seconds, and the sound of my voice crying out to stop isn't me acting." Broadcast and reception Broadcast and ratings The series was broadcast every Monday from 27 October to 8 December 2008 on BBC One, with the exception of the second episode, which aired on a Tuesday, the day after the first episode. However, the second through to the seventh episodes were repeated on BBC Three sometime after the BBC One broadcasts of the previous episode. The first episode "New Allegiances" was seen by 5.5 million and was given a strong audience share of 23.4 per cent. Although ratings were high, the premiere was down from the 6.6 million seen by the premiere of the previous sixth series. Some of the later episodes faced heavy competition from I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! on ITV1, however despite this, ratings for Spooks remained steady. The finale "Nuclear Strike" gave the seventh series its strongest ratings, with six million viewers. Combining both BBC One and BBC Three viewings, viewing figures for the seventh series averaged 6.13 million per episode. The series also became the ninth most watched series from BBC iPlayer, an Internet television service, of 2008. Critical reception The seventh series attracted critical acclaim, with some reviewers considering it to be the best series of Spooks. Leigh Holmwood of The Guardian feared that the death of Adam "would have cast a long shadow", but barely noticed his absence given the pace of the episodes. Holmwood also believed that Lucas's introduction "more than made amends" for replacing Adam, and also felt the return of Ros Myers and her promotion was "a genius move". Mark Wright of The Stage thought that it was "stunning" with the last three episodes in particular "hitting new heights of tension and storytelling for the series," adding it is "as good as, if not the better, than the first couple of seasons". Wright also believed the series performed well with a reduced series length of eight as opposed to the ten episodes from the last few series, which he said allowed for "tighter, more focussed storytelling". He also felt the cast changes "always felt naturally organic", and praised Adam's exit, Lucas's introduction, and the "fantastic, strong female role model" of Hermione Norris's portrayal. Wright ended by saying "Spooks has been my favourite show of the last few months and indeed of 2008". Mof Gimmers of