How long have you been a Spooks fan and how did it happen

[agea]

I was wondering how long everyone here has been a Spooks fan and how they happened upon the show.

I live in the US and the New York Times had an article on the show which of course is called MI-5 here. The review was very positive and so I tuned into A&E (Arts and Entertainment). They showed the first two seasons in one go, it was in 2002 I believe. I actually had no idea that series in Britian are so short. I was hooked immediately. After A&E showed the first four seasons it disappeared and I read later that the ratings weren't good so they dropped the show from their lineup. I now rely on Netflix and my local PBS station to see the show. We probably won't get season 9 till mid next year at best guess so that sucks. I willl say that Lucas was my favorite character (vain I know but it's because of his voice) and I figure

Series 9 Spoiler: show

I am going to be sad when I see season 9. I will really miss RA.

I just got a new job and found to my delght that one of my coworkers is a big fan so I thought that I would finally have someone to talk to re Spooks but he asked me, "Is Tom still on the show?" so there went that. LOL. There is a US version currently in development and I have no idea how it is going to work. I have raved to everyone that I know how awesome Spooks is but I don't think that I've converted anyone. They don't know what they are missing.
Anyway, that's how I came upon the show. Thank God for that article in the New York Times!

[Musa3]

Hi agea,
I also saw Spooks/MI5 for the first time on A&E. Was it 2002 - that long ago? I loved the series and was unhappy when they took it off the air. (But then A&E has changed completely since then). Then like you I caught up on PBS (Public TV) and Netflix, and briefly again on BBCAmerica, and now wherever I find to see it. I loved Tom Quinn and I thought the angst of the spy having to live a double life was great! There was nothing on US TV like it, and I've followed the series ever since. (I have since seen Mathew Macfadyen in many things, PBS mostly). Of course, I just loved Richard Armitage as Lucas North, especially in Season 7.

I do have my doubts about all these US remakes of UK shows! I loved the UK "Life on Mars" for example, but didn't like the US version at all. I think it will be difficult to have a better "Harry Pearce" than Peter Firth! I also can't imagine who will play Malcolm! I think I'll stick to my UK Spooks.

[VaBookworm87]

I started watching about a year and a half ago... I had recently seen Richard Armitage in North & South and stalked him via Netflix to Vicar of Dibley. I hate jumping into a series in the middle (or end in that case), so I watched through the entire series until his episodes. After seeing those, I stalked him on Netflix again and added all of the MI-5 seasons on Watch Instantly. I then put off starting on the show until I completely forgot about it in my queue.

I was going through one day to watch something and was like, "Why do I have a spy show in my queue? There's got to be some reason I added this..." and turned on episode one. When I saw Matthew Macfadyen, I thought, "Perhaps this is why I added it!" because I loved him in Pride and Prejudice. I kept watching and was completely hooked and kept on (I mean REALLY hooked- I barreled through 6 seasons in about a month). One day I started a new season and RA walked onto the screen and I was like, "OH! I remember why I added this now!" Netflix makes my world go 'round... If I had to wait for our TV to run those episodes, I'd go mad!

[Sabrina]

I only started watching this spring. That's when I discovered RA in Robin Hood. I had never heard of him before but his acting was phenomenal and so I wanted to see everything with RA. I bought North&South, Strikeback and Spooks series 7 (without seeing the first 6 seasons, I know...). I did some research on the internet to learn who the characters were. I figured each episode would have it's own story and that there would be 1 story that spans the entire season.

I never intended to buy the other 6 seasons, but Spooks was so addictive I couldn't help myself. So after I finished season 7 I bought 1 till 6 and watched for weeks! I work of course, so I could only watch in the evening. I recorded series 9 till episode 6. That's when I came back from London this year where I bought series 8. So I watched series 8 in a couple of days, watched my recorded episodes from 9 and I was able to tune in to BBC1 for episode 7 and 8.

[Margaret Blake]

I have been a fan of Spooks since the very first episode - it really got me hooked straight off. It is one of those series that is consisently good, although I was a tad disappointed with the revelations about Lucas.

[Kirayuki]

About two years ago at a guess.
Came to it via the Keeley Hawes connection from Ashes to Ashes. (Ended up liking this show even more).

I bought the first 3 series on DVD and watched them in order. By the end of these series i'd fallen head over heals for the show. Bought the next two... then 5.5 happened.
I didn't watch any more of that series after that episode for about two and a bit months (however i did buy the rest of the DVD's as i planned to carry on watching after i got over it anyway).
Then i heard great news concerning the 5.5 issue about the new series. So i sped ahead and watched them all, (realising how stupid i'd been to stop watching in the process).

And that brings me here.

(PS: I used the term 5.5 as a reference so as to not be throwing around spoilers to those who don't know about what i'm on about).

[A Cousin]

Almost 2 years. Started in January of 2009. Found it mostly through interest in the past work of oh, so many of the actors that have been on it through the years - PF, MM, KH, RPJ, Anna Chancellor, Hugh Laurie, Robert Glenister, Jenny Agutter, Gemma Jones to name a few by the time I became aware of it. Then the local PBS station started playing it and I watched it in order from the beginning. It quickly became the "Don't bother mommy when Spooks is on" programme.

[Mrs Pearce]

I started watching from the first episode and I was gripped. It was and still is the best programme on tv

[nicky_84]

I started watching in the summer, i loved RA in North and South,so decided to buy series 7 to see if it was any good, i loved it,so had to buy series 8 when it was released,started watching series 9 when it was actually airing, and now making my way through older series,just finished watching the 1st and ordered series 2.

[HellsBells]

Been hooked since it began in 2002 from episode 1. Probably one of the few programmes on TV that I actually make an effort to watch all the episodes.