Fiona Carter

Infobox character
name = Fiona Carter


caption = Olga Sosnovska as Fiona Carter
portrayer = Olga Sosnovska
gender = Female
first = 2004
last = 2005
occupation = Intelligence Officer, MI5 Counter-Terrorism
spouse = Husband, Adam
children = Son, Wes

Fiona Carter, also revealed as being named Amelia, was the character portrayed by Olga Sosnovska in the BBC television series "Spooks". Originally an officer of the United Kingdom Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Fiona transferred to the Security Service (MI5) following the departure of Zoe Reynolds (Keeley Hawes). The transfer saw Fiona work alongside her husband, Adam Carter (Rupert Penry-Jones), in MI5's Counter-Terrorism Department. However, Adam was left a widower and single-parent to son Wes following Fiona's murder in Episode 7 of Series 4 (4.7) at the hands of her former husband, Farook Sukkareih.

Fiona was a talented and gifted intelligence officer, and her undercover operations were aided by a strong flair for acting. She is first introduced in episode 3.4 as an MI6 officer monitoring the progress of Middle East peace talks in London, and is used as a 'swallow' by her husband to place a tracking device on pro-Israeli newspaper mogul David Swift (Corin Redgrave), who is intent on destabilising the talks. To convince Swift to sell his newspapers and leave the United Kingdom, Fiona is made-up to look the victim of assault and records a video accusing him of rape.

Fiona's second outing for the Security Service in episode 3.8 sees her transfer fully to MI5 from MI6 and she believes that this will allow her to have a more normal family life with Adam and Wes. Adam is initially resistant but Fiona insists and is placed undercover as a sales agent sent by French cosmetics firm 'Vita Nuova' to the recently knighted star couple, Riff (Andy Serkis) and B (Rebecca Palmer). Sir Riff and B's son, Alfie, has been kidnapped and Oliver Mace (Tim McInnerny), the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, wants MI5 to be seen to do "something cuddly" and find the baby. Uncomfortable with playing policeman, Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) decides to play this as he knows best and sends Fiona in undercover. Fiona soon gains the trust of cocaine addict B by playing to the former model's sensitivities and learns that B has orchestrated the kidnapping as a publicity stunt.

Things take an ugly turn, however, in 3.10 when Fiona and Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo) are taken hostage by Iraqi extremists intent on murdering the Prime Minister. After a failed escape attempt in which the pair kill one of their captors, Adam is faced with choosing which of the hostages is to be executed. However, he cannot make a choice and Danny heroically provokes the lead extremist into shooting him dead, thus giving Fiona a temporary reprieve. When Adam manages to convince one of the extremists to not suicide herself to kill the Prime Minister, the lead extremist senses that something is wrong and orders Fiona to be burned alive, while he records a video to post on the Internet. However, she is saved when Adam learns her location from the disarmed extremist and the SAS shoots the remaining extremists dead.

Indisposed due to grief, Fiona is unable to attend Danny's funeral (4.1) and takes leave. She returns in episode 4.3 to go undercover as Public Relations manager Emily Glover to subvert the rise of an extreme right-wing politician, William Sampson (Rupert Graves). However, she expresses her own concerns about Adam going undercover in episode 4.4 but he is as insistent as she is on the issue - it's their way of life. Things come crashing down in episode 4.7 when Fiona gets wind that her former-husband-turned-terrorist Farook Sukkareih has learned she is alive and re-married to Adam. Farook tracks Fiona down, kidnaps her and attempts to smuggle her back to Syria. She manages to escape, but is tragically gunned down and dies in Adam's arms.

References

* Spooks - Behind the Scenes, Kudos Film and Television 2006. ISBN 0-75287-610-4