Spooks (series 3)
The third series of "Spooks" was produced by Kudos Film and Television for the BBC. Much of the production crew from the first two series returned. New crew members were brought in with the requirement that they were fans of the series and have ambition, so that they can understand "Spooks". Andrew Woodhead was the series producer, with Jane Featherstone, Simon Crawford Collins and Gareth Neame as executive producers. Collins, who was the producer for the first two series, had to step back to executive producer, as he was overcommitted producing Kudos crime series "Hustle". Woodhead replaced him as he was accustomed to the show, but also added more vitality to the show. Christopher Aird was the assistant producer. The third series included five writers. Howard Brenton wrote the first, second and eighth episodes. Rupert Walters wrote the third and ninth episodes. Ben Richards wrote the fourth, sixth and tenth episodes. Richards previously wrote the ninth episode of series two, and accepted the offer to return. His script in the second series was his first script for television; he found writing easier as time went by. Raymond Khoury wrote the seventh episode. Series creator David Wolstencroft wrote the fifth episode. Wolstencroft was poised to write the next episode, but found himself committed to other projects.
Smoke and Mirrors (Spooks)
Writer Howard Brenton found writing the end difficult because the producers knew Matthew Macfadyen would leave the series, but not whether he'd return in the beginning of the third series. He stated that the producers "didn't know whether Matthew was going to return to the series or not. We knew there'd be a third series, but we didn't know whether he'd be in it. So I said 'well, is he going to be in it, or isn't he'. And for some times it was, 'oh he's not going to be', so I kill him. And then he said he is gonna be in it, so I unkill him." Because of this, Brenton wrote twelve drafts of the episode. In the end, he wrote a "big cliffhanger, in which he could be dead, could be gone forever, or what." The character Herman Joyce was created by Brenton to become a worthy opponent to Tom. Joyce's creation was inspired from the "great criminal minds" such as Karla from John le Carré and Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes. Brenton thought the addition of Joyce would be a fitting end, so that if Tom was defeated, it would be by a master who would later be undone in some way with or without him.