Traitor's Gate (Spooks)
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"Traitor's Gate" is the fourth episode in the first series of the
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...
'' Spooks''. It first aired on
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...
in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
on 4 June 2002, on a Tuesday; the other first series episodes aired on Mondays. The episode was written by
Howard Brenton Howard John Brenton FRSL (born 13 December 1942) is an English playwright and screenwriter, often ranked alongside contemporaries such as Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, and David Hare. Early years Brenton was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, so ...
, and directed by Rob Bailey. The episode focuses on
MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...
and 6's efforts in taking down a terrorist cell before they can succeed in attacking 43rd
President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
. The episode guest stars
Anthony Head Anthony Stewart Head (born 20 February 1954) is an English actor and singer. Primarily a performer in musical theatre, he rose to fame in the UK in the 1980s following his role in the Gold Blend couple television advertisements for Nescafé, ...
and
Hugh Laurie James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, singer, musician and writer. He first gained professional recognition as a member of the English comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. Fry and Laurie act ...
, who play their respective characters Peter Salter and Jools Siviter. After its first broadcast, "Traitor's Gate" was seen by 6 million viewers, the lowest ratings in the first series.


Plot

After getting shot during the
Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...
consulate raid in the previous episode, Tom Quinn (
Matthew Macfadyen David Matthew Macfadyen (; born 17 October 1974) is an English actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he Breakthrough role, gained prominence for his role as Mr. Darcy in Joe Wright's ''Pride & Prejudice (2005 film), Pride & Prej ...
) is on sick leave until he recovers. When Ellie (
Esther Hall Esther Jane Hall (born 28 August 1970) is an English actress who has appeared in a number of television dramas. She is most notable for her performance in ''Black Mirror'' “Hated in the Nation”. Early life Born in Manchester in 1970 and br ...
) notices Tom's wound, he feels compelled to tell her that he is a
spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ''e ...
. Over the course of the episode, Ellie threatens to leave Tom unless he also explains his job to her daughter, Maisie ( Heather Cave). After he does, Ellie begins to forgive him for having lied to her ever since they met.
Danny Danny is a masculine given name. It is related to and short for the male name Daniel.🖾🖾 People *Danny Altmann, British immunologist * Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator, director, producer, and writer * Danny Baker (born 1957), English j ...
(
David Oyelowo David Oyetokunbo Oyelowo ( ; ; born 1 April 1976) is a British actor, director and producer. His accolades include a Critics' Choice Award and two NAACP Image Awards as well as nominations for three Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awar ...
) and Zoe (
Keeley Hawes Clare Julia Keeley Hawes (born 10 February 1976) is an English actress. After beginning her career in a number of literary adaptations, including '' Our Mutual Friend'' (1998) and '' Tipping the Velvet'' (2002), Hawes rose to fame for her portray ...
) observe an anti-
globalisation Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...
rally before Bush's visit, where a riot ensues led by a man in a flaming helmet, who spots the two and flees with a young woman, Andrea Chambers. When they are surrounded by
riot police Riot police are police who are organized, deployed, trained or equipped to confront crowds, protests or riots. Riot police may be regular police officers who act in the role of riot police in particular situations, or they may be separate unit ...
, the man reveals himself as Peter Salter (
Anthony Head Anthony Stewart Head (born 20 February 1954) is an English actor and singer. Primarily a performer in musical theatre, he rose to fame in the UK in the 1980s following his role in the Gold Blend couple television advertisements for Nescafé, ...
), a legendary
MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...
officer who recruited Tom. They contact Tom after they weren't briefed about the situation.
Harry Pearce Sir Henry James "Harry" Pearce, KBE (born 1 November 1953) was a fictional character, head of the counter-terrorism department ("Section D") of MI5 as featured in the British television series '' Spooks''. He was played by Peter Firth during ...
(
Peter Firth Peter Macintosh Firth (born 27 October 1953) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC One programme '' Spooks''; he is the only actor to have appeared in every episode of the programme's ten-series lif ...
) admits that Salter is working with Harry and Jools Siviter (
Hugh Laurie James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, singer, musician and writer. He first gained professional recognition as a member of the English comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. Fry and Laurie act ...
) at
MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
in a joint operation to take down a European
anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
terror group led by Istvan Vogel. In order to get into the cell, Salter has been sleeping with Andrea. Upon meeting him, Tom questions Salter's allegiance after learning he is in love with Andrea; Tom reluctantly allows the operation to continue, but displays his concern to Harry. Tom's concerns are revealed to be correct, as Salter and Andrea evade Danny and Zoe. Zoe is sent to meet up with one of Tessa's (
Jenny Agutter Jennifer Ann Agutter (born 20 December 1952) is an English actress. She began her career as a child actress in 1964, appearing in '' East of Sudan'', '' Star!'', and two adaptations of '' The Railway Children'': the BBC's 1968 television seri ...
) contacts, who may have information on where Salter is. However, upon waiting, Tessa arrives; Zoe works out that Tessa is running several phantom agents and pockets their money. In order to keep Zoe quiet, Tessa
bribes Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official duty, to act contrar ...
her £10,000. Salter meets with Vogel in
Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
. There, Salter offers his plan to take down the President; they break into a University researching
Geographic Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...
Topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...
. There, Salter breaks into the database and manipulates the flightpath of Bush's plane, and the nearby topography to cause the plane to crash. By the time all but Salter leave, Armed Police arrive and arrest Salter, who is brought to
Thames House Thames House is an office building in Millbank, London, on the north bank of the River Thames adjacent to Lambeth Bridge. Originally used as offices by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), it has served as the headquarters of the United Kingdom's ...
. After reluctantly telling Tom where Vogel's group are hiding, Salter hangs himself before revealing what he did in the campus. Harry learns about Danny hacking his way into improving his
credit rating A credit rating is an evaluation of the credit risk of a prospective debtor (an individual, a business, company or a government). It is the practice of predicting or forecasting the ability of a supposed debtor to pay back the debt or default. The ...
, and destroys his credit cards. As punishment, Danny is to train new staff. There, he learns of Salter's intentions; the plane is diverted to
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. In the end when Ellie asks Tom about his day, he replies; "a man, who believed in a cause, killed himself for love, totally pointless."


