JUST back from the press launch for new ITV1 drama Whitechapel.
The three-part thriller stars former Spooks leading man Rupert Penry-Jones.
So, naturally, we asked him about the recent explosive exit of MI5’s Adam Carter.
“I was very pleased with it,” he said at the Q&A.
“I wanted to go out with a bang and I did.
“Everybody on Spooks, all the actors on it, whenever one of us is going to leave…we always hope that we’re going to get killed off, rather than just exit quietly.
“And I think the best exits from all the lead characters have been the ones who’ve been killed.
“So I’m glad they chose to kill me off.

“Mind you, it means I probably can’t come back, if I can’t get any work,” he grinned.
“You just get a better ending and you get all that lovely montage of all the other lead characters putting their heads in their hands.
“And you get to watch it on YouTube every night when you get home.
“It was emotional to see it but more because, I think, in the story it was quite moving.
“It was very emotional actually finishing my last day of filming on Spooks and saying goodbye to everybody.

“I did well up a bit.”
I asked Rupert if, aside from the preview DVD, he’d also watched Adam’s screen death as it was broadcast on BBC1.
“I didn’t actually watch it as it went out that night,” he replied.
“I’ve normally seen them two or three times by then.
“But I have Sky Plus’d it and I’ve shown my kids dad being blown up.”
That’s Florence, four, and Peter, two.
And his kids’ reaction to his screen exit?
“They just kept saying, ‘Again, again…’
“He’s only two-and-a-half, my son. He must have watched it 20 times.”
Almost inevitably, someone asked Rupert if he’d been asked to audition for the role of Doctor Who.
“I haven’t been asked to audition for Doctor Who, no.”
Would he like to?
“I don’t know. I took over in Spooks from somebody and it always sat with me.
“I was never quite happy with the fact that I’d taken over from somebody else and was having to make something my own, that was somebody’s else’s show.
“I’d like to stick with original things that are mine.
“I don’t want to step into the footsteps of somebody else.”
The launch for Whitechapel was held at a very appropriate location in the East End of London here.
There’ll be lots more about that production nearer transmission in the New Year.
With another Spooks blog tomorrow morning.
I’ve now seen the final two episodes in the current series.
Spooks fans know to expect the unexpected.
They won’t be disappointed.
Spooks Blogs.
Spooks Fan Forum