I spy return of hit show

Matthew Macfadyen plays Tom Quinn in the new series of Spooks, on BBC ONE on Monday at 9pm

THE stakes are raised as the new series of spy drama Spooks gets off to an explosive start.

The first series proved a huge hit, and no-one was more surprised than the leading actor Matthew Macfadyen.
"I thought it was a good show when we were making it but you can never really tell," he recalls. "I was thrilled when the producers told me how well it had done."
There was a downside. "They put huge billboards up to promote the series and there was one right outside my flat," he says. "I would go out of my front door and think, `Oh, there I am!', which was the weirdest thing. But then, after a while, it became strangely normal to see my face staring back at me every day."
Macfadyen clearly enjoys playing Tom Quinn, the senior case officer at MI5 who finds himself at the heart of the action.
"Part of the fun of being an actor is to explore those parts in you that you wouldn't normally be able to do," he says.
"I think I've influenced Tom and he has also influenced me. Tom's quite a serious character and concentrates on his job, sometimes at the expense of other areas of his life.
"He has difficulty when his work spills into his personal life."
The new series starts where the first series ended. Tom has moved in with his girlfriend, Ellie (Esther Hall) and her young daughter, Maisie (Heather Cave).
"Tom has inadvertently taken a laptop computer home and then he gets a call from an Irish terrorist who tells him there are explosives in the laptop," explains Macfadyen.
"Tom is outside the house and Ellie and Maisie are inside but because of the extra security measures on the house he can't get in and they can't get out - and that's where we left them."
Tom is much colder and harder in the new series and one episode proved a greater challenge than most.
"Tom and the team arrive at work to be faced with an Extreme Emergency Response Initiative Exercise (EERIE). They are informed that a dirty bomb has exploded outside Westminster, and they have to decide how to deal with it," says Macfadyen.
"It was very exciting filming that episode, brilliantly written by Howard Brenton. The team are doing everything by the book but, as the episode unfolds, they become unsure whether it is an exercise or not.
"And I finally get to use a gun, so I was thrilled. I love all the physical stuff where you get to charge around.
"In that episode, even more than any of the others, it is vital the team can trust each other to get through. Tom gets on with everyone in the team, but particularly Zoe and Danny, who he really likes and trusts. He's their boss and he does play the boss card when he has top. He also looks out for them in quite a paternal way when he's not that much older than them."
For Macfadyen, who is enjoying an off-screen romance with co-star Keeley Hawes, acting was a childhood dream. "I did lots of plays when I was at school and being on stage was when I felt happiest. I found it incredibly exciting.
"I was certain this was what I wanted to do. I was very fortunate to get into RADA and had a really good three years there.
"Acting still doesn't feel like a proper job sometimes - I get paid to do something I love which makes me feel very lucky."
Macfadyen's first big break was theatre, where he spent three years at the RSC and National Theatre.

SPOOKS STARS Keeley Hawes as Zoe Reynolds, Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Quinn and David Oyelowo as Danny Hunter

ACTION MAN Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Quinn in BBC 1's new series of Spooks