Spooks actress on stunts, Dr Who and engagement rings
- Publication: News Letter
- Date: 2007-10-10
- Author: Andy Welch
- Page: 33
- Language: English
JO Portman first entered the fray in BBC One spy drama Spooks as a rookie spy, but she turns into a fully-fledged action heroine in the new series.
When we first saw her, back in series four, she was a failing journalist looking for a big scoop on an MI5 officer to salvage her career. She was caught snooping by Adam Carter, and recruited instead of reprimanded. "The character's come on a lot, particularly now that she's been there a few years she doesn't have to behave like a trainee," says Miranda Raison of her on-screen alter ego.
"Jo gets to do lots of physical stuff in this new series," she continues. "Without giving too much away, she gets held captive and has to endure a lot of mental torture, and on several occasions. She's definitely put through the mill!" laughs the actress. "Last series the balance was that I did a lot more research, probably because I'd been a journalist, but then they liked all the stuff I did with the Prime Minister's son in those episodes last year, so they thought they could give me more action.
"I love that though - I even chopped off my hair in preparation," she says, while running her hand over her new short crop.
The storyline Miranda refers to was one strand in an explosive two-parter in which the team at MI5 had to unravel a planned coup d'etat to overthrow the Government. Jo was dispatched to protect the Prime Minister's teenage son, which saw her thrown in at the deep end fighting masked men and being chased along a forest road. In one scene, the feisty character had to rescue the high-profile student from a supposedly peaceful protest which turned sour.
"I remember thinking it was really cool when I was learning the moves to that scene," she says.
"Trying it all at full speed was great, but then it came to doing it on film. I was meant to disarm an attacker by 'clotheslining' him. That means you have to hit someone in the throat with your fist or forearm to knock them off their feet, but obviously that's really dangerous so I had to aim for the chest.
"Every time we did it, the director stopped and said the angle wasn't quite right," she says.
"I felt so hard doing all this, but then the stuntman just said I may as well hit him in the throat as it wouldn't hurt that much. I whacked him as hard as I could, and he kind of coughed and that was it! I felt like a weakling. But then, stuntmen are weird - they argue over who gets to throw themselves down the stairs as they all love doing it so much."
As anyone who watches Spooks will know, the show keeps viewers on their toes as well as the edges of their seats by unexpectedly killing off main characters, or letting them leave at the end of a scintillating storyline.
Spooks received a record number of viewer complaints in 2002 after Helen, played by Lisa Faulkner, was plunged headfirst into a vat of hot oil then shot during an episode in the first series, while no fewer than seven central characters have departed in one way or another since then.
The writers set a precedent that anyone can leave at any time, so does Miranda ever worry about Jo now she's entering her third series in the drama? "I've heard the writers are never so brutal as to just write your death without telling you, so you get some warning, but no, I'm not worried," she says. "In my first year, I spent the whole time thinking they were going to kill me off. But I'm still here. It would have to be good though, I wouldn't want Jo to die quietly in some drug-induced coma. It would have to happen while saving the world, with lots of blood and guts."
Aside from her work on Spooks, Miranda has also starred alongside Scarlett Johansson in Woody Allen's comedy Match Point, played Russian bombshell Svetlana in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo and appeared in Land Of The Blind with Ralph Fiennes and Donald Sutherland. More recently, she starred in a two-part instalment of Doctor Who. Set in 1930s New York, Miranda played Manhattan showgirl Tallulah and helped the Doctor fend off his oldest foes, the Daleks, who had descended on the city. "It was great, very different to Spooks," she says. "There were some amazing costumes, and I spent the whole time in a sequinned dress-leotard thing, with glittery shoes, and feather boas. It started with us doing a number [during which her real-life father played the piano] then the Daleks arrived and it all went a bit mad.
"I got to wear this amazing velvet coat which everyone was begging to have. It's now in the Doctor Who exhibition, so no one got to keep it."
Very soon, however, the Norfolk-born actress will be stepping into a very special costume of her own - as she's just been engaged to co-star Raza Jaffrey, who plays fellow spook Zaf Younis.
As any bride-to-be Miranda is all smiles, but she's not wearing her ring. This is due to continuity while filming the drama, but there is also another reason.
"I haven't got the proper ring yet anyway, I've got a mock-up one. Raza proposed with a key-ring, actually, so I had that until he'd sorted the ring out properly. I absolutely love it. I think he'd heard me talking to a friend about her ring and saying what I liked, so he definitely knew what not to get! "I think we'll get married this year, something small and discreet," she says, smiling. "We just need to fit it in somehow."
Caption: ROLE: Miranda Raison returns as Jo Portman in the new series of Spooks, which starts next Tuesday on BBC1
Caption: BUSY: Miranda is juggling work commitments with being a bride-to-be
Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org
- APA 6th ed.: Welch, Andy (2007-10-10). Spooks actress on stunts, Dr Who and engagement rings. News Letter p. 33.
- MLA 7th ed.: Welch, Andy. "Spooks actress on stunts, Dr Who and engagement rings." News Letter [add city] 2007-10-10, 33. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Welch, Andy. "Spooks actress on stunts, Dr Who and engagement rings." News Letter, edition, sec., 2007-10-10
- Turabian: Welch, Andy. "Spooks actress on stunts, Dr Who and engagement rings." News Letter, 2007-10-10, section, 33 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Spooks actress on stunts, Dr Who and engagement rings | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Spooks_actress_on_stunts,_Dr_Who_and_engagement_rings | work=News Letter | pages=33 | date=2007-10-10 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=5 December 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Spooks actress on stunts, Dr Who and engagement rings | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Spooks_actress_on_stunts,_Dr_Who_and_engagement_rings | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=5 December 2025}}</ref>
