THIS WEEK’S CHOICE
Created by Nick Mohammed, Intelligence is a workplace comedy set in the UK’s GCHQ—a kind of weedier, geekier version of MI5, where they tackle international and domestic Cyber Crime from a desktop. But when a pompous, maverick NSA agent Jerry (David Schwimmer) comes over from the U.S. to join the team, he enlists an inept and tactless computer analyst Joseph (Nick
Mohammed) in a power grab that threatens to disrupt the team’s ability to combat cyber terrorism.
When Jerry – an American NSA agent – joins a team at GCHQ tackling cyber crime, junior analyst Joseph is particularly excited. But Director of Cyber Security Christine is less keen with the shake-up. Meanwhile, Jerry looks to make his mark by leading a series of team-building exercises.
Then, in the second of the opening double-bill of episodes, Joseph accidentally deletes the department personnel files, forcing the entire team to redo their aptitude tests.
“We sat down with a representative from GCHQ, and they were really wonderful, actually. We were hoping to visit but we couldn’t in the end because of various security things, but it was so fascinating talking to them about the reality of what they’re doing.
The national security thing is obviously a really great backdrop for a sitcom because you can have high stakes set against it.”
“On Mondays, GCHQ have Military Monday, so anyone who’s military dresses up in their full outfit.
You think, ‘We could put that in the show,’ but maybe people would think we made it up for sitcom purposes.
“Similarly, there’s a bus just for GCHQ that picks people up from the train station. We were going to put it in as a shot but we thought, ‘People will just think we’ve done it as a gag, and we haven’t.’”
“We found out so much interesting stuff that informed the show. There’s no dress code, so people are in cargo shorts and flip flops, and other people come in full military dress. There are people from all over the world that are working there in every possible attire – and there are kids with hoodies, too.”