Genevieve O'Reilly

Executive Producers
Andrew Woodhead
Karen Wilson
Simon Crawford Collins

Producer
Chris Fry

Directors
Alrick Reilly
Sam Miller
Ed Hall

Writers
Ben Richards
Christian Spurrier
Sean Reilly
David Farr
Richard McBrien
Dennis Kelly
James Dormer

He was finally adjusting to being released from prison at the end of the last run … This time he’s getting his focus back and becoming the spy he once was … ("Romance is in the Air for Lover Boy Lucas North", Coventry Telegraph, October 31, 2009)

‘Nightingale’ is a group of influential ‘players’ hand-picked from the world’s superpowers with access to huge sums of money … We have to try to hunt them down and find out exactly what they’re planning … ("Spooks gives Bond a run in Gadget Stakes", Sunday Post, Kevin Bridges, November 1, 2009)

One of the trickiest things I had to do was a fight in a swimming pool … It wasn’t in the original script but there was a sequence where Lucas is getting information out of someone and there just happened to be a swimming pool in the house. ("Spooks: Richard Armitage", Manchester Evening News, October 29, 2009, Ian Wylie)

We have gone into deeper, darker territory. It’s been quite an intense shoot. The scripts are much more ambitious this year – they’re much more dense and the political landscape is ever changing. It keeps you on your toes. ("Richard Armitage: Spooks 8 is Darker and Intense!", What’s On TV.co.uk, November 6, 2009)

It’s really hard to fight in a pool, everything is in slow motion. It’s almost like a nightmare. … ("Spooks: Richard Armitage", Manchester Evening News, October 29, 2009, Ian Wylie)

I thought I’d be doing theatre work after leaving drama school, but then I got this. It’s a great place to learn as there are some brilliant actors here. I’ve had little talks with people as we’ve gone along.
("Romance is in the Air for Lover Boy Lucas", Coventry Telegraph, October 31, 2009)