Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Who created the TV show Spooks?
The third series of "Spooks" was produced by Kudos Film and Television for the BBC. Much of the production crew from the first two series returned. New crew members were brought in with the requirement that they were fans of the series and have ambition, so that they can understand "Spooks". Andrew Woodhead was the series producer, with Jane Featherstone, Simon Crawford Collins and Gareth Neame as executive producers. Collins, who was the producer for the first two series, had to step back to executive producer, as he was overcommitted producing Kudos crime series "Hustle". Woodhead replaced him as he was accustomed to the show, but also added more vitality to the show. Christopher Aird was the assistant producer. The third series included five writers. Howard Brenton wrote the first, second and eighth episodes. Rupert Walters wrote the third and ninth episodes. Ben Richards wrote the fourth, sixth and tenth episodes. Richards previously wrote the ninth episode of series two, and accepted the offer to return. His script in the second series was his first script for television; he found writing easier as time went by. Raymond Khoury wrote the seventh episode. Series creator David Wolstencroft wrote the fifth episode. Wolstencroft was poised to write the next episode, but found himself committed to other projects.
The series has been released on DVD in the United Kingdom (Region 2) on 12 October 2009. It was also released in the United States (Region 1) on 26 January 2010, and in Australia (Region 4) on 30 March 2009. The set consists of four discs and contain all eight episodes, as well as a few special features, including a Behind the Scenes documentary, which contain cast and crew interviews covering the characters and storylines of the series, ""Spooks in Russia"", a featurette behind the scenes of filming in Russia, ""Action Sequence"", which covers filming a chase sequence in episode six, and audio commentaries for episodes five and eight. The box set also contains the original trailer for the series, while the Region 1 release also contains trailers for other British television programmes, including "Doctor Who", "Torchwood" and "Primeval".
The programme was created by writer David Wolstencroft, and produced by Kudos for the BBC. A trademark style, coupled with the series' popularity, attracted a large number of high-profile guest stars. These included Martine McCutcheon, Hugh Laurie, Haluk Bilginer, Robert Hardy, Tim McInnerny, Bruce Payne, Reece Dinsdale, Ian McDiarmid, Ewen Bremner, Jimi Mistry, Andy Serkis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin McNally, Rupert Graves, Andrew Tiernan, Anton Lesser, Anupam Kher, Alexander Siddig, and Anthony Head.
Jordan quickly produced some initial script drafts, which Featherstone took to the BBC; Gareth Neame, Head of Drama Commissioning, rapidly approved a six-part series. Featherstone assembled a production team that had considerable overlap with the "Spooks" crew, including Simon Crawford Collins as producer and Matthew Graham as co-writer. In creating the first episodes, Jordan drew inspiration from the long tradition of confidence tricks and heists in Hollywood and television, including "The A-Team", "The Sting" and "The Grifters" (and in a similar vein, the films and TV series of "Mission Impossible"). Featherstone remarked that ""Ocean's Eleven" was on around the time Bharat and I first spoke, and I think it helped to inspire us, but really we took our inspiration from a whole catalogue of movies and books... we wanted to make something that had the energy, verve, style and pure entertainment value of those sorts of films" At the same time, the writers attempted to draw on the success of recent blockbusters such as "Ocean's Eleven" and ""; speaking in an interview in December 2003, Crawford explained that "[such shows] worked because of the interaction within the group – the plotlines were almost irrelevant".
"Scooby-Doo" creators Joe Ruby and Ken Spears served as the story supervisors on the series. Ruby, Spears, and Bill Lutz wrote all of the scripts for the seventeen first-season episodes, while Lutz, Larz Bourne, and Tom Dagenais wrote the eight second-season episodes with Ruby and Spears as story editors. The plot varied little from episode to episode. The main concept was as follows:The second season featured bubblegum "chase scene" songs produced by La La Productions (which had originally been contracted to create the music for "Josie and the Pussycats", the first of many animated series made from the same mold as "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!"). These songs were written by Danny Janssen and Austin Roberts, and were performed by Roberts, who also made a new recording of the "Scooby Doo, Where Are You!" theme song for the second season. The series' theme song has been covered by several subsequent artists, including Matthew Sweet for the 1995 TV special and album ""; Third Eye Blind for the 1998 film "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island"; Billy Ray Cyrus for "Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost" (1999); Jennifer Love Hewitt for "Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders" (2000); the B-52's (Cindy, Kate and Fred) for "Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase" (2001); MxPx for the live-action "Scooby-Doo" film (2002); and Krystal Harris for "Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire" (2003).
