Taking Spooks seriously:Beijing on the warpath over BBC spy drama

The portrayal of Chinese agents as they attempt to infiltrate British security, kidnap defecting scientists and blow up London landmarks in Spooks has annoyed Beijing. Photograph: BBC 

 • Drama showed Chinese agents in unflattering light 
• Government tells TV firms not to deal with corporation

Taking Spooks seriously:Beijing on the warpath over BBC spy drama......The BBC is used to China's disapproval. Its Chinese language service has long been blocked and last year it annoyed officials by sneaking Kate Adie into the country.

But BBC executives say they could never have predicted the latest programme to send Chinese officials on the warpath: the corporation's far-fetched spy drama Spooks.

Several episodes of the latest series, which finished on Sunday night, have featured Chinese agents engaged in nefarious activities: trying to kidnap a scientist and threatening to detonate a bomb in London if anyone interfered; working with Russians to hack Anglo-US cybersecurity; and stealing the blueprint of a genetic weapon.

The Guardian has learned that Beijing is so unhappy at these unflattering portrayals that government officials have ordered TV companies not to co-operate with BBC Worldwide, the corporation's international commercial wing.

Officials were thought to be particularly enraged at the timing of the broadcasts, coming as they did so close to David Cameron's visit to China earlier this week.

"It blows hot and cold for us in China – however, it is usually BBC News or a documentary that causes an issue," said one senior BBC source. "The issue is always if content strays, or is perceived to stray, into the area of politics. It is the nature of doing business in China. No one would have even thought about Spooks [offending anyone] and the timing [with Cameron's trip] is just plain bad luck. It is not the first issue and it won't be the last."

Asked about the row by the Guardian, the Chinese foreign ministry said it would look into the matter.

Spooks has not been widely viewed in China, with only a few episodes uploaded to video-sharing websites. But episodes the Guardian was able to watch from China yesterday were not subtitled and had not been viewed many times, suggesting that the offence comes from a perceived besmirching of the country's reputation abroad rather than at home.

However, Spooks devotees may well suspect that the Chinese government has not been glued to the programme since its first episode, way back in 2002. If they had stuck with the show throughout its nine series, they would have realised China is far from the only country to have its name dragged through the dirt.

And yet Vladimir Putin has not apparently complained about Spooks continually depicting Russians as double-crossing, psychotic maniacs – the episodes that raised Beijing's hackles also include a Russian FSB officer-gone-bad. Barack Obama has also apparently turned a blind eye to his countrymen being mostly portrayed as traitors, bossyboots and dunderheads interspersed with the odd good guy. A string of other countries could find cause for complaint in the latest series; there have been assassins from Syria, Colombia and the French Foreign Legion, and there was also an Israeli negotiator who tried to blow herself and the US president up.

The only people who can't complain are the people of terrorist-central Azakstan. And that's because it's fictional. (An old Spooks trick – just attach the suffix -stan for an instant terrorist country).

The broadcasting cold war, if it lasts, could hurt BBC Worldwide, which handles both the sales of co-productions and BBC programmes. The operation, which made record profits of £145.2m in the year to the end of March, is responsible for selling shows and formats such as Top Gear, Doctor Who and the international version of Strictly Come Dancing.

It has been expanding aggressively, not least because of the pressure the BBC faces at home over the licence fee. And China offers enormous opportunities for money-making.

BBC Worldwide ran into similar problems last year, when Chinese broadcasters halted dealings following Adie's documentary to mark the 20th anniversary of the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. She had filmed it undercover while on a tourist visa, having previously been refused entry.

In that case, BBC sources confirmed they had heard firms were told not to co-operate with BBC Worldwide, but a spokesman added: "BBC Worldwide has not received any official notification of a ban."

Other media organisations, including Disney and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, have clashed with the Chinese authorities as they tried to build businesses in the country. Murdoch's Asian satellite broadcaster, Star TV, stopped carrying the BBC World TV news channel in 1994 after protests from officials.

