Spooks is a British television drama series, produced by the independent production company Kudos for BBC One. The title derives from a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 intelligence officers at Thames House (though Freemasons' Hall in Covent Garden is used to represent it in filming). In the United States and Canada the show is aired under the title MI-5. The programme was created by writer David Wolstencroft. As of the final episode in Series 5 in November 2006, there have been a total of 46 episodes.

Each episode ends with a scene freezing suddenly into a black-and-white negative image that then compresses with a distinctive sound effect into a flat white line against a black screen, which cuts directly to a trailer for the next episode. Then there are simply the Kudos and BBC logos in the very last frame (or merely the logos if the episode is the finale of the series); the series continues to air with no credits on BBC One, to maintain an atmosphere of the anonymity of real-life spies and the drama of each episode finishing within a couple of seconds of the final frame, although episodes aired on BBC Three, one week ahead of their BBC One showing, have a brief credit sequence (which is then removed for the BBC One version). The final episode of each series is not previewed on BBC Three. Full credit sequences are available online for every episode to date.

The programme regularly attracts popular actors, with performers such as Hugh Laurie, Jimi Mistry, Andy Serkis, Andrew Tiernan, Anton Lesser, Alexander Siddig and Anthony Stewart Head having appeared.

Series 6 began on the 16 October 2007 on BBC One.