Conceptual History
The producers were aware that Matthew Macfadyen would leave the series after playing Tom Quinn for two years, and they did not know whether he would return for the first two episodes. An eight- to nine-member team came up with the new character of Adam Carter. They wanted Adam to have a different dynamic than Tom; the producers set up a girlfriend/boyfriend storyline in the first series – with Adam, they wanted him to have a wife (Fiona Carter) who works in the Security Service, since married couples working in that environment are common. They wanted Adam to be more animated and energetic than Tom. Writer Howard Brenton wanted him to have an MI6 background, and have something awful happen to him in the past. Brenton invented the backstory of Syria early on into the third series, which he wanted to revisit in the fourth series.
Early on in the development process, the producers wanted to cast a "brilliant actor" with a strong screen presence. They discussed casting Rupert Penry-Jones for the role of Adam Carter early in the process, though it took months to finally decide to cast him. Though Penry-Jones was aware of Spooks and its success, he had never seen any episodes. To be interested in the role, he spent a weekend catching up on the entire first and second series. He did not take long to decide, since his last leading role was four years previously, in 2000 in the Channel 4 drama North Square. Adam was originally meant to be older, and more "street." When he found acting "street" was too difficult, Penry-Jones acted more like himself. He had to audition three times before the producers included him, four months before filming commenced.
On his first day for filming series three, Penry-Jones participated in a fight scene in the middle of the first episode. He felt a little wary replacing Matthew Macfadyen. After two months of filming, Penry-Jones began to feel more at ease with the role. He felt especially so after he started working for the fourth series. He returned to the fourth series because he thought his character took off by the end of the last series, and wanted to see which direction he would go to next. The crew wanted Adam to go from a "happy-go-lucky" figure to wanting him to deal with things that would make it hard for Adam to be jokey towards the end of the fourth series; this involved Fiona's death.
Before the sixth series finale aired in December 2007, it was announced that Rupert Penry-Jones would leave the series sometime in series seven. Penry-Jones wanted to leave the series as he felt the character had run its course, as well as wanting to explore other venues. He also stated that working in Spooks was "great," but felt he was "getting to the point where I needed to move on." Before the seventh series aired, Penry-Jones revealed his character would leave in what he believed was "one of the best" Spooks exits. He found that his last days on Spooks was generally upsetting and "welled up" on his final day. Penry-Jones did not envisage lasting as long as he did, because he believed the series would not last as long as it has.
Read more about this topic: Adam Carter
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