MI-5 (TV Series) The Sleeper (2004) User Reviews

Nutjob Tom Finally Terminated

[Johnny_West · 10/10 · 5 August 2022]

What a great episode for those who were tired of Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfadyen) and his never-ending drama queen persona. It seemed like Tom could not go buy a Happy Meal without getting several people murdered. Constantly demanding that his friends break the law and MI-5 rules to prove that they trusted him. Talk about non-stop drama queen. I was so happy when Harry finally told him to stuff it.

The actual story is pretty thin. Harry gets a science professor who retired 24 years earlier as an MI-5 agent to return to MI-5. He was allowed to retire as a "sleeper" agent. The professor was played by Ian McDiarmid, who was only 58 at the time, but looked closer to 80.

Of course, once the operation is going great, and MI-5 are about to catch the terrorists who want to buy Red Plutonium from the Professor, Tom flips out completely and decides he cannot put the Professor's family at risk. So he tells Harry that he wants to abort the op, and all the MI-5 folks tell him he is nuts. That just forces Tom to go rogue (again, for the 15th time), and he takes the Professor out of University to save his life.

Needless to say, MI-5 eventually catch up to Tom, and he finally gets canned and drummed out of MI-5. It would have been better if Harry blew his head off in payback for Tom shooting him.

The Sleeper

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 25 December 2020]

Harry Pearce activates a sleeper agent after 24 years. It comes as a shock to Professor Fred Roberts, a Nobel prize winning chemist. He agreed to this when he was a younger man, he thought it was his patriotic duty.

Now Harry visits him on the Professor's daughter's graduation day. Harry persuades the reluctant Professor that MI5 was behind his successful career including the awards he won.

Tom Quinn works with the professor on a cover story. A gambling addict who has created red mercury, a device that could be used as an atomic detonator.

Pretty soon Professor Roberts is contacted by someone for the red mercury. The Professor is warned that his family are at risk if it comes to light that he is in contact with the security services.

This episode sees Tom beginning to unravel as he has to lie to the Professor about keeping his family safe. Tom is worried about using the Professor and his family in danger.

A good performance from Ian McDiarmid who is initially confused and worried when Harry reappears in his life. As for Tom, it seems he has never really recovered from his ordeal.

The way the episode is directed, you really do believe that Tom has a point of view. Harry Pearce has done little to protect the Professor's family.

The handover to Adam Carter is completed in this episode. Matthew Macfadyen leaves the series as Tom Quinn is written out. He will only appear once more in the final seconds of the last ever television episode of Spooks.

Irritating character

[lizs1289 · 5/10 · 19 May 2019]

I used to like Tom - he led his team well and made the difficult decisions etc but in the last few episodes, the character has completely unravelled and has become irritating. This may be because the actor vacillated between being written out or not and the storylines were concocted in a hurry. In any case, I'm pleased he has left and the episodes are back to being entertaining stories. Adam is a good replacement.