The second series was first released on a DVD box set in the United Kingdom (Region 2) on 20 September 2004. It was later released in the United States (Region 1) on 11 January 2005, and in Australia (Region 4) on 21 March 2005. The box set consists of all 10 episodes of the second series over five discs in widescreen format. The box set includes an array of special features. Five of the episodes contain audio commentary tracks, and all (with the exception of the second) include their own behind-the-scenes featurettes. In addition there are numerous other featurettes including many cast and crew members of the series, discussing various main characters and their cast members, resolving the cliffhanger from series one, and addressing the controversy the second episode attracted. An edited 50-minute showing of the first series finale that aired in the United States is also included. There were also deleted scenes, image galleries, trailers, series credits ("Spooks" is a programme that does not include credits in its episodes), and scripts of the episodes, the latter of which are found on DVD-ROM. In the United Kingdom, the box set was released with a "15" British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) certificate (meaning it is unsuitable for viewing by those under the age of 15 years).
The Protectors is a British television series, an action thriller created by Gerry Anderson. It was Anderson's second TV series to exclusively use live actors as opposed to marionettes (following "UFO"), and his second to be firmly set in contemporary times (following "The Secret Service"). It was also the only Gerry Anderson-produced television series that was not of the fantasy or science fiction genres. It was produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company. Despite not featuring marionettes or any real science fiction elements, "The Protectors" became one of Anderson's most popular productions, easily winning a renewal for a second season. A third season was in the planning stages when the show's major sponsor, Brut, ended its funding and thus forced the series' cancellation.
The Professionals is a British crime-action television drama series produced by Avengers Mark1 Productions for London Weekend Television (LWT) that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983. In all, 57 episodes were produced, filmed between 1977 and 1981. It starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon Jackson as agents of the fictional "CI5" (Criminal Intelligence 5, alluding to the real-life MI5).
The Thick of It is a British comedy television series that satirises the inner workings of modern British government. It was first broadcast for two short series on BBC Four in 2005, initially with a small cast focusing on a government minister, his advisers and their party's spin-doctor. The cast was significantly expanded for two hour-long specials to coincide with Christmas and Gordon Brown's appointment as prime minister in 2007, which saw new characters forming the opposition party added to the cast. These characters continued when the show switched channels to BBC Two for its third series in 2009. A fourth series about a coalition government was broadcast in 2012, with the last episode transmitted on 27 October 2012. In a 2012 interview, series creator Armando Iannucci said the fourth series of the programme would probably be its last.
Spelling Television Inc. was a television production company that went through several name changes. It was originally called Aaron Spelling Productions, then Spelling Entertainment Inc. and eventually part of Spelling Entertainment Group. The company produced popular shows such as "The Love Boat", "Dynasty", "Beverly Hills, 90210", "7th Heaven", "Melrose Place" and "Charmed". The company was founded by television producer Aaron Spelling on October 25, 1965. The company is currently an in-name-only unit of CBS Television Studios. A related company, Spelling-Goldberg Productions, co-existed during a portion of the same time period and produced other well-known shows such as "Charlie's Angels", "Starsky & Hutch", and "Fantasy Island" but these series are not part of the modern day library now owned by CBS. Another related company, The Douglas S. Cramer Company co-existed during a portion of the same time period (held by Douglas S. Cramer, who held the position as Executive VP), produced shows like "Wonder Woman", "Joe and Sons", and "Bridget Loves Bernie" and TV movies like "", but these series are almost neither series or TV movies are not part of the modern day library now owned by CBS, almost nor airing on ABC.
