Through the Opera Glasses - 38 - Lucas North Faces His Torturer on Spooks

For lucky TV viewers in the UK, Spooks season 8 has already begun airing. And the latest episode - 4 - focuses on Lucas North's literal torturous past.

For viewers in North America, where Spooks season 8 won't be airing for awhile yet, try this link on You Tube.















In this episode, Lucas (Richard Armitage) faces down the man who was his torturer for four of the eight years he survived in a Russian prison.














Truly the stuff of both nightmares and fantasies, to once again stand before someone who tortured you would take 'mindblowing experience' and totally redefine it.

Torture scenes in films and television put me in a cold sweat. I feel physically sick when I sense one is coming in the story, and sitting through one is an ordeal.

If it's real news footage, like the scene in the Vancouver airport of Robert Dziekański's last excruciating moments after being Tasered by RCMP officers - I can't watch and I have to put my hands over my ears. I can't stand the screaming.

The handling of the Lucas North torture storyline on Spooks thoroughly examines the post-traumatic effects this has on the remainder of that person's life. Lucas is shown as being unable to sleep unless he returns to the hard floor, unable to prevent unrelated stimuli from provoking break-through memories from surfacing, and struggling to prove to his MI-5 superiors that he doesn't retain any Stockholm Syndrome feelings towards his former Russian captors.


















CLICK HERE to watch a clip from Spooks season 7 featuring our first glimpse into Lucas' torture memories. WARNING: contains waterboarding footage.

Join me later this week when I haul Canada's Defense Minister Peter Mackay onto the carpet for daring to say he was not aware that up to 130 Afghan detainees who were handed over to Afghan authorities by Canadian troops were then tortured.

My Thursday Thirteen will be posted with both barrels blazing. Wear your flak jackets.