Double good news for "Spooks" fans - a second series of the MI5 drama will air next month, and the first season is to be released in a 3-disc DVD box set...

Spooks - MI5 Not 9 To 5
22nd May 2003

Over 10 million viewers in the UK tuned in every week to catch up with the Bafta award winning series "Spooks" which followed a team of fictional MI5 agents through 6 action packed episodes in May 2002. Double good news for fans of Tom, Zoe, Danny and deep fat friers, as the second series will air in June alongside a release of the first series DVD box set!

Season 2

Back in June 2002, the sixth and final episode of the first series left viewers on the edge of their seats as Tom's girlfriend and her daughter were trapped inside a securely sealed house, with an explosive-packed laptop that was just about to blow. The second series is set to pick up from exactly where it left off with Tom helplessly watching from outside as the timer ticks down.

Above: The door "pods" at MI5 HQ.

Due to the huge success of the first series, this time around the BBC commissioned 10 hour-long episodes, and are set to drive the topicality of the storylines even further home. The original series was written during the September 11th atrocities, but the writers stuck to their anti-terrorism unit plots and delivered a brave series which won much critical acclaim.

"Threats to national security have never been greater and our team of spies has to match the growing sophistication of an often unseen enemy", said producer Simon Crawford Collins about the second series. Writer David Wolstencroft added, "In the current political climate, never have people been more aware of the risk of terrorist threats".

MI6 can exclusively reveal that the second series is set to air on BBC 1 on Monday 2nd June 2003.

The "Section B" team at MI5 will be joined by a few new recruits this series, after controversially losing the young MI5 trainee 'Helen' (played by Lisa Faulkner) in a series 1 episode that got the nation talking.

Frying Squad

More than 250 viewers complained after Helen, a young MI5 trainee played by Lisa Faulkner, was shown being murdered after an undercover operation went wrong.

The character's hand was plunged into a deep fat fryer before her captors were shown pushing her head towards the oil. The cameras then cut away to show Helen covering her badly burned face before she was shown being shot in the head.

The BBC admitted the episode had "clearly disturbed" a number of viewers and expressed its "regret for that". However, it defended the episode, which it described as "a serious piece of television, showing the kind of threat which might be faced by agents engaged in the fight against terrorism". The incident was described by one former MI5 officer as "fictitious and unnecessarily horrific". Right: Lisa Faulkner as 'Helen' before the crisp 'n' dry. The actress also screentested with Bond producers for the role of Miranda Frost ("Die Another Day"), but later admitted it went terribly.

The complaint was partly upheld by the broadcasting standards commission who said the death was "Violent and disturbing... Shocking, but in the context was acceptable and important for the later narrative".

DVD Debriefing

Originally planned to coincide with the launch of season 2, a 3-disc DVD box set of season 1 is about to hit the shops (the release date slipped from June 2nd to June 16th 2003). The polished collection boasts menus with fantastic animation and a highly original feature select device - an intruder breaking into an office! No corners are being cut even though the series was made for TV, the episodes will be presented in anamorphic widescreen format with 5.1 surround sound.

The box set includes: All six uncut episodes Commentaries by producers, writers, directors and cast 10 minutes of deleted scenes with commentaries Two hours of cast & crew interviews split into 27 segments Behind the scenes features Script, text articles and wallpapers on the DVD-ROM Deep fat friers not included Discs: 3 Region: 2 (UK & Europe) R.R.P: £29.99 Released: 19th June 2003 Pre-Order Now! MI6 Price £22.49 (Save £7.50!)

MI5 Not 9 To 5

The number of people logging on to MI5's website soared at the end of each programme in the first series. Immediately before the show each week, only a handful of people are looking at the site; when it ended at 10pm, more than 2,500 logged on. Altogether, more than 10,000 people a week were consulting MI5's web pages.

mi6-hq.com received around 200 emails a week containing CV's and requesting application information during the first series.