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Raza Jaffrey plays Zafar Younis
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This is your second series playing Zaf. Do you really feel part of the Spooks team now?
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Yes, Zaf settles in this year. He's got his feet under the table. The writers and producers are very good at getting you in and established in no time. This also means they can kill characters off again just as quickly of course!
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Zaf is a bit of a risk-taker. Does he get himself into much trouble in this series?
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He always looks a bit too close to coming to a sticky end, doesn't he? He's a very gung ho
character that gets himself into a lot of scrapes, so things always have the potential to go wrong.
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He doesn't seem to have learnt much from his near-misses, either. He's a bit toughened up by what he's experienced, more damaged goods if you like, but not more wary. He will always get in situations over his head. He's the one with the least ties outside work - no kids or love interest. That's what makes him a good spy. But it can also make him a bit reckless.
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There's a bit more darkness to his character this year, too. Fiona being killed and other characters coming and going have affected him deeply. He has seen more of the world and he's beginning to realise that so much of what goes on is out of his control.
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Which were your favourite scenes in this series?
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I love the stunt sequences. They are so much fun to film. This series I get to do several big fight sequences, which were great. I actually bite off an MI6 officer's ear in one fight!
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There are no doubles. We receive a lot of training beforehand with stunt men, but because the schedule is tight we do most of the stunts ourselves.
The choreography of the fight scenes come naturally to me as I'm a dancer and a very physical actor anyway. Also, I used to fight a lot as a little boy!
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It doesn't always go according to plan, though. In one scene I had a jug smashed over my head. It went a bit wrong. Suffice to say it was a stunt jug but real blood!
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But basically this job is every teenage boy's dream. It's a wish fulfilled: to lark around being a spy. We get to pretend to be different characters and we get to be big kids and play with all the big boys' toys. I love my job!
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Some of the subject matter is fairly hard-hitting, though. Do you have concerns about dramatising such sensitive issues?
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There is serious political comment in every episode, but in the end it's entertainment. There are credible stories to be addressed at the moment and I think it's important that fiction addresses issues such as terrorism and espionage, as long as the matters are handled intelligently and responsibly.
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And Spooks scripts do seem to bear an uncanny similarity to reality. We feel like frauds sometimes. There are people really out there doing it while we are playing at it. But that's why the show takes its responsibility to be as accurate as possible very seriously.
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Spooks always goes in at the sharp end. The researchers and writers do a great job to make sure that the series is as accurate, and at the same time as entertaining, as possible.
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Do you think actors would make good spies?
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We'd be good at the lying part! But we are generally far too concerned about what people think of us. Plus actors always want to give secrets away, which isn't such a good thing for a spy...
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