Production

"Traitor's Gate" was written by
Howard Brenton Howard John Brenton FRSL (born 13 December 1942) is an English playwright and screenwriter, often ranked alongside contemporaries such as Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, and David Hare. Early years Brenton was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, so ...
. He was pleased to be chosen to write the episode, as he got to write the pivotal part of the episode when Tom reveals to Ellie that he is a spy. During the writing, Brenton was simply told in a note that "he tells her", and had to work out how. Brenton chose to adopt the same writing style based on the early episodes of ''
Taggart ''Taggart'' is a Scottish detective fiction television programme created by Glenn Chandler, who wrote many of the episodes, and made by STV Studios for the ITV network. It originally ran as the miniseries ''Killer'' from 6 until 20 Septe ...
''; Brenton was impressed by the way the episodes seemed to have more to the plot half way through. The location where Tom and Salter meet in the middle of the episode was to be set in the
Millennium Dome The Millennium Dome was the original name of the large dome-shaped building on the Greenwich Peninsula in South East (London sub region), South East London, England, which housed a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millen ...
; this would later change to
North Greenwich tube station North Greenwich is a London Underground station at the northernmost tip of the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is on the Jubilee line between Canary Wharf and Canning Town stations, and is in both Travelcard Zone 2 and Zone 3. The stati ...
. The scene had to be rewritten several times to reflect Tom questioning Salter's allegiance. Much of the scene was actually
automated dialogue replacement Dubbing (also known as re-recording and mixing) is a post-production process used in filmmaking and the video production process where supplementary recordings (known as doubles) are lip-synced and "mixed" with original production audio to cr ...
. Later on, Brenton wanted to figure out how Salter would evade Danny and Zoe; when he couldn't figure it out, he asked a source for help, who simply suggested him to have Salter call the
Police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...
about Zoe and Danny having
sex Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...
in their car and there are children about. The introduction of Tessa being corrupt by running phantom agents was allegedly based on real life situations. In the series, the idea was made on the concept that MI5 officers have temptations to make money. The written scenes where Salter confesses to Tom was somewhat inspired by ''
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' is a 1974 spy novel by the author and former spy John le Carré. It follows the endeavours of the taciturn, ageing spymaster George Smiley to uncover a Soviet mole in the British Secret Intelligence Service. The ...
''. The scene was for the two to act as friends rather than interrogator and suspect. The character of Peter Salter was written in a way that for most of the episode, the viewing audience would guess which side Salter was really on.
Anthony Head Anthony Stewart Head (born 20 February 1954) is an English actor and singer. Primarily a performer in musical theatre, he rose to fame in the UK in the 1980s following his role in the Gold Blend couple television advertisements for Nescafé, ...
, who was well known for his role as
Rupert Giles Rupert Giles () is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. The character is portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head. He serves as Buffy Summers' mentor and surrogate father figure. The cha ...
in ''
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. The concept is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film, also written by Whedon, a ...
'', was cast as Peter Salter; during the audition, producer Simon Crawford Collins noted that Head performed it so well, that he would be perfect for the role, and was hired.
