Tessa Phillps - Jenny Agutter ( SPOOKS)
Date of Birth: Unknown
First episode: Series 1, Episode 1
Last episode: Series 2, Episode 9
Job: Section Chief
Status: Alive (on the run)
Portrayed by: Jenny Agutter
When Spooks starts, Tessa has been in MI-5 for more than 20 years. Over that time she has become hard and cynical. Like Tom, she heads up a section in the counter-terrorism unit. Everyone thinks she she is content to maintain her position, but she is constantly battling for the upper-hand in the office, and is no stranger to dirty tricks when she wants to get her own way.
Tessa has plenty of admirers in the office. Not least Zoe, who looks up to her slick no-nonsense style as something to emulate. However, there is more to Tessa than met the eye, as Zoe finds out. While they are working on a case together, Zoe is shocked that not all of the agents Tessa has on her books are real people. Once the cat is out of the bag, Tessa didn't last long on the Grid; MI5 is no place for traitors.
She re-appears in series 2 running her own private security firm, but refuses to help out Section D with their request for an Asian agent. Later, she spots an opportunity for both financial gain and revenge. By selling information to the Chala drug cartel she deliberately sabotages an operation that Harry is running, causing the death of an informant with whom Tom Quinn had bonded. Phillips flees the country leaving behind a video for Harry, in which she gloats about trumping MI5.
< Back to character list
All text on this website is ©SpooksFans All Rights Reserved.
All copyrighted materials posted on this website are purely for the private enjoyment of fans and visitors. The content of this website should not be reproduced for commercial purposes. All rights are reserved and respected to their original copyright owners. No copyright infringement is intended. If any copyright owner feels aggrieved by our content, please contact us and we will remove it.
Tessa Phillips is a character in the television drama series Spooks. She was played by the actress Jenny Agutter.
Phillips joined MI5 in the early 1980s and eventually headed her own counter-terrorism unit, known as Section K. While she was working on a case with Zoe Reynolds, Reynolds discovered that Phillips was running "phantom agents", non-existent sources whom she claimed to be bribing for important information. In reality she was keeping the money for herself, thereby defrauding MI5 out of tens of thousands of pounds. She left MI5 at the end of the first season, branded a traitor.
In series 2, she runs her own private security firm. At some point she spots an opportunity for both financial gain and revenge. By selling information to the Chala drug cartel she deliberately sabotages an operation that Harry Pearce is running, causing the death of an informant with whom Tom Quinn had bonded. Phillips flees the country leaving behind a video for Pearce, in which she gloats about trumping MI5.
02m00%2Bmodified.jpg)
02m.jpg)
13-34-52_jjh20001102b%2Bmodified.jpg)
Jenny Agutter As Tessa Phillips
Spooks TV Series
