My Spy Family

My Spy Family
Genre	Action Family sitcom
Created by	Paul Alexander
Written by	Paul Alexander Trevor Neal & Simon Hickson Daniel Peak Trevelyan Evans Gary Lawson John Phelps Mark Robertson Clare Trenholm
Directed by	Dominic MacDonald Tom Poole David Sant Angelo Abela Frank W. Smith
Starring	Milo Twomey Natasha Beaumont Alice Connor Joe Tracini Ignat Pakhotin
Composer	Glenn Keiles
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	46
Production
Executive producers	Anne Brogan and Connal Orton (for Kindle Entertainment) Daniel Lennard and Cecilia Persson (for Cartoon Network Europe)
Producers	Bernard Krichefski Liz Noble (line producer)
Production location	Batley
Cinematography	Francis De Groote Dave Parker
Editors	Mike Eccles James MacMillan
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	22 minutes approx. (per episode)
Production companies	Kindle Entertainment Turner Broadcasting System Europe
Original release
Network	Boomerang
Release	1 September 2007 (2007-09-01) – 23 January 2010 (2010-01-23)

My Spy Family is a British live-action family comedy series created by Paul Alexander. The series is a co-production between Kindle Entertainment and Turner Broadcasting System Europe, with Decode Enterprises handling distribution.^[1] The series aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang in the UK, TG4 in Ireland, Panda Biggs in Portugal, and Cartoon Network in France, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Romania, and South Africa. All the music is written by Glenn Keiles, excluding some songs heard in the "Intelligence Agency Cafe," which have been co-written with other songwriters.

Plot synopsis[edit]

When Master spy, Dirk Bannon, fell in love with his Russian arch rival, Natalia Knockemoff, things could only get complicated. Now they've been decommissioned, and are supposed to be living a normal life with their three children, Spike - the wannabee secret agent - Elle, happily retired - and a rather odd Boris. But can this family ever be normal? Not when you've got parents with a license to embarrass.

— Opening Narration

The show is about the Bannon family, who all have strong spy links. The parents, Dirk and Talia, were once arch enemies and enemy spies but fell in love and got married. They now have three children (Spike, Elle, and Boris), who have all been brought up with spy techniques as a matter of course. Spike's friend Travis (played by Richard Sargent) is commonly seen on the show.

The action is based in three major locations, the Bannon home, the children's school, and the local café, which is run by Des, Dirk's former personal ordnance officer (gadget master).

Characters[edit]

Main characters[edit]

• Dirk Bannon (portrayed by Milo Twomey) is a British former spy. He is married to his former arch-rival, Talia, a Russian spy. Dirk is usually a pushover to his wife and is somewhat more incompetent at being a spy than she is. Together, they have three children: Spike, Elle, and Boris. He is best friends with Des, his former personal ordnance officer (gadget master). He is rarely seen wearing something other than a tuxedo.
• Talia Bannon (portrayed by Natasha Beaumont) is the Russian arch-rival of Dirk, who later fell in love and married him, before retiring. As seen in a few episodes she has better fighting techniques as well as better spying techniques than her husband. She also tends to add the suffix "-sky" to words she says, such as referring to herself as "Mumsky." She is also a master of disguise. In "The Back in Batley Affair," she introduces herself as Natalia Alexandrina Vladimir Knockemoff-Bannon after being put in charge of the Intelligence Agency Cafe after Des, the owner, is written out of Series 3.
• Spike Bannon (portrayed by Joe Tracini) is the eldest offspring of Dirk and Talia. Spike is an expert at creating various spy gadgets. Many times, it is shown that he, along with his best friend, Travis, tries to sabotage any plans or simply make a fool of his geography teacher, Mr. Vong, with whom he does not get along well due to Spike's schemes.
• Elle Bannon (portrayed by Alice Connor) is the middle child of Dirk and Talia. Like her mother, she also has very good combat skills and spy techniques. She is often seen hanging out with her friends Donna and Marcy at school and is often at odds with her brother Spike. Talia says there is a 7% chance that she is heir to the throne of Russia.
• Boris Bannon (portrayed by Ignat Pakhotin) is the youngest offspring of Dirk and Talia. He is an expert in setting booby traps and hiding. Though he is a member of the family, he is treated as the most unnoticeable character in the show. He is not often shown and rarely speaks, but when he does, it is in Russian, which no one seems to understand except Talia. He is written out of series 3 in the opener, "The Back in Batley Affair," which describes him as ruling Russia as he looks like the former ruler, which makes Talia proud. However, he eventually returns in "The Boris Bounces Back Affair,"

Recurring characters[edit]

• Des (portrayed by Vas Blackwood) is Dirk's former Personal Ordnance Officer (gadget-master). He has since retired and opened the local Intelligence Agency Cafe, though his kitchen has many various types of gadgets which become useful during spy missions. He is best friends with Dirk, though they occasionally don't get along. He has also shown interest in Talia. Like Boris, he is also written out of season 3, who has gone to Bermuda for a year after he is elected honorary president of the World Shark Surfing Federation, putting Talia in charge.
• Travis Mitchell (portrayed by Richard Sargent) is Spike's best friend. He is very loyal to Spike and is always willing to help him.
• Mr. Ernest Vong (portrayed by Ramon Tikaram) is the school's geography teacher who seems to have the most authority. Spike sees Vong as an adversary, who schemes and pranks against him to get what he wants (which always fails), making Wong greatly dislike Spike, although he has no ill feelings for the rest of his family. It is hinted that he is Indian, as there is a map of India in his classroom. In the episode "The Mum's The Word Affair", it is revealed that he lives with his mother, who in turn revealed his first name.
• Donna Jacobs (portrayed by Cascade Brown) is a close friend of Elle and is mostly seen hanging out with her and Marcy. Donna is obsessed with fashion, and boyfriends and wishes to be a model. Talia often comments that she will be unable to be a model or have boyfriends due to her ankles.
• Marcy Desmond (portrayed by Kirsty Leigh Porter) is a shy friend of Elle and is mostly seen hanging out with Elle and Donna. Most of the time it is observed that she is the exact opposite of Donna since she has no fashion sense nor has any boyfriend.
• Mike Quiller (portrayed by Dan Li) is a former MI5 office boy, who Talia hires to help out after Des has left and gone to Bermuda for a year to be honorary president of the World Shark Surfing Federation. Mike is a big fan of Dirk.

Episodes[edit]

Season 1 (2007)[edit]

Season 2 (2008)[edit]

Season 3 (2009–10)[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Virtual 360 tour of the My Spy Family studio
• My Spy Family at IMDb
• Kindle Entertainment