"E.S.P." is the sixth episode aired of the first series of "UFO" - a 1970 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth. Alan Fennell wrote the screenplay and it was directed by Ken Turner. The episode was filmed between 23 October to 4 November, 1969 and aired on the ATV Midlands network on 21 October, 1970. Though shown as the sixth episode, it was actually the fifteenth to have been filmed.
Producer David Amann explained that the inspiration for the story was the question, "What if you have a doctor who is prosperous but has a dark page from his past that comes back to haunt him?" Spotnitz later elaborated that the story initially was "going to be how do you get rid of something you can't get rid of". However, the writers soon found this storyline difficult to develop, and, by Spotnitz's own admission, the story "started to evolve into a "Cape Fear" type of situation". The episode's script was finalized by the writers in December 1999 and Kim Manners was selected as the episode's director.
The series aired for six episodes broadcast on BBC One on Thursdays at 9.30pm between 28 September and 2 November 1989, ending nine days before Remembrance Day. The titles of the first five episodes, "Captain Cook", "Corporal Punishment", "Major Star", "Private Plane" and "General Hospital" are puns based on the pairing of a military rank and another word related to the episode's content. The final episode, "Goodbyeee", was the title of a period song.
Writers Ben Elton and Richard Curtis wrote the scripts for "Blackadder" episodes separately using word processors and then swapped the disks containing the scripts for each other to add or remove jokes and dialogue. Curtis recalls that they stuck to a policy whereby if one removed a line for not being funny, then it was never put back.
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! is an American animated mystery comedy television series produced by Hanna-Barbera. Produced for CBS, the series premiered as part of the network's Saturday morning schedule on September 13, 1969, and aired for two seasons until October 31, 1970. In 1978, a selection of episodes from the later series "Scooby's All-Stars" and "The Scooby-Doo Show" were aired on ABC under the "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" name and, as such, is sometimes marketed as its third season.
Though the producers knew that Macfayden would leave the series, they did not know "when" he would do so, and so the first two episodes were initially written without him. In either case, the producers created a new character, Adam Carter. In addition, the writers heavily researched the episodes; many of the story lines are based on truth. The producers also took information from advisors who were ex-MI5 officers. The series was directed in five blocks of two episodes in each. Filming started in January 2004 and took place over six to seven months. Shooting took place almost entirely in London, England, with some scenes shot in a cross-English Channel ferry in the fifth episode.
Spheeris launched her career by producing short subjects for comedian Albert Brooks, many of them being highlights in the first season of the television series "Saturday Night Live". Her first feature film was "The Decline of Western Civilization" (1981), a punk rock documentary that she produced as well as directed. She followed up with "", this time about the Los Angeles heavy metal scene of 1988, with footage and interviews of legendary metal bands such as Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, Megadeth and Motörhead. She later returned to the streets of Los Angeles and the punk rock scene in 1998 for the documentary "The Decline of Western Civilization Part III". She was offered the chance to direct "This is Spinal Tap", but declined.
The second release is "The Second Doctor Boxset", another four-disc boxed set including Dick Sharples' "The Prison in Space". Sharples' story has been adapted by Simon Guerrier, and is performed by Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury, who played Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot. The set also includes "The Destroyers", the unmade pilot episode of a proposed Dalek-centred spin-off series for American TV. The episode has been adapted as a full-cast drama, with Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks.
"Doctor Who" has been satirised and spoofed on many occasions by comedians including Spike Milligan (a Dalek invades his bathroom — Milligan, naked, hurls a soap sponge at it) and Lenny Henry. Jon Culshaw frequently impersonates the Fourth Doctor in the BBC "Dead Ringers" series. "Doctor Who" fandom has also been lampooned on programs such as "Saturday Night Live", "The Chaser's War on Everything", "Mystery Science Theater 3000", "Family Guy", "American Dad!", "Futurama", "South Park",
"Community" as Inspector Spacetime, "The Simpsons" and "The Big Bang Theory". As part of the 50th anniversary programmes, former Fifth Doctor Peter Davison directed, wrote and co-starred in the parody "The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot", which also starred two other former Doctors, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, and cameo appearances from cast and crew involved in the programme, including showrunner Steven Moffat and Doctors Paul McGann, David Tennant and Matt Smith.
