Richard Armitage

Richard: (on his Spooks character, Lucas): He used to work for MI5. He was a predecessor of Tom Quinn and was Harry's protégé, the best in his field. He went to Russia and got caught and banged up for eight years. He's tortured, interrogated and broken and then he mysteriously finds his way back. It's cultivated by MI5 to get him back and no one knows why. He comes back with dirt on his feet from Russia and spreads it around a bit. They're suspicious that he's a double agent so that [plotline] goes through the series.

(On finding out Sir Guy was to kill Marion) Richard Armitage: It gave me sleepless nights. I just didn't know how I was going to play that scene. I didn't want him to want to kill her. I wanted him to kill the thing that was coming out of her mouth - the thing that she was at that moment. All of his hope for his future was absolutely exploding into nothing. I think that just completely destroys somebody in a moment.

Richard Armitage: You can spend a bit of yourself when you give yourself to a character. At the end of a job, you have to remind yourself who and what you are.