Richard Armitage in Spooks Series 8

Spooks Series 8

Episode One

The team is in a state of panic following Harry’s kidnapping by FSB agent Viktor Sarkisian as the compelling spy drama starring Peter Firth, Hermione Norris and Richard Armitage returns for a new series.

It seems their worst fears are confirmed when the Sacred Army of Righteous Vengeance (SARV) posts footage of Harry’s execution on the internet.

However, Ros refuses to believe Harry is dead and leads Lucas North and the rest of the team on a mission to find him.

When Sarkisian’s body is found, it seems they’ve lost their strongest lead. Ros sends Lucas to try to extract information from new CIA liaison officer Sarah Caulfield but, despite a clear attraction between the pair, it appears she can’t assist him. However, help arrives from an unexpected source when former team member Ruth Evershed returns to the grid, fearing for her life.

Ruth reveals that Harry once thwarted a clandestine operation to smuggle weapons-grade uranium into Iraq, and only he and Ruth are privy to its true whereabouts. Now a group of rogue intelligence officers want it back and they don’t care who they have to kill to get it.

When Ruth and her family are kidnapped, the race is on for Section D to not only find them before they are killed, but also to discover whether Harry is still alive.

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Episode Two

The team is forced into action as the country reaches crisis point when energy supplies are threatened by an explosion at a gas processing plant, as the spy drama continues.

The Home Secretary maintains public confidence by insisting that alternative suppliers are available but, behind closed doors, the Government is forced to engage in secret talks with Tazbekstan, a nation with a dubious human-rights record.

Tazbek Trade And Industry Secretary Rustam Urazov promises to supply Britain with energy but, in return, he expects that Section D will turn a blind eye as he wipes out two enemies – exiled poet Bibi Saparova and campaigning journalist Matthew Plowden.

With the stakes high, Harry insists that nothing must get in the way of the talks to supply gas, but Jo and Lucas argue that they must protect Bibi and Plowden.

When Urazov stalls the negotiations, Harry takes drastic action to save the country, telling the team that they must take out Urazov. Section D masterminds an ingenious plan using Bibi to kill Urazov in order to shift responsibility. Will the scheme work or will it backfire to the detriment of the country?

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Episode Three

The exclusive and powerful Bendorf group, made up of the eight richest men in the world, is meeting on British soil and Section D must find out what is being planned, as the spy drama continues.

Ros is sent undercover and attends the meeting, but what should be a routine operation becomes a life-or-death situation when a group of armed terrorists take everyone hostage.

The hostages, including Ros, are being held in an underground bunker – there’s only one way out and it’s rigged with explosives.

Harry sends in Lucas and Jo to assess the situation and, as they arrive at the scene, the situation worsens when leader of the terrorists, Finn Lambert, puts Thomas Mickelson from the Bendorf group on trial and broadcasts it live to the world, online.

Back on the Grid, Harry, Ruth and Tariq watch in horror as Lambert produces damning evidence of Mickelson’s alleged crimes before inviting the public to vote on the outcome of the trial. The verdict is a resounding “guilty” and the team waits nervously to see what Lambert will do next.

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Episode Four

Lucas North’s past catches up with him this week when his former Russian prison torturer, Oleg Darshavin, turns up with intelligence about a Sudanese terror attack on London, as the spy drama continues. However, Darshavin’s information comes at a price and it’s one Harry and Ros are not willing to pay.

Despite their reservations, Harry and Ros agree to Lucas

meeting Darshavin as he requests. But their fears that Darshavin still has a hold over Lucas are soon realised when Lucas goes off the radar and meets Darshavin at his own flat.

Lucas struggles to keep control of the situation but manages to bring Darshavin to the verge of revealing the target – until CIA officer Sarah Caulfield turns up and throws the entire operation into jeopardy. With Lucas and his lover’s lives in danger, he has to use all his powers of persuasion to get the Sudanese terrorist’s name out of Darshavin and keep himself and Sarah alive.

Section D soon tracks the terrorist down but, before Ros can get to him, he’s assassinated and Section D is back to square one. The only person who can help them is Darshavin, but Lucas has lost his trust and Darshavin clearly has his own personal agenda.

Meanwhile, Harry begins to realise there may be a traitor in their midst and he tips off Sarah’s boss, Samuel Walker, about the covert intelligence meeting in Basel. However, a CIA traitor will stop at nothing to ensure their cover remains intact – even if they’re left with blood on their hands.

