It was one of the most popular long-running BBC dramas in recent years and it left millions of viewers with a large MI5-shaped hole in their schedules when it ended after 10 series last October. But less than a year after Spooks signed-off, some of the programme’s makers are about to help launch a brand new security-service-styled offering.
Coming from the pen of Frank Spotnitz, a driving force behind The X-Files as it reached its late nineties peak, Hunted stars Australian actress Melissa George as Samantha, an espionage operative for private firm ‘Byzantium’. When someone tries to do her in, she realises that it must have come from her own team and takes herself of the map. When she returns to undercover work, she has no idea who ordered a hit on her and why.
This was a role originally ear-marked for Gillian Anderson, who first suggested that Spotnitz might enjoy making a series for British TV, yet by the time the idea got off the ground, The X-Files star was too busy with other commitments. As such, we’re stuck with Melissa George, who’s been in loooads of stuff, most recently The Slap.
Spotnitz will be writing most of the episodes but the Beeb have recruited a team of producers with real pedigree to steer his vision on the right direction for British audiences. Stephen Garrett (executive producer of Law & Order: UK, Spooks), Jane Featherstone (producer behind Spooks, The Hour, Life on Mars), Alison Jackson (Ashes to Ashes, Eternal Law) and BBC’s Christopher Aird (Spooks, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries) are all on board.
Assuming Hunted isn’t a disaster of Outcasts proportions, it’s almost guaranteed a second series. Spotnitz is obviously confident that it will be getting one because he’s already explained after concentrating on London in the first series, he’d like to base the show in another European city next time out.
Expect Hunted to arrive in the autumn..
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