On the Brink (Spooks)

Set during the 2007–2008 financial crisis, in this episode, Section D chief Ros Myers (Hermione Norris) works undercover to stop Alexis Meynell (Paul Rhys), a banker who is attempting to bankrupt the country.

Sir Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) asks the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gillian Calderwood (Selina Cadell) to freeze Meynell's assets, but is turned down due to lack of evidence.

To get the evidence they need, Ros is sent undercover to the London Stock Exchange, where Meynell is targeting the bank Highland Life.

Ros uses the opportunity to swipe a memory card from Meynell's mobile phone, containing his secure email account that could prove his guilt.

Later, Calderwood receives a call from Asa Darlek (Stephen Noonan), Meynell's associate from Salma, and threatens to either have the £65 billion paid back, or he will go public to inform the country the true extent of its debts.

Ros presents a third option; have Calderwood announce she will back Highland Life, while at the same time she will convince Meynell to bet against it.

Meanwhile, Jo Portman (Miranda Raison) believes Boscard (Gus Gallagher), her captor from the end of series six, is still alive after seeing several hallucinations of him.

Running on a tip that Connie James (Gemma Jones) may have leaked the top secret Sugarhorse to the Russians due to her affair with Hugo Prince, one of only five people to know about the operation, Harry has officers search her home.

Producer Katie Swinden wanted to base an episode on the economy, which at the time was facing the Great Recession following the Nationalisation of Northern Rock just months before.

Spurrier did research on banking climate in the City of London in March 2008, and realised the economy was going down, but also wanted to exaggerate the numbers for the episode.

In some of the original drafts of the episode, John Castle would return as Jocelyn Myers, Ros' father, but later on the producers realised they did not need him.

The producers also wanted to include some jeopardy in the climax, namely adding a gun to a head or a bomb, which created the scenes where Darlek threatened to kill Ros.

The Blue Fin building in London provided several locations for the episode, mostly the stock exchange room.

"[1] The producers borrowed two expensive cars, more prominently an Aston Martin DB9 convertible, which were driven by Armitage and Norris.