Doctor Who Vs. Spooks, Series 8

 Peter Firth and Richard Armitage returned (as

Harry Pearce and Lucas North) for the eighth

season of Kudos' award-winning spy drama,

first shown in the autumn of 2009.

This series saw the return of Nicola Walker

 (analyst Ruth Evershed), and the departure of

Miranda Raison and Hermione Norris (MI5

agents Jo Portman and Ros Myers, both killed

off), whilst Sharaz Latif (analyst Tariq Masood)

replaced Hugh Simon.

A repeat run of the eight-part season concluded

on Drama last night - it featured a total of twenty-nine Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Ace [born Ahsen Rafiq] Bhatti (Mani) played Haresh Chandra in The Sarah Jane Adventures
• Brian Protheroe (Walker) voiced Bob Gell/ Captain O'Brien for Eldrad Must Die! (2013), Roger Baskerville for The Monstrous Menagerie (2014), Captain Hardwick for Static (2017), and Ironicus/Milk for The Iron Legion (2019)
• Justin Avoth (Rudy) voiced Robert Murphy for The Unknown, Mikhail for Who Killed Toby Kinsella? (both 2016), Cain for The Demon Rises (2018), and the Shimmering Man for Morbius 1 (2024)
• Alan Bond (Businessman) was UNIT Soldier in The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords and Torchwood: Children of Earth
• Gerard Murphy (Gulyanov) was Richard Maynarde in Silver Nemesis
• Bentley Kalu (Officer) was Hood in The Angels Take Manhattan
• Andrew Havill (Maynard) was the Chief Steward in Voyage of the Damned, then voiced Aleister Portillon/Squire Claude for The Witch from the Well (2011), and Colonel Wildman for The Enchantress of Numbers (2019)
• Sagar Arya (Chatterjee) was Newsreader on The Christmas Invasion, and The Sarah Jane Adventures
• Ashley Kumar (Veerkal) voiced Jared Ramon for The Crimes of Thomas Brewster (2011) and The Curse of Davros (2012), and Rab for Charlotte Pollard 2 (2017)
• Tobias Menzies (Lawrence) was Lieutenant Stepashin (pictured) in Cold War
• Geoffrey [Austin] Newland (Hughes) voiced Elthar for Alien Heart, and Toru for Dalek Soul (both 2017)
• Liam McKenna (Lewis) voiced Titus Craven for The Behemoth (2017)
• Bhasker Patel (Lal Rei) was Jival Chowdry in Turn Left
• James Weber Brown (Journalist) was the Minister in In the Forest of the Night
• Curtis Rivers (Assassin) doubled for John Barrowman in Utopia, The Sound of Drums and Torchwood
• Nicholas Khan (Mudasser) voiced Jimmy Lynch for The Sinestran Kill, Dalia for Collateral (both 2019), Jillix for The Sins of Captain John, Stubbs for Thin Time, Alexander Marfleet for The Flying Dutchman (all 2020), and Vez/Kol for The Ark (2023)
• Issy Van Randwyck (Tina) voiced Giulia for A Requiem for the Doctor, Miss Quirk for Carnival of Angels (both 2018), Koreelya for The Ultimate Evil (2019), Ma Scarrity for Family Matters (2020) and Till Death Us Do Part (2023), Jesko for The Gulf, Grand Widow for Conspiracy in Space (both 2021), the Seeker/Baladin Smith for The Ribos Inheritance, and Sylvie for Auf Wiedersehen (both 2022)
• stunt performers Dean Forster and Stephanie Carey both also worked on the revived run
• for crew Crispin Layfield, Robert Edwards, Jamie Pearson and Nick Roberts see my previous Spooks blogs
• Anthony Bayman was also ADR mixer on The Beast Below, Victory of the Daleks, The Vampires of Venice and The Sarah Jane Adventures
• Neil Hillman was ADR mixer on Dinosaurs on a Spaceship too
• Mike Jones was also film editor on ten instalments of the revived series (from Rose to Planet of the Dead)
• Toby Ford was first assistant director on A Good Man Goes to War too
• series ADR recordist Simon Diggins was ADR mixer on fourteen stories (from The Day of the Doctor to Last Christmas)