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Episode Five

The sudden death of CIA boss Samuel Walker is puzzling Harry Pearce, as the spy drama continues. The official line is that he committed suicide, but Harry doesn’t buy it and, when another CIA agent dies, he begins to wonder whether the deaths have something to do with the power meeting at Basel. Walker had arranged to meet Harry to talk about Basel, but he never made it and something really doesn’t add up.

Meanwhile, Ros Myers is contacted by her old mentor, Jack Coleville, an ex-MI6 golden boy who suddenly quit the service. Coleville asks Ros to read his memoirs, paying special attention to a chapter about Harry and Gibraltar. However, Harry insists he was never in Gibraltar, so what is Coleville’s motive for lying?

Soon, two more intelligence officers are dead and it becomes apparent that the murderer has access to sensitive information. The horrifying truth suddenly dawns on Ros; it’s Coleville.

Ros and Lucas North race to find Coleville at his London address. But when Ros goes in there’s no sign of him and she soon realises the house is booby-trapped. Ros escapes, but it’s clear that Coleville means business.

As the pieces start to come together, Ros puts herself in the firing line in a bid to draw Coleville out. Will she be able to keep her cool when faced with the man who taught her everything she knows?

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Episode Six

Britain is on the verge of bankruptcy. The Government is unable to honour its national debt payments and Section D must retrieve more than a billion pounds of illegal earnings from the impenetrable DeWits bank, as the spy drama continues.

For the past four months, Ryan Baisley, a DeWits employee, has been working as an MI5 asset,

secretly recording account details. With the country close to economic collapse, MI5 orders Baisley to hand over the information. However, Baisley has other plans.

A team of assassins breaks into Baisley’s safe house, leaving him alone and on the run for his life. Harry and his team have no idea where Baisley is and, to make matters worse, they discover he has attempted to do a deal with the DeWits bank manager, Irvin Perrot.

With time running out, Section D tracks Baisley down but the assassins aren’t far behind. As Ros catches up with him, she is caught in the crossfire of a shootout. Although Ros sees off the hit men, Baisley slips away – leaving Section D back at square one.

Ros forces Perrot to reveal when his exchange with Baisley will take place. She knows the hit men will be lying in wait but she will stop at nothing to get to Baisley first.

Meanwhile, Ruth’s investigations into the power meeting at Basel pay off when she discovers something called “Nightingale”. The team must find out what, or who, Nightingale is.

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Episode Seven

When a Pakistani intelligence officer is stabbed to death in south London, Dickie, the head of the Pakistani intelligence service in London, wants to talk. Dickie tells Harry Pearce and Ros Myers that he has been running an asset who has infiltrated a group of Hindu nationalists, led by Harish Dhillon.

Dhillon’s group is planning an attack targeting Muslims and, with tensions between the Hindu and Muslim communities riding high, a furious Harry demands that Dickie hand over his asset – 17-year-old Ashok Veerkal.

A Muslim with a Hindu name, Ashok is terrified of Dhillon and is desperate to cut ties with him. But there’s too much at stake and Section D applies pressure to find out when and where the attack will happen.

Ashok manages to discover the details of the attack but, just as Section D are about to swoop, they learn that Dhillon’s handler is working with CIA agent Sarah Caulfield.

Ashok is forced to stay undercover, but Dhillon’s handler knows there is a traitor, leaving Ashok in the firing line. Section D is desperate to prevent a war breaking out on British soil between the Muslim and Hindu communities, but how far will they go to stop it?

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Episode Eight

The British and Americans have to work quickly to organise a peace summit in London in a desperate bid to resolve the crisis. Section D is tasked with looking after security but, unbeknown to Harry and his team, Russell Price, the CIA agent in charge of American security, is part of secret power group Nightingale.

While Harry and Ros try to keep the peace talks on track, Lucas receives a surprise visit from rogue CIA agent Sarah Caulfield

She’s been instructed to kill Lucas, but her emotions get the better of her and she warns him to leave the country to guarantee his safety.

Meanwhile, Nightingale forges ahead with its plan and Price has planted a bomb in the hotel room of one of the Indian delegates in order to kill the Pakistani president and further provoke the war.

Tensions mount as Ros and Lucas discover the bomb – they need to get the Pakistani president out alive if there is to be any hope of resolving the imminent conflict. An ambush by Price leaves Ros and Lucas in mortal danger and Harry fearing for the lives of his top spooks.