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.
Spooks (series 1)
The "Spooks" producers were hoping the ratings for the pilot would achieve at least six million viewers; at the time this was considered acceptable ratings by the BBC, as it would allow them to further consider "Spooks" future. The first episode ended up with an overnight rating of 9.2 million viewers, with a 41 per cent audience share, easily winning its time slot, and nearly doubling the numbers of ITV1's "Helen West", which was viewed by 4.8 million at the same slot. The second episode dropped to 7.8 million, but was still the most seen series in the timeslot. Although the series won its timeslot again in the third episode, "One Last Dance" faced competition from "The Kumars at No. 42" on BBC Two, and was down to seven million. The different timeslot for episode four meant that it dipped below six million; however, ratings recovered to over seven million by the series finale. With consolidated figures factored in, the first series was seen by an average of 7.49 million viewers. After two episodes aired, the BBC began considering renewing the show for a longer second series as it had proved popular among the key demographics of viewers aged 16 to 34 years. The renewal was officially announced by the BBC's Head of Drama Commissioning Jane Tranter in December 2002.