Category:Adam Carter

Adam Henry Carter was a fictional character played by Rupert Penry-Jones in the BBC television series Spooks. He joined in episode 1 of series 3 and in the following episode he took over as Section Chief from Tom Quinn (played by Matthew Macfadyen) who had held that role since before the beginning of the show. In the first episode of the seventh series, Carter was killed by a terrorist bomb planted in a car.

Series 3 and 4
Adam's background was in MI6 where he carried out many successful operations. He was captured and tortured in the Middle East by his wife's ex husband, Farook. He had extremely good counter surveillance skills and was fluent in Arabic.

Adam's first appearance in the show was undercover as a vagrant, in order to watch over the small group of MI5 operatives who were secretly meeting at a train station to discuss Tom's situation after being set up. Shortly after, he appeared on the grid and was fully introduced to the rest of the team by Harry Pearce. Harry stated that he had asked Adam to join in order to 'sort out the Tom problem'. This episode also contained the first reference to Adam's wife Fiona, and a reference to the plot line that resulted in her death, although Fiona did not appear in person until episode 4. Fiona (played by Olga Sosnovska) was killed in episode 7 of series four. This event seriously damaged Adam emotionally, almost losing him his job and leading to a breakdown which continued into series five. However, Adam continued to work to a high standard under Harry Pearce, with whom he maintained good relations until the last few episodes of season five. Adam's ability led to him being offered Harry's job by Juliet Shaw, but he turned it down. He was shot and severely injured by ex-MI5 operative Angela Wells in the series 4 finale, but was operated on in series 5 episode 1 and survived.

Series 5

Early in series five Adam hired Jenny as a nanny to Wes, his son with Fiona who died in an earlier series, and suddenly fell in love with Jenny midway through that series. Also during that series his breakdown over his wife's death continued, with nightmares and fears for Wes should Adam himself be killed. He did, however, put an end to his attempts to hide it from the rest of the team, but his return to operations nearly led to his death after a panic attack. In the following episode he went rogue during an operation targeting an MI6 traitor (Richard Dempsey) who had previously witnessed his torture, and at the end of the episode he seemed to break off his relationship with the nanny to keep her safe from the dangers of his job. During the series finale of series 5, he suffered another breakdown episode but pulled through and managed to save fellow agent Ros Myers' life. The two were then trapped as the Thames Barrier chamber flooded, with the final frames showing them breaking through a grate and reaching the surface, narrowly avoiding drowning.

Series 6 and 7
In series six, Adam began a relationship with Ros and had counselling to overcome his mental breakdowns. In the final episode of that series he was trapped with Jo Portman by a torture cell, with the final frames showing him considering whether to kill Jo at her own request to save her from torture. Flashbacks in the first episode of the seventh series then revealed that the pair had managed to escape the cell together, though Jo continued to be traumatised by events there and Adam counselled her until his death at the end of that episode. During that episode he joined with Lucas North to save a British soldier taken hostage by an Al-Qaeda cell and then joined him in attempting to prevent an attack on a Remembrance Sunday service at 11am in the City of London by Al-Qaeda member code-named 'Tranquility'. Whilst North followed 'Tranquility' to the ceremony, Adam discovered that the attack was in fact a car bomb, using the silver Saab 900 in which 'Tranquility' had arrived. In the two minutes remaining before the ceremony, the bomb could not be defused nor the ceremony evacuated, and so Adam drove it to a nearby open area (filmed at Finsbury Square) before detonation to avoid any fatalities. Though he had hoped to get clear at the last second, the car blew up as he got out, killing him as the only casualty. His death was then covered-up, with the media reporting the bomb as a failed attack and having been ignited suicidally by the bomber. Intelligence that would have revealed the bomb-plot earlier and prevented Adam's death had been withheld by the Russian FSB head-of-operations in London, Arkady Kachimov, and so revenge for Adam's death has been set up as a running-thread for the seventh series.