The team at Section D is in mourning following the tragic death of Ros Myers, who was killed in an explosion while trying to save the British Home Secretary, as the award-winning spy drama Spooks returns for its ninth series.

Harry Pearce is played by Peter Firth, Lucas North by Richard Armitage, Abib by Peter Bankole, Dimitri Levendes by Max Brown and Beth Bailey by Sophia Myles.

Episode 1

Section Chief Harry Pearce is hit particularly hard by the loss and he's dismayed to learn that a trusted friend has blood on their hands. Harry wants revenge and will stop at nothing to get it. One month later, Lucas North boards a ship in Tangier to track rising Somalian Al Qaeda star, Abib. Alongside Lucas is Special Boat Service (SBS) agent Dimitri Levendes, who is masquerading as the ship's captain. An unexpected interruption from what appears to be Somali pirates puts Lucas in mortal danger. His unlikely saviour is an Eastern European prostitute, who he later discovers is undercover mercenary Beth Bailey, also sent to track Abib. The pirates are a much bigger threat than first anticipated – they are in fact an Al Qaeda cell who have smuggled explosives onboard and are headed for the UK.

Episode 2

Beth Bailey is thrown in at the deep end on her first operation with Section D, as the tense spy drama continues. She goes undercover as an oil trader at a secret meeting of Britain's top oil dealers. After receiving intelligence that Robert Westhouse, an influential oil baron, is the subject of an assassination attempt, Beth is tasked with protecting him. Before they've even arrived at the meeting, the oil traders are attacked in a machine gun massacre. Only Beth and a man named Jacob Chapman survive. Assuming the attack is related to the planned assassination, Section D set to work on uncovering the culprit. However, Ruth Evershed digs deeper into the case and is shocked to discover a link between one of her colleagues and the masked gunmen.

Episode 3

Lucas works with the FSB to thwart an attempt by the Azakstan Freedom Front to acquire a deadly nerve agent, but is shocked by the Russians' methods. A race is soon on to secure the Paroxocybin before either the AFF or a rogue FSB agent can get their hands on it.

Episode 4

Ruth discovers a Chinese snatch team is in London to get hold of Jiang Lee, a scientist who has discovered a desalinisation technique worth billions. Aware the UK cannot afford to lose an intellectual property of such value, Section D calls on the services of an agent who has been groomed to help infiltrate security, but suspicions soon arise regarding the helper's trustworthiness.

Episode 5

The American president is on his way to London to chair top secret peace talks between Israel and Palestine, under the guise of his first state visit. Beth and Dimitri must keep their wits about them as undercover Home Office representatives tasked with keeping the delegates apart until the talks. When a plot to kill the president is uncovered, they must track down the assailant. The hotel is put in lockdown as a precaution, but are they locking the threat out? Or in?

Episode 6

A major breach of British security has led to a fatal attack on a U.S. army base, and MI5 has agreed to adopt a new U.S. security system. Lucas is tasked with looking after a White House cryptographer. The Russian and Chinese intelligence services manage to hack into the Grid and plan to gain access to the intelligence databases of both MI5 and the C.I.A.

Episode 7

An investigator from a borough council claims to have witnessed a dead drop. Ruth is initially sceptical, but a follow-up visit sees them both in mortal peril. Dimitri investigates the suspicious death of a Mafia leader. Harry discovers the truth about Lucas and confronts him.

Episode 8

The team face their toughest challenge ever: tracking down Lucas North, their Section Chief, and one of the best agents MI5 has ever had. Harry decides the team are too close, and brings in a specialist to help with the hunt. But it will not be easy to find a man who has nothing left to lose, and as the search becomes increasingly desperate, Harry and Lucas become embroiled in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

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BBC’s Spooks - Series 9 starring Richard Armitage & Peter Firth

Not a nine to five job, the spooks of Thames House

Starring Peter Firth, Richard Armitage

Photograph of Richard Armitage and Peter Firth, part of the cast of the BBC’s spy series Spooks

Photograph of Richard Armitage and Peter Firth in character for series nine of BBC's Spooks