keep the series fresh, the producers still wanted Adam's exit to be a shock to the audience. The actor found that his last days on Spooks were generally upsetting and "welled up" on his final day. In March 2008 the BBC announced that Richard Armitage would join the series as Lucas North. The character was designed by the producers to become a "new heroic figure", and to become much more distant than Adam. Armitage was chosen early in the casting process as the producers believed he could carry the mystery of the character. Armitage was approached by the producers after he finished work on the second series of Robin Hood in which he portrayed the regular part of Sir Guy of Gisbourne. He accepted the role but was initially hesitant to join because of the "tall order" of replacing Penry-Jones. Armitage lost a stone in weight in preparation to keep with the description that Lucas is malnourished in the first episode, but still kept physically fit. Elsewhere, Hermione Norris returns as Ros Myers. The character was initially written off after the eighth episode of the sixth series due to the actress's pregnancy, however when the seventh series entered pre-production, Norris was asked to return and she accepted. Miranda Raison also returned as Jo Portman. The cliffhanger of the sixth series finale, where Jo was apparently killed, was to leave the audience wondering whether she survived. Raison stated that she realised the producers wanted her to return, as did she. Alex Lanipekun returned as Ben Kaplan, and was upgraded to a series regular. Lanipekun believed that the seventh series was "kind of for Ben," adding that there was an episode that would see his coming of age by dealing with his first undercover operation and the burden of getting close to someone who is involved with the group he was sent to stop. Peter Firth, Gemma Jones and Hugh Simon returned as Harry Pearce, Connie James and Malcolm Wynn-Jones, respectively. Production Writing The writers and producers got together to discuss what direction they would take for the seventh series. They wanted to repeat the same style for series six, which was to add a serial element to be carried throughout the duration of the series. They got together to think about what they would believe to be a big political story that would affect politics in the United Kingdom in within