One Last Dance (Spooks)

In the episode, Kurdish rebels raid a Turkish Consulate while Zoe Reynolds (Keeley Hawes) is performing a routine bugging operation there.

During the operation, Marks's men and the rebels seize the consulate; Zoe is able to warn Section D of the threat, and the team are called in, including Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), who is to celebrate his birthday with Ellie (Esther Hall).

While Tom plays negotiator, Tessa recognises Marks from CCTV and comes forward to Harry (Peter Firth).

While Malcolm (Hugh Simon) and Colin (Rory MacGregor) create a fake news report detailing the release of the paramilitaries to the rebels, the Consul gets an asthma attack.

Writer Simon Mirren noted the episode was hard to write, since he had to add two main storylines and tie them together - the Consulate siege and the bank robbery.

[3][4] The police officer in the consulate, Steven Burrows, was originally written to conceal a gun, and feeling guilty about never using it, but was cut.

The reasoning is that Macfadyen burst a blood vessel on one of his eyes, and the sunglasses were used to hide it; they would be used again for episode 5, "The Rose Bed Memoirs".

[3] Three hours of filming was dedicated on the top floor of New Zealand House with Macfadyen, Firth and Jeremy Bulloch.

[3] However, they filmed the scene at the top of the building, where heavy wind took place; the actors on set had to raise their voices in order for the sound unit to hear them.

The moment where the rebel is killed by the sniper was meant to include blood spatter for realism, but was cut because the producers thought it would be too violent.

[7] After its original broadcast, the episode received unofficial overnight viewing figures of 7 million, and was the best performer in prime-time.