Representation of terrorism and ethnicity in Spooks

What view of terrorism is conveyed?
Key scenes for terrorism:

Ahmed shoots MI5 agent Butterfly around 6.02 – in this scene the terrorists are conveyed to the audience in a dominating, threatening way. We can clearly tell this from the costume; one in a dark suit and his right hand man dressed all in black with black gloves and a balaclava on, a very frightening image. Ahmed pulls out a gun and shoots the man without showing any emotion for the horrific thing that he’s doing. This makes him seem even more scary and threatening as we can assume that he’s killed people so many times before that he doesn’t even think twice about it, and that it doesn’t faze him. This also makes Ahmed seem powerful, merciless and cunning to the audience, as the man (Butterfly) was tricked by them.

Ahmed has Danny and Fiona hostage around 11.49 – here Ahmed and the terrorist are conveyed as very dominant and frightening as he has complete power and control over his two hostages. Like in the first scene they are cunning, merciless and willing to go as far as they need to. For example he grabs Fiona and throws her over to the chair quite violently and threatens to kill Danny if she does not read the statement – as the audience we can presume that he would do as he threatens. His dialog is blunt and cutting ‘or I’ll slit his throat’ – these short, awful threats enhances his threatening tone and makes us think he is capable of everything.


Ahmed shots Danny around 39.30 - In this part Danny stand up to Ahmed, when he is at his most threatening. He is holding a gun very close of Fiona head and she is shaking and crying. However when Danny speaks to him Ahmed looks down at the floor as if he’s really thinking about what he is saying and the audience feel for a moment that he has a vulnerable side, a kind side that Danny can appeal to. But then he adopts his threatening pose again as shoots Danny ruthlessly, so the audience see once again that he is capable of anything and completely merciless.


How are those binary opposites conveyed to audiences?
The most obvious binary opposite is good and evil; Danny and Fiona and the terrorists. When they are sitting their held captive their posture is slouched and there heads are looking down to show their fear. In contrast Ahmed is standing up straight with his head held high and her arm out straight holding the gun showing that he has no fear because he is in control. These opposites are conveyed to the audience via their dialog as well because Danny and Fiona speak slowly and shakily to show their fear and have quite long winded sentences (i.e. – the metaphor about Eeyore’s birthday cake) whereas he has short, blunt sentences.


What role does camera work and editing play in underlining those representations?
As the terrorists are represented in a very dominant and threatening way and Danny and Fiona seem quite vulnerable in their presence camera work and editing are used to enhance this. The shots of Ahmed are often very slightly low angled so give us the impression he is standing over them in a threatening manner. Similarly the shots of the hostages as often slightly high angled so that they seem weak and defenceless next to the terrorists, this is also another example of binary opposites. In these scenes there are a lot CU used. On the terrorist this is threatening as it shoes his

What techniques are used to involve audiences emotionally? How does that position audiences?
There are many CU used which draw the audience into the action and make us feel part of it. This makes us more emotionally involved in the action. Also the CU and ECU mean we can really see the pain and despair on the hostages face so the audience feel empathy towards them, further engaging us in the scene.

What view of terrorism emerges from the scene?
A very negative view of terrorists is being shown here. It shows them as ruthless heartless people. It also shows how everyone is at risk from them. But in Danny’s speech he says that terrorist will never win and he criticises the reason for terrorism saying it is just luck about where you are born. But saying it will never win and standing up to them makes us feel quite patriotic and the view of terrorism is that it shall not be tolerated and we can beat it.

What do you understand by Arab, Islamic, Muslim, Middle Eastern?
Islam is a religion and a Muslim is someone who follows that religion. I think people who are Arabs or Middle Eastern are usually Muslims. I don’t really know much about this religion or this culture.

What are the Equivalent categories for describing British people?
Um English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh? Christians (Protestant) and Catholics? I really don’t know.

What do you know about Al Qaeda?
An Islamic terrorist group, who attack Western countries with methods such as suicide bombings like the London 7/7 bombings. They are very against western leaders and western way of life.

Ahmed and Khatera. How far does the drama position audiences to equate ‘Muslim’ with Terrorism?
This episode does not mention religion. Ahmed and Khatera state their reasons for doing this are that they lost their families in the Iraq war and so they want revenge for that. Spooks would have to be careful with this storyline so as not to offend anyone, or send out the wrong message that all Muslims are terrorist, so I think that’s why religion wasn’t mentioned.

Think of the characters from British ethnic minorities in the drama. What’s their significance?
They have a huge significance. There is an MI5 agent who is Asian and this is such a big significance as it shows that the drama is not suggesting that every Asian or every Muslim is a terrorist, as this would send out a very negative, racist and incorrect idea to promote. Also Danny, probably the bravest and most likable characters is black. This further shows that the drama is not just promoting white men as the ‘goodies’ and it also accurately represents a multi cultural Britain.