The Sleeper (Spooks)

Infobox Spooks episode
episode_name = The Sleeper
writer = Howard Brenton
director = Jonny Campbell
script_editor =
producer = Andrew Woodhead
executive_producer = Gareth Neame
series = 3
episode = 2
length = 59 minutes
UK date =
US date =
preceding = Project Friendly Fire
following = Who Guards The Guards?
imdb_id = 0707348

The Sleeper is an episode in the third series Spooks.

Plot summary

Harry Pearce activates a sleeper, Prof. Fred Roberts, in order to catch a group of Islamist terrorists who wish to obtain red mercury, an explosive trigger for a nuclear device. This material is literally impossible to produce but - in Operation Flytrap - Tom Quinn convinces Roberts to trick the terrorists into thinking he "has" produced it.

However, Tom begins to sympathise with Professor Fred Roberts (played by Ian McDiarmid), and attempts to abort the operation in a misguided attempt to reconcile the professor with his family. He is prevented from doing so by the others, but is compulsorily retired from MI5 with a large pension, and replaced as the main male lead character by Adam Carter. (Quinn was the first of the three main characters to leave Spooks during this series - Zoe Reynolds and Danny Hunter would follow in Episodes 6 & 10 respectively.)

Cast

Guest(s)

*Ian McDiarmid - Professor Roberts

et

The fictional London university college in this episode was filmed at University College London.