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Spooks:series nine, episode four

Spoiler alert: This weekly blog is for those who have been watching Spooks series nine. Don't read ahead if you haven't seen episode four yet.

Vicky Frost's episode three blog

Before the titles: Three Chinese Security Service operatives arrive in the UK on British passports. They bring with them some French booze – and a shedload of guns.

This week's mission: What is the CSS snatch squad doing in Britain? And which super-risky strategy should the spooks employ to find out? Break through the front windows of the Chinese embassy to steal some oddly available information, or make Beth – who appears to have learned her powers of persuasion from bellowing Lucas ("IF HE NEEDS TO BE PUSHED THEN YOU PUSH HIM. GENTLY") – turn reluctant CSS agent Kai using only the power of stilettos? Or why not both?

Luckily, Ruth is available for fieldwork this week, owing to her ability to speak every language in the world (save Cantonese; which is "horrible"). Off she trots to hack into an extremely secure system and locate the CSS target, Amphitrite, otherwise known as Dr Jiang Li, who is being guarded by the CIA: "Mauve, six, pelican." "Gold, nine, cormorant." I'm seriously considering how I could work more protocol greetings into my everyday life. Although fat lot of good they seem in any case, given that the Chinese then snatch Jiang and later try to speed off with her and indeed Kai – threatening to detonate a bomb in London if anyone interferes.

Last week's episode didn't exactly go down a treat (except, perhaps, with me), but I suspect this instalment will get a rather better reception. It was full of the usual Spooks plotholes of course, including all that business with Jiang's kid, which seemed to be leading up to something, and then completely didn't – unless it really was all there so Ruth could confirm that she didn't have any children. Also, Jiang's British citizenship that was stressed by the home secretary and then still didn't prevent the Chinese from trying to take her.

The Spooks time wormholes were in evidence, with the police arriving at the Chinese embassy before Ruth had even been put through to them. But I enjoyed the double/ triple/ triple-but-doesn't-know-it agent malarkey, and the randomly assigned safe-house location – I was just saying to myself what a good idea that was. Until it, erm, wasn't.

Tariq's tech corner: "I'm going to cause a localised power surge to knock out perimeter security systems … when I say 'go' you have 1.8 seconds to open the windows."

Dimitri's all-action hero: A few mere pleasantries for dialogue and then: abseil into an embassy! Melt a giant bomb! Is Dimitri being paid by the line? Is that why he's not allowed to say very much while Beth stomps around like an intemperate teenager? Last week I argued that we should give Beth more of a chance. This week … I really felt the lack of Ros. Sending Ruth out into the field does not make up for the lack of the chilliest woman ever – and as Lucas becomes increasingly bad, the gap on the grid also becomes increasingly apparent.

The Harry and Ruth love-o-meter: Lacklustre: "I'm sorry about your lip." "Don't be."

Gratuitous iPhone shots this week: The spooks managed to hack a mainframe using the power of an iPhone (see also episode 2); Lucas flashed his phone and his (still?) apparently freshly inked tats in the flat; only unfortunate password lackey Stephen Owen didn't appear to be sponsored by Apple. And look what happened to him.

Who is Lucas North?: The mystery drags on for yet another week – seriously, we better get some answers before episode eight, or nobody will care any more. Anyway, as kjenkins cleverly noted of Lucas's glazed kitchen in last week's blog: "I can't help thinking that if you were a mysterious character from Lucas's past who wanted to keep tabs on Lucas and possibly blackmail him, you could do worse than rent the house at the bottom of his garden." (Not actually a reference to Lucas' much-discussed garden shed, but I imagine that would do equally well. Perhaps that's going to be the final twist: Vaughn has been living in Lucas' shed).

Lucas not only seems to be properly rotten now, but he also appears to have undergone an odd character change – running into the hospital to snog Maya in the corridor and be unconvincingly emotional on an ugly white bench. "I just had to tell you. I don't want to waste another moment." Crikey – is that some kind of awful double-bluff dialogue? Let's hope so.