Hugh Laurie James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, singer, musician and writer. He first gained professional recognition as a member of the English comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. Fry and Laurie act ...
was cast as Jools Siviter; the character was created because of bringing in a lighter element to a generally serious series. The character was also created this way as, according to
David Wolstencroft David Wolstencroft (born 16 July 1969) is an American-born British screenwriter and author. He is best known as creator of the BAFTA award-winning TV spy drama '' Spooks'' and its spin-off series '' Spooks: Code 9''. Early life Wolstencroft was b ...
, some people in intelligence and military are generally "funny people", although they have been through "some pretty heinous things". It also became the first episode to feature
MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
; the service was depicted as more "
old school Old school, Old School, or Old Skool may refer to: Computers and gaming *Old school gaming or retrogaming, playing and collecting obsolete computer, video, and arcade games * Old School Renaissance, a trend in tabletop gaming *''Old School RuneS ...
" compared with MI5, which the series sources confirmed. The episode was filmed before the third episode, " One Last Dance". The first day of filming involved the scenes between Head and Brownen Davies (Andrea), which was filmed in an art house. Due to timing constraints, part of the sequence had to be cut down. A few of the scenes where Tom reveals to Ellie were filmed with a
hand-held camera Hand-held camera or hand-held shooting is a filmmaking and video production technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator's hands as opposed to being mounted on a Tripod (photography), tripod or other base. Hand-held cameras are used ...
; this is the first time such a technique was used in ''Spooks''. The anti-globalisation riots in the teaser of the episode were originally going to be staged, but due to budget constraints most of the riot was edited from several pieces of real-life news footage - although part of the riot, particularly involving Salter, was staged. The scene was filmed by two separate units. The building Danny and Zoe used to observe overlooked the filmed riot. The scene where Tessa explains her treachery to Zoe was filmed at the women's public swimming baths of
Hampstead Heath Hampstead Heath is an ancient heath in London, spanning . This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, one of the highest points in London, running from Hampstead to Highgate, which rests on a band of London Clay. The heath is rambling ...
. The scene called for the baths to be empty; every time anyone would want a swim, the filming crew would have to halt. But because it was filmed in a cold winter's day, nobody from the public went. The setting for the terror group in the abandoned
Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...
base in Wales was based on one of Brenton's friends, who lived in
Mid Wales Mid Wales ( or simply ''Y Canolbarth'', meaning "the midlands"), or Central Wales, is a region of Wales, encompassing its midlands, in-between North Wales and South Wales. The Mid Wales Regional Committee of the Senedd covered the unitary autho ...
near a vast training base. The forest was filmed in an army training base in
Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
, south of London.


Reception

After its original airing on
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...
, "Traitor's Gate" was seen by 5.99 million viewers in the UK, making ''Spooks'' the seventeenth most viewed broadcast on BBC One, and the thirty-second most viewed broadcast in total during the week; the episode became the lowest rated episode in the entire first series. As of April 2010, members of the user-contributed television review sites the
Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...
and TV.com rated the episode at 7.9 and 9.1 (rated "Superb") out of 10 respectively.


References


External links


Series 1, Episode 4
at
bbc.co.uk BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...
* {{Spooks 2002 British television episodes 1.04 Cultural depictions of George W. Bush