Malcolm

Malcolm Wynn-Jones (born 29 December 1958 in Dunvant, Wales; full name Malcolm Peregrine Geoffrey St. John Wynn Jones) is the fictional MI5 analyst, featured in the British television series Spooks, also known as MI5 in the United States. Malcolm has been played by Hugh Simon since the start of Spooks in 2002.

Personal life

Malcolm was born in 1958 to David Wynn-Jones, a vicar (and the youngest son of a baronet) and his wife Amelia, who was a housewife. David was a large influence on Malcolm, forcing him to wake up early and recite Latin verbs before breakfast. His father died in 1986, but his mother is alive as of series 7. He is an only child. He attended Dunvant School for Boys between 1969 and 1976, obtaining 10 O-levels at A grade, and 5 A-levels in Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Latin and Greek, all at 'A' grade. After finishing school he spent a year in Italy as an archaeologist. He then attended St John's College at Cambridge University, and gained an MA (Hons) in Natural Sciences.

Letters to his parents in 1973 from his headmaster show that at the age of 14, Malcolm 'bugged' a staff meeting and played the recording to his schoolmates, much to the amazement of many staff. Malcolm had a miserable time at school; other letters show a history of bullying and his inability to fit in.

Malcolm makes no secret of his conservatism; at university other students noted that his idea of rebelliousness was missing chapel on Monday. According to other sources, he has inherited snobbery from his mother, who was described by a neighbour as a 'witch'.

He was employed as an IT director between 1985 and 1990 for a media company, having previously worked for the Home Office between 1980 and 1985. Malcolm made a significant amount due to his 30% in the IT company he worked for (Whizzfizz Media Ltd., founded by his father's godson, Simon Muir), and now holds an estimated fortune of £5,000,000. While at the Home Office he was graded in the top 10% of workers, but found the work to be mundane.

His social life is inactive; during MI5 background checking, officers noted that Malcolm had not 'overcome his natural awkwardness with members of the opposite sex'. He suffers from asthma, which affects his physical endurance.

He is fluent in Russian, Arabic, Mandarin and German, the first three being self-taught. His interests include church music and the Industrial Revolution. He applied to join MI5 on January 7, 1990.

Spooks profile

Malcolm started out at the very beginning, as an analyst. In the script for one of his first episodes, he is described as being "an odd-looking man in a bow-tie. He sounds almost autistic--a walking intelligence encyclopaedia." Nothing about his private life works its way into any storyline, but he does pose as Ruth's brother "Giles" when she falls for someone the team are watching, and we know from Series 5 Episode 6 that he is a collector of old 1970s bugs. His mother is still alive, as mentioned by him in episode 8 of series 7.

Along with Harry Pearce, Malcolm is one of only two remaining characters to have been in the show since the beginning. In the officially-licensed tie-in book, "Harry's Diary", it is revealed that Malcolm joined Section D in January 1990.

He is a hard, devoted worker, and MI5 training assessments show him as an excellent surveillance officer, linguist and marksman. He is also very good in technical matters, as well as teamwork. He attained an above-average score on the training exam of 3.1. Due to his asthma, he is not physically fit, and has a tendency to panic under pressure. He almost lives at Thames House - in 2005 a Section X report stated that Malcolm 'continued to take more than 90% of his meals in the office canteen'.

Malcolm is distraught when his best friend and colleague Colin Wells is executed in Series 5, Episode 1. Senior Case Officer Adam Carter persuades Malcolm to stay on the job after Malcolm says that he can't pretend that nothing happened to Colin.

Another moment where Malcolm appears to be weaker than his colleagues is in the episode Diana when he is faced with a bomb and has to cut a wire to stop it from going off, killing him and Adam. He freezes, not knowing which wire to cut. He later reveals to Ruth that "bravery terrifies me".

He has attended sessions with a psychologist following panic attacks under pressure.