March: St. Patrick's Day

Plagued with guilt after the trauma of killing an innocent on a mission, Agent O'Kelly goes into hiding in rural Ireland. However, not even a spy can hide from their fears and responsibilities forever.

The third episode of Year of Spies treads darker territory than previous missions. The writing team wanted to explore the psychology of a secret agent who is responsible for the death of a civilian and how this affects him both mentally and physically.

We researched stories of returning soldiers who suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) to try to understand how the character of Thomas O'Kelly would act and feel. PTSD sufferers tend to have horrific nightmares, reliving the traumatic incident over and over again in their minds. They are also hyper aware, making them constantly jumpy and vulnerable to loud noises.

Production took place over seven days in various locations, using the Peak District to double for rural Ireland.

The most interesting location we used was the confession box. For this, we constructed a set from scratch. If you were to look at it in real life, it looked like two chairs with a piece of patterned MDF between them, but through the camera lens it came alive and was moody and mysterious.

"This episode also required a prop to be designed and made; the uranium bomb. I spoke to a technical advisor on how a real dirty bomb would look and added some Hollywood artistic licence in the form of a timer and flashing LEDs.

I built the prop with help from my friend G using deodorant cans, perfume bottles and bits from old computers, finishing it off with lights from a model railway set. It looks brilliant on screen and that's what really matters."

--Chris Stone

Heading up the cast was Garry Graham-Smith as Agent Thomas O'Kelly. Garry has worked extensively with Chris, starring as the villain in the prologue of 'The Last Dragon Hunter' as well as the music videos 'Between the Lines' and 'Dirty Little Secret'.

Manchester based character actor Alex Harding was chosen to play the psychotic arms dealer Vanessa Drake. Alex's own son Will was cast as her son Adam in the episode.

My son Will and I couldn't be more proud to be part of March's episode of 'Year of Spies'. We had such fun on set with fellow actors and crew, and mother and son being able to work together!

Chris and Steph allowed me to really explore Vanessa Drake. Having the freedom as an actor to fully discover your character and contribute ideas to her was a brilliant experience.

I am very fond of Vanessa, what a fun character to play! We are looking forward to watching and supporting the next chapters of 'Year of Spies'.

--Alex Harding

Charles O' Neill was cast as Charles Fox, the stern but good-hearted head of MI6.

When I got the phone call from Chris telling me I had landed the role of Charles Fox, to say I was delighted would be an understatement. As a huge fan of spy and espionage films and also of Chris' amazing body of top quality films, it was a fantastic opportunity to be involved with this series.

Charles Fox is an 'M' type character, and while images of all the previous M's where whizzing around my head, this was a very different role to all the ones I had seen before. There are many levels to his character to deal with and there is a delicate complexity to the situation he is confronted with. It was a very challenging, but wonderful role to play.

Working with Chris and the team was a joy. Work felt easy on set, with a determination to squeeze every drop out of each scene to make each one fantastic. Chris instinctively knows what looks and sounds right, and has an amazing creativity that brings out the best in his actors.

--Charles O'Neill

Promo Images

Behind the Scenes

Mission Trivia

The character of Charles Fox is named after Edward Fox, the actor who played 'M' in the unofficial Bond film 'Never Say Never Again' in 1983.

The interior of the church is the same location used in Blood and Bone China. The priests in both stories are also called Thomas.

The haze in the opening shots of Ireland was caused by a massive pollution cloud that swept over the country in March.

Agent O'Kelly's entire wardrobe for this episode was made up of items belonging to the director, including his battered green 'filming' coat and two of his suits.

Vanessa and Adam are mother and son in real life.

Thanks

Once again, a massive thank you to everyone who helped in the production of this episode. Thank you to the actors for all of your time and hard work. Thank you to our amazing production assistant Mark Barnett for all of your help and allowing us to construct the confession box set in your flat. Thank you to Amanda Bosson for helping to source a couple of the locations. Thank you to Trev Preston for his expertise and to Gervais Roe for helping to construct the bomb prop. Thank you to Burslem School of Art for letting us use a room for rehearsal and thank you to Stoke-On-Trent City Council and their helpful security guards for access and use of their locations.

If you'd like to get involved in Year of Spies in any role, from acting to assisting with production, from providing access to an interesting location to lending props and costumes, from sponsoring an episode to helping spread the word on social media, please get in touch with us, we need your help.