Rupert Penry-Jones is back as a feature-length special opens the new series of Spooks
Martine McCutcheon is Tash (episodes one and two)
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"It's amazing to be part of this," says Martine McCutcheon of Spooks, "although so much has happened in the world since we finished filming, who would have thought it would turn out to be so close to what actually took place?
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"It's shot so beautifully, it's so stylish and polished. I had met Antonia [Bird] and I was fascinated by what she had to say.
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"When I met her for this, and they invited me to guest in this role, that signed, sealed and delivered it for me. I love the things that she's done.
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"The producers were really friendly; I'd met Rupert before - he and Dervla [Kirwan] came to see me in My Fair Lady - and wanted to work with him, so it was a number of different things that came together.
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"Also, I wanted to work with the ´óÏó´«Ã½ again, and I hadn't been able to for a long time because I've been in America, so I just thought I wanted to go back to my home in TV really.
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"Tash is remarkably quick and bright," she says of her role. "She's had no experience of anything like this but she's a fast thinker and the main thing that gets her through is the fact that she's street-wise.
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"She's had to be clever in situations in her everyday life, and she uses that experience and channels it in a different way to survive in this bizarre situation.
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"Adam quickly realises that, if nothing else, she's very brave. She's feisty and she'll give anything a go. She's a no-nonsense girl. Also no-one would ever suspect that a girl like that could be involved with MI5.
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"The experience changes her forever. She's a survivor … and she lives to tell the tale. She'd be looking over her shoulder again for a long time. What she goes through is really traumatic - it would affect anyone, especially someone like her, who is really emotional.
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"I liked the fact that this was a normal girl who got to delve into a surreal world: she's dealing with something you don't deal with every day.
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"There aren't many roles where you're working in a coffee shop one minute and you're tied to a bomb the next. I thought it was quite a challenge.
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"I always like to do things that I haven't dipped my toe into before. Doing all the action shots, all in my Jimmy Choos, I was over the moon that I could do it all in those shoes!"
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Of her co-stars Rupert Penry-Jones and Raza Jaffrey, she says: "On my penultimate day I was with my two boys, they were both there in their beautiful suits and I looked and I thought, 'God, this job is good'!
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"They looked dishevelled but handsome. Rupert should be a James Bond, and Raza's just got the phwoar factor!"
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