M I High
| M.I. High | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre |
Action Espionage thriller Crime School Spies |
| Created by | Keith Brumpton |
| Directed by |
Richard Mark Elson Toby Haynes Simon Hook Mat King Zam Salim |
| Starring |
Jonny Freeman (Series 3–7) Oyiza Momoh (Series 6–7) Sam Strike (Series 6–7) Oscar Jacques (Series 6–7) Natasha Watson (Series 6) Julia Brown (Series 7) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 88 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Alison Jackson |
| Running time | 30 minutes approx. |
| Production company(s) | Kudos |
| Release | |
| Original network |
CBBC & CBBC HD, BBC One |
| Picture format | 16:9 1080i HDTV |
| Original release | 8 January 2007 – 31 March 2014 |
M.I. High is a British action television series produced by Kudos for CBBC and created by Olivia McRae. The series focuses on a team of undercover teenage spies working for the fictional secret intelligence agency M.I.9 who have to balance their school life with their jobs as secret agents. The line-up of spies has altered between the show's seven series.
The series premiered on 8 January 2007 and originally ended on 21 March 2011 after five series, before being revived for a further two series that was broadcast between 7 January 2013 to 31 March 2014.
The series follows the adventures of four secondary school pupils who work as undercover spies. The spies are led