[Spoilers] Sir Harry Pearce

[Tea Lady]

Yes PF's performance was great. Why is he never up for an individual acting award in the UK for Spooks? It is always RPJ or HN? Yes they may be more marketable and "young" but for acting, PF is one of the best on TV. I hope he is nominated for this series, just for this episode on its own. Spooks would really die without him. Well done Peter.

[JHyde]

Harry works on two fronts: great writing and a fantastic actor I love.

I wrote some stuff in the series 5 thread - the main reason I dug season 5 was Harry's development as a character, you really get some deeper insight. Re: his background. I've always thought of him as a someone who came from modest, but adequate means, and a family who valued education and service. This is very much who he is.

Personally, I always thought it was pretty crappy of Harry not to tell his wife he was a Spook until they were signing the registry. I think to marry someone and not tell them what they're getting into is a big deal. That goes for Lucas too. But he was young and I suspect quite cocky - you really get the sense he could be a little reckless in his early days with MI6, not to mention his behaviour in France.

I do find it interesting that the closest Harry gets to spouting rhetoric is when he's really upset

Spoiler: show

as in 8.1 protesting about the uranium

or in 5.1 talking about Colin.

[Silktie]

I agree, to me it seems as though loyalty is the most important thing of all to him. Loyalty to your country, to your friends and to your colleagues. From this loyalty comes his dedication to his job. The downside of this is, as again shown in episode 8.1, that it isn't always possible to be loyal to your country and to your friends at the same time. In these instances Harry always chooses his country, or the greater good, over his relationships. The only time he didn't do that was

Spoiler: show

when he chose to go to jail to save Ruth.

He really must love her...

[lwhite53]

I think Peter Firth's extraordinary acting is what, for all intents and purposes, "made" the Harry Pearce character happen. HP was originally intended, I believe, as a minor character. But PF made such an impression in that small role that the writers just kept giving HP more and more script time.

The "spooks" come and go, but Harry is the core that holds them all together.

[arwen]

(06-11-2009 02:07 AM)lwhite53 Wrote:  I think Peter Firth's extraordinary acting is what, for all intents and purposes, "made" the Harry Pearce character happen. HP was originally intended, I believe, as a minor character. But PF made such an impression in that small role that the writers just kept giving HP more and more script time.

The "spooks" come and go, but Harry is the core that holds them all together.

Yes, Peter Firth's 'Harry Pearce' is the 'Heart & Soul'. It just would'nt be Spooks without him.

[almh]

(06-11-2009 02:07 AM)lwhite53 Wrote:  I think Peter Firth's extraordinary acting is what, for all intents and purposes, "made" the Harry Pearce character happen. HP was originally intended, I believe, as a minor character. But PF made such an impression in that small role that the writers just kept giving HP more and more script time.

The "spooks" come and go, but Harry is the core that holds them all together.

Definitely - he holds it all together, he definitely has an impact on the team and on the series in general. They were right to have given him more and more screen time.

[Tea Lady]

I wonder whether Harry should consider hanging up his silktie and leave the service. Isnt what happened to him and

Spoiler: show

Ruth a bridge too far? How could you go on after that? Malcolm has left, his oldest friend in Section D, and Adam died. If he left now he has a chance of winning Ruth back by offering himself free of his obligation to his country over-riding everything and everyone. His face when he saw Ruth again was full of pain but his eyes were full of love.

He still has a chance but he needs to do something about it. Second chances dont come around often....one to ponder

[JHyde]

I just wanted to share two of my favourite Harry moments.

The first is in season 1 with Tessa with the "career, career Tessa!" monologue, followed by his assertion that "It's been a long day". He's so funny.

The other is in 7.7 and I think is so revealing.

Spoiler: show

He's being tortured and yet when the Home Secretary and Ros come in to see him he still stands up as a sign of respect. I don't know whose choice it was for him to do that, but it was brilliant.

---

Tea Lady, I'm really hoping that's how they end the show.

Spoiler: show

I think the attraction will ramp up again towards the end of this season, with Harry once again endangered at the end of it, and by the end of season 9 (if we get one!) Ruth and Harry are again captured and that's when they decide to be together, on the condition that they retire from the service. If they get out alive! And I think Harry's retirement is a good way to end the show, I'd like to see a crisis starting just as he leaves the Grid, because of course no matter who leaves or stays, the danger is always there.

I'm actually considering writing some fan fiction to that effect.

[almh]

Stop talking about how they'll end the show! It will never end!!!

But I do agree with your ending to the show JHyde

[JHyde]

I wanted to write a bit about season 7 Harry,

Spoiler: show

particularly the Khordat storyline of episode 4.

I was fascinated by this storyline as it not only included a long dormant character but it also brought into relief Harry's hard earned lessons from Northern Ireland.

Khordhat, of course, was introduced in 3.3, as the "new best friend" of Mace demanding Harrikat's execution. They sort of ignore the back story here, but the implication is that Khordhat didn't really make good on any special relationship he might have formed with Mace.

But most interesting is Harry's assertion that "we cannot win the war on terror. Ever." It's probably the closest to truth the show has ever come. The idea that when the chance to negotiate for peace comes you have to take it. It's not surprising that he then proffers Northern Ireland as his reasoning, suggesting that Harry isn't as implacable as he seems about Northern Ireland, he's learned what that insane history left us.

On the subject of which, I would love to see one more story, done topically of course, on Northern Ireland and Harry before the show ends. That part of Harry's life seems to have informed so much of who he is. He's learned that being brutal doesn't work with real animals, by and large.