World of secrets and spies

British actor David Oyelowo says the show adds a dash of James Bond glamour to the gritty reality of the secret service.

Actors are used to having their names, faces and personal lives laid bare. Spies are not. Then there's David Oyelowo, a British actor who plays Danny Hunter, an MI5 spy on the BBC drama series, Spooks.

"Imagine saving the world and not being able to tell anyone?" he laughs. "I would really struggle with that."

Tonight, the BBC spy series is back and its protagonists are doing what they do best - shutting down drug rings, putting away terrorists and keeping up the show's reputation as one of the grisliest on the box. Last season viewers were treated to the sight of a woman's head being plunged into a vat of boiling oil.

And there's a pearler of a line in tonight's episode that sees the words "genitals" and "red-hot metal" in the same sentence, as the fallout from the Tom Quinn saga is revealed. Last season finished with the agent swimming off to sea, his stunned colleagues reeling at the betrayal.

Oyelowo, at home in Brighton, says it's Spooks' gritty realism, intelligent dialogue and fast pace that has made it a success. The show is one of few British dramas to make it in the United States.

"We bridge the gap between the reality of the secret service and James Bond," he says. "It's still glamorised but it's a bit more gritty and real. Even though these are heroic spies, they bleed and they cry.

"In England, Spooks goes out at 9pm and the 10pm news comes on afterwards and sometimes you can't even tell the episode is over, it's that on-the-money. It's also somewhat sinister because you think, oh my goodness, this isn't just a play. These heavy issues really are going on out there."

When news broke that American forces were accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners, the Spooks crew were midway through shooting a scene that involved hardline interrogation techniques. The storyline was rewritten because of concerns it would insinuate similar misdeeds in the secret services.

Life came to imitate art again when cocky agent Adam Carter (played by Rupert Penry-Jones) was written into the series. Oyelowo knew the actor from their time at the Royal Shakespeare Company together.

"We were a very tightknit group when he came in and to be honest we were a bit sad that the way we'd started out was beginning to break down. Probably that became a bit tricky for Rupert but it was also written in the script - he had to earn his place in real life as well."

As for Oyelowo, 28, the role of Danny Hunter came at a crucial time. By his mid-20s the actor had forged a successful theatre career. He was the first black actor to play an English monarch (Henry VI), a role that won him the Ian Charleson Award 2001 for best newcomer in a classical play.

"As an actor you've got to keep the audience guessing. So Spooks was the perfect vehicle for ringing the changes. Moving from theatre to television wasn't a hard transition, partly because the writing is so good and partly because I was just having so much fun. They were basically paying me to do what I was doing as a 5-year-old, for free."

To prepare for their roles on Spooks, the cast met with ex-spies from the KGB, MI5 and CIA.

"One guy told us he'd had to trek 40km with a colleague on his back through the Afghan mountains," says Oyelowo. "At the time we were going 'Oh my goodness!' But when we walked away we thought, 'Were they having us on?' I think they quite enjoyed the attention so they were feeding us all sorts of stuff."

Oyelowo's burgeoning film career continues to ring the changes. In Spice of Life, he plays a tap-dancer trying to make it on Broadway.

"I spent the last few months on Spooks, between takes, tap-dancing in my dressing room driving everyone nuts trying to become very good at it. I was the tap-dancing spy."

He then played a police officer in crime thriller Derailed with Jennifer Aniston and Clive Owen, and a barrister unlucky in love in The Best Man, a rom-com shot in England and Budapest.

But Spooks will remain one of his favourite experiences, partly because of the three years spent bonding with his co-stars.

"The worst place is the meeting room where we all sit around the table. We're meant to be serving up very serious, hard dialogue about people threatening the existence of mankind. That's a dangerous place. Matthew Macfadyen [Tom Quinn] is the funniest man I've ever met in my life. He's the worst corpser, he's always the first one to go which means everyone goes and that's it for about an hour.

"They're so rude. It's always toilet humour. It always disintegrates into farts, burps, terrible sexual innuendo."

Sounds like real life to us.

On screen

* Who: David Oyelowo, who plays Danny Hunter on Spooks

* What: Spy series returns tonight, TV One, 9.30pm