Spooks & The Unpredictable

Do you have a diary? Flip it open for me, and if you haven't already, insert "Watch Spooks on BBC One" in the entry for next Monday. This weekend, I watched the first three episodes of the new season (in order to write a preview for heat magazine, Kudos lawyers!), and they're as tremendous as I'd hoped.

Why do I love Spooks? Let me count the ways. Topping the list, if I'm honest, is Peter Firth's performance as MI5's Section D chief Harry Pearce. The man carries such gravitas and presence, while barely raising his voice above a near-whisper. Rupert Penry-Jones, too, has cemented himself into the show as unflappable action hero Adam Carter. Hermione Norris endlessly fascinates as nails-hard ice maiden Ros Myers, and I can honestly say there isn't a single weak link among the rest of the ensemble.

Spooks' plotting is exemplary, with storylines twisting and constantly rotating to reveal different sides and bigger pictures. Then there's the sheer pace of the beast - it's a rare episode of Spooks which doesn't hit the ground running, at such a fair old clip that you wonder what can possibly happen for the rest of the hour.

Vitally, Spooks is also one of the few continuing dramas where you constantly fear for all of the characters' lives. No-one is safe, as we've seen from a number of shocking fatalities over the past six seasons. This makes it consistently exciting.

Talking about unpredictability, here's something I've realised about my favourite TV characters, who are the aforementioned Harry Pearce, the Doctor, Boyd from Waking The Dead and Vic Mackey from The Shield. Something unites them all: you never know for sure how they're going to react to anything. Perhaps that's something to aspire to as a writer, if you see the appeal in this - creating a character who's well-drawn, but never predictable. Consistently unpredictable, in fact...

Note: Let's keep any comments spoiler-free for Spooks seasons past and present, even after the new episodes air.

Quantum Of Illness

Man-flu has but one benefit. It forces me to do something which I only do when ill: stop working and relax. Sweet lord, when I'm working in TV, execs will love my in-built routine of working, sleeping and precious little else. And this afternoon I'm outrageously excited, because I'm watching the first three episodes of the new series of Spooks, which hits BBC One on Monday week. Spooks and Doctor Who are shoulder-to-shoulder as my favourite UK TV shows, so to get a triple-pack of eps to view is sheer luxury and a privilege. Why, it makes being ill worthwhile. I also have some episodes of top US cop show The Shield to watch, but since this is the seventh and final season, I'm treating them as a nervous crack addict might treat their last few remaining rocks.

On Friday night, there was further spy-related action at the world's first screening of the new Bond movie. Quantum Of Solace's title has been amusing me since it was announced in January, but at least there's a rollicking movie behind the multiplex-unfriendly monicker. A high-ranking Sony exec made a pre-screening speech, including the words, "I would thank you for coming, but frankly you should be so bloody lucky".

There'll be no spoilers in this mini-review, partly because I had no idea what was going on at any point. This might have taken the edge off the experience, were it not for the sheer exhilaration of the action scenes. State-of-the-art is a good way of describing them - superbly directed, they excel in the kind of take-your-eye-out mayhem which makes you physically respond by ducking and gasping. Tremendous. As with Casino Royale, the 12A certificate is being pushed to its limit, as Daniel Craig's cold-hearted take on Bond murders his way through a small army.

As I say, the plot seemed overly complex and I really disliked the ending. But at least, unlike Casino Royale, Quantum knew when to end. I'm no Bond buff, but Craig's Bond has definitely piqued my interest: this 007 is more like an '80s action hero. He doesn't say much, is driven by revenge and is a violent bastard. Which I like - at least, in fictional action protagonists.

While I hate to sound ungrateful in any way, having been invited to such a great screening, the event's sole downside was the film industry's ongoing OTT piracy paranoia. Entering Leicester Square's Odeon was like going through an airport, complete with handheld metal detectors, bag searches and demands that we display any metallic contents of our pockets. Thank God they bagged and took my Blackberry away before the screening, or clearly I would have used it to take low-res stills of every second of Quantum, then animated them together, added my own homemade soundtrack and sold it to the Russian mafia. Phew! Close one.