Film and TV Now Interview: ‘Spooks: The Greater Good’ Writer Jonathan Brackley Discusses The Movie

JONATHAN BRACKLEY

“It has been a dream gig for me”

When you hear the word SPOOKS (or MI-5 if you’re in the States), you think of the fantastic TV series that was broadcast on the BBC from 2002 to 2011. It helped to shape and change the way drama was shown on television and took the audience on a thrilling and captivating ride through ten series. Now the time has finally arrived for the big screen adaptation of the popular spy show. SPOOKS: THE GREATER GOOD has been penned by Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent who were also the scriptwriters for the final two series of the TV show. With promotions galore of the movie, we were lucky enough to sit down with the scriptwriter Jonathan to talk all things SPOOKS…

Sitting at Pinewood Offices on a sunny afternoon to discuss the next big spy movie was a very interesting affair, not only because I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the show over the years, but because it has always intrigued me as to how they came up with such thrilling story lines, which in some instances were almost like eerie predictions of terrifying scenarios yet to come. The cool, calm and collected scriptwriter was very honest about the process of penning the script and all of the complexities behind it, even more so when it is already a much-loved TV show that is hoping to make that crossover to a successful big screen adaptation, especially when trying to satisfy the ardent viewers of the show. “It’s more of a duty to the show than a fan pressure,” he told us. “It has a big fan base, but we knew that we wanted to be true to the show, but on a bigger more epic scale. We didn’t feel too much pressure, but we wanted to make a film that would do justice for the show.”

The movie certainly does not disappoint and as Jonathan explains, it really is a movie for all, whether you are a fan of the show or not, familiar with its style, or coming into it completely new as the lead character Kit Harington did having not watched a single episode prior to watching the film, it certainly fulfils its intentions. “SPOOKS has always had its own identity since it began,” he explained. “It wasn’t Bond, it wasn’t Bourne, it wasn’t [John le] Carré, it’s always been its own thing.  It’s very London-centric it’s a very British thing.” He continues, “it was a lot more fun to write a movie that was on a much bigger scale where we can do more things, like go to different places and do things that we couldn’t always do in the series.”

The film provides beautiful, panoramic shots of England’s capital and it is Harington who is largely the man seen running about the city (and run a lot he certainly does!). His character Will Holloway is torn between ‘doing good or doing well,” as he is faced with the prospect of having to bring in his former superior Sir Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) who had previously decommissioned him from MI5 and is now being blamed for letting the infamous terrorist Qasim (Elyes Gabel) escape. Harington’s Holloway is torn between trusting the word of his former superior and following the orders of bringing him in for interrogation and handing him over to the verity people he is beginning to believe may have a mole within the agency. “We had a duty to make as believable characters as possible; we don’t want to create characters that have no believable backstory.”

It is great to see the addition of new faces in the film in the form of Harington and Gabel to name but a few, but the TV series always had one man that has been part of it from the beginning and it would be difficult to imagine the show without him and Jonathan reflects on the impact of his participation: “We always knew that Harry (Firth) was going to play a big part in the film because he has always been the core part of the show. It is interesting how at the beginning of the show when it started in series 1 and 2, Harry had a more of a back seat role he was a figure always in the background. Over the course of the 10 seasons he became one of the principal characters if you like. He has one of the largest presences on the show, so we always knew that he was going to play a big part in the film. We also wanted to bring something new to it as well by bringing in new characters, so obviously we were very lucky to get Kit Harington on board. He is an absolute treat. We wanted to make it familiar to the audience and also something new and to make it bigger and better.”

There is no denying that Firth and Harington have great on-screen chemistry in the film and their complicated relationship and feigned history is very much at the forefront of the movie. Mixing a new character with a familiar face has helped to bridge the gap between TV show and its movie counterpart, but Jonathan was wary of the need to give it a refreshing new take, but retaining the Spooks feel to the movie. “We had to make it a continuation of the series and be the Spooks that everybody knows and loves but I think we did try to make it a little bit different and we did really,” he explains. “To make it worthwhile when making a film you need to do something a bit different. Hopefully we did; we tried to. We’ve also tried to add an element of humour in there, which is something people have responded to well in the series especially with Harry who is very witty and dry. He has a great presence in the show so we always try to add a bit more of that. When you are making a big high-octane thing those funny sides tend to get left on the cutting room floor. So hopefully there is a bit of lunacy amongst all the terrifying stuff! Spooks has always had that element of realism and believability towards its stories in a political sense and the vast majority of stories are true in real life in the sense that MI5 have to deal with terrorism and extremism, that’s where the majority of the stories come from.”

The stories are exactly the reason why the TV show has engaged so well with the audience over the years, which are not only spookily similar to real life threats, but almost act like a prediction and I was very happy to hear Jonathan explain just how they come up with those plot lines and if they truly do get some kind of intel from the secretive powers that be: “Well we don’t get feedback! It’s all pretty much classified stuff!” mused the scriptwriter at the sheer idea they may know more than we think. “At the beginning of the series, I know they spoke to a lot of advisors and when Sam and I came in on series 9 and 10 we spoke to some consultants who invited us and kept as up-to-date with what the current threats were looking ahead. We had advisors and people coming in to try and help us with what could be the upcoming threats in the next 12 and 18 months, which were always fascinating and terrifying! But it was very useful to create the reality of the show.” 

The film, which has been helmed by director Bharat Nalluri, is almost like a love letter to London, with various landmarks and locations lovingly portrayed. They are used so effectively and never appear simply as a backdrop. SPOOKS has always been a film based in London, centring on the lives of MI5 officers and if there was to be further sequels to the film, it would be hard to imagine it not based in London. “It’s always good to visit other places and when we were developing it, we thought ‘okay we’ve got a film now we can go across the world’, but ultimately when it came down to it, SPOOKS has always been about London and protecting and defending the realm,” he agrees. “So l think while we want to go further afield particularly to the sorts of places where it has always been relevant to SPOOKS such as Russia and Germany, I think we would always want to go back to London. It’s part of its identity. It’s about MI5 and their homeland and their security service and in Bond that was about MI6, so he was always going further afield.”

With this being Jonathan’s first film script which has been produced, it has certainly been an excellent feature film debut. The movie is full of twists and turns and the characters are utterly engaging (you can read our review of the film here), but it is clear to see that he has enjoyed the process as much as we enjoyed watching the film: “It’s been wonderful, absolutely superb. It’s been a dream gig for me.” With the size of the smile on his face as he uttered those final words, we believe him.

SPOOKS: THE GREATER GOOD arrives in cinemas May 8th.

Here is the trailer for the gripping film below: 

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