Series 8, Episode 1 (Spooks)
Although there was media coverage on her return months before the broadcast of the episode, the producers were confident that only the "die hard" fans would be aware of this.
Following his abduction, Viktor Sarkisiian sells Harry to Amish Mani in order to start a new life outside the FSB.
Meanwhile in Polis, Cyprus, Ruth is living at peace with husband George (Daniel Rabib) and stepson Nico (Luke Tzortzis).
Ros Myers (Hermione Norris) confronts Hillier, but the latter is assassinated by McCall before he can divulge the location of the safe house.
However, according to director Alrick Riley, Richards was quickly able to write those new scenes "seamlessly" into the rest of the episode, which is usually a difficult task to perform.
Before it began, production designer Anthony Ainsworth partly reconstructed the Grid set to give it more of a concrete, underground bunker, feel.
For instance, a hand held camera would allow the crew to film one long take following cast members through tight spaces, like an average London flat.
However, due to restrictions the filming crew felt they could not follow, it was shot in South Bank, opposite the Houses of Parliament, instead.
The sequence where Lucas rescues Harry and Ruth near the end were made in slow motion, because the producers felt it would add to the tension.
[3] Upon its original broadcast, the episode received unofficial overnight viewing figures of 6 million and an audience share of 25 per cent.
[4] According to the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, the episode received final figures of 6.549 million viewers, placing Spooks the sixth most seen programme on BBC One the week it aired.
[6] Gerard O'Donovan of The Daily Telegraph lamented the eleven months that passed since the series seven cliffhanger, and stated that "for all its square-jawed silliness and bonkers conspiracies, Spooks still delivers high-class escapism at its slickest, most glamorous and entertaining.
"[7] Adam Sweeting of The Arts Desk felt that the episode's plot was "mere background noise," and that the series "is about hilariously artificial encounters between the characters, clumsily manufactured dramatic tension, and a denouement involving someone being prevented in the nick of time from detonating something/killing somebody/triggering a global economic collapse.
Mullaney also praised the performance of the cast, including "Walker's gulping hysteria when Ruth's husband was executed," which was "perfectly done," and Malcolm's "doughty attempts to comfort a small boy in danger were touching.
"[9] Robert McLaughlin of Den of Geek believed that it is "equivalent to 24," "far more engaging than the last James Bond movie," and that it is "good to see [Ruth Evershed] again," seeing how "the re-introduction of an old character will work with the new additions.
Though Sutcliff did not see the series with "great diligence recently," he thought the intelligence was "not the quality you would attribute to some of the strategies employed" in the episode.
[11] Vicky Frost of The Guardian was overly critical of the episode, criticising it for the reunion between Ruth and Harry, which she stated "wasn't quite the romantic occasion [I would have] liked," and Malcolm's method to convince a "trained killer not to shoot Nico."
