DVD: Spooks: Season 9 (15)

"Does it ever stop, Ruth?" bemoans spymaster Harry Pearce (the excellent Peter Firth) in the first episode of the BBC's reliably bonkers espionage drama series.

Has there ever been a TV show as wilfully preposterous as Spooks? Has any other long-running series ever been so pitilessly dismissive, careless even, with its main characters? This time, it's glum Lucas's turn. Richard Armitage's previously heroic agent is gradually revealed, in these eight episodes, to be a real rotter. It's the usual manic blend of slickness, thuggishness and po-facedness, with Simon Russell Beale and Iain Glen joining in on the breathless and unhinged "fun".