Thomas's on-screen appearances in the TV series were developed by Britt Allcroft. The first series of 26 stories premiered in October 1984 on the ITV Network in the UK, with former Beatles drummer/vocalist Ringo Starr as storyteller. The stories were featured as segments as part of Shining Time Station in the US beginning in 1989 with Starr as the show's Mr. Conductor character. From 1991 to 1993, George Carlin replaced Starr as both the storyteller and as Mr. Conductor for Shining Time Station. Carlin also told the Thomas stories for Shining Time Station in 1995.
An early televised "Doctor Who" spoof was on the Michael Bentine sketch show "It's a Square World" in December 1963, only a few weeks after the series first aired. Season 6, Episode 8, broadcast on New Year's Eve, featured Clive Dunn playing a scientist called Doctor Fotheringown ("Doctor Who?" / "No, not Doctor Who, Doctor Fotheringown!"), for which Dunn wore William Hartnell's First Doctor costume and wig. The sketch, which was recorded on 16 and 20 December 1963, also featured Wilfrid Brambell and Patrick Moore.
Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (also known as Mystery Incorporated or Scooby-Doo! Mystery, Inc.) is an American animated mystery comedy-drama series; the series serves as the eleventh incarnation of the "Scooby-Doo" media franchise created by Hanna-Barbera, as well as the first that was not originally run on Saturday mornings. The series is produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network UK and premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network on April 5, 2010, with the next twelve episodes continuing, and the first episode re-airing, on July 12, 2010. The series concluded on April 5, 2013, after two seasons and fifty-two episodes.
Production on the six-episode series reportedly began during March 2011, with Lara Pulver joining the series as an "ambitious, hungry" new spook "determined to make her mark". Also joining the series were Geoffrey Streatfeild, Alice Krige and Jonathan Hyde, while Peter Firth, Nicola Walker, Max Brown, Shazad Latif and Simon Russell Beale reprised their roles, as well as Matthew Macfadyen in a cameo role in the final episode. Sophia Myles did not return as Beth Bailey.
Spook Squad is a British children's television gameshow created by BBC Scotland. It ran on CBBC's section BBC1 and BBC2 from 6 January 2004, to 30 March 2004. The gameshow featured three children contestants entering a haunted castle in Scotland to assist Professor MacAbre in hunting ghosts before they reach their "death day" and gain superpowers. The show was filmed in Fyvie Castle.
Spooks: The Greater Good is a 2015 British spy film, continuing from the British spy series "Spooks" (known as MI-5 in some countries), which aired on BBC One from 2002 to 2011. Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent wrote the script, with Bharat Nalluri directing. Peter Firth reprises his role as Harry Pearce, who appeared in all ten series of the programme. Also returning from the TV series are Tim McInnerny as Oliver Mace, Lara Pulver as Erin Watts, Hugh Simon as Malcolm Wynn-Jones, and Geoffrey Streatfeild as Calum Reed. Kit Harington and Jennifer Ehle star as new characters in leading roles.
Following the success of "Torchwood" (the BBC Three "Doctor Who" spin-off series) the controller of BBC Three, Julian Bellamy, announced in December 2006 a "Spooks" spin-off entitled "Spooks: Code 9" (working titles: "Rogue Spooks" and "Spooks: Liberty"). The show started filming in Bradford in 2008 and the first and second episodes were broadcast on 10 August 2008. It was not well received by critics, who said "the script is poor and the acting little better" ("The Sunday Times") and the production "utterly uninspired and stale" ("Digital Spy"), "daft and unconvincing" ("The Telegraph"), "an utterly cynical venture" that "given its patronising awfulness ... actually damages the Spooks brand" ("The Guardian").Video games based on the show were created by Preloaded for promotional purposes. In 2005, the video game "The Grid" (a promotion for "Spooks" series 3) was nominated for a Webby Award under the category of Best Game.