Paul Buckingham asks:
'What is the location of Thames House? There is no credit in the current episodes and no mention on the website. I believe it's Freemasons Hall in Gt. Queen St. and that some of the interior is also used. Is this correct?
It is indeed. Freemason's Hall is the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England, just a few minutes' walk from Holborn and Covent Garden Stations in Central London. It was built 1927-1933 as a memorial to the many Freemasons who died on active service in the First World War. Designed by the London partnership of H V Ashley and Winton Newman, the building is now Grade 2-listed.
Emanuel Vynck asks:
'Why is the show also called "MI5 not 9 to 5"?'
That's what is commonly referred to as the strap-line; it's not an additional title, it's a catchy line that tells us that working for MI5 isn't a normal job, like a normal '9-to-5' job. For the American audience though, the show has been renamed MI5, as the word 'spooks' is more readily associated with the CIA over there.
Steven asks:
'Miroslav Gradic was able to target military organisations through the mole in MoD, a low level administrator but how could he possibly discover the top-secret location of the COBRA Cabinet meeting?'
Locations used for meetings such as this would almost certainly have to be vetted for suitability, swept for bugs and generally checked in advance. All of these operations would generate administration trails that Jim North would have been able to follow and paperwork that he could pass on to Rado.
Julia asks:
'I have always wondered what is meant by a coded message from terrorist groups when they plant a bomb. Is it information only known by the intelligence agencies/ police, or is it a more obvious kind of code?'
Generally, the codes that come in will differ from source to source. Some will be almost like an established game between the terrorist and the Security Services to see if the code can be cracked in time, others (as in series 2, episode 1) will be codes used between terrorists that have to be intercepted and cracked. A later episode of series 2 takes a look at some of the codes used within the Security Services themselves.
David Rimmer wants to know when the first series of [spooks] came out on DVD.
16 June saw the release of the complete first series on both VHS and DVD formats. The DVD version also contains deleted scenes and over 120 minutes of exclusive interview footage.
