Spook’s returns to BBC One Tuesday 16th October with an operation which unfolds across 10 hour-long episodes.
The following article contains plot details which some readers might wish to avoid.
Episode One sees the UK on the verge of a historic peace deal with Iran when the team receives intelligence that Mehan Asnik (Ulas Kilic)� a member of Iranian intelligence whom MI5 believe to be a terrorist � is preparing to carry out an attack.
The team organises an undercover operation to assassinate Asnik in Tehran, hoping to make their bomb look like a terrorist attack but the plan goes wrong when a civilian train pulls alongside the target. Harry (Peter Firth) calls to abort but the Home Secretary insists taking out Asnik and the bomb is detonated.
Despite a sizeable death toll, Asnik survives and contacts Adam with an offer � he wants to defect and is prepared to provide valuable intelligence. Back in the UK with Asnik in their possession, Adam (Rupert Penry-Jones), Zaf (Raza Jaffrey) and Ros (Hermione Norris) are intercepted by armed mercenaries who kidnap Asnik and Zaf.
It soon transpires that Asnik was carrying a phial of a lethal virus which was released when the bomb exploded. Someone, known only as “Copenhagen”, had fed MI5 false intelligence so that they’d target Asnik and release the virus in Tehran. Now Asnik, Zaf and their kidnappers have been exposed and have just hours to live unless they receive an antidote.
When the mercenaries demand money for the return of Zaf, Adam arranges a meeting and offers them a vaccine in exchange for Zaf and Asnik. But the vaccine is a fake � no one even seems to know if a real vaccine exists � and the exchange goes horribly wrong.
Zaf remains in the hands of the mercenaries and the fatally contagious Asnik is abandoned on the streets of London. The race is on to find a real vaccine; to find Asnik before he can infect more victims; to find out who “Copenhagen” is; and to rescue Zaf from the unidentified gang of mercenaries before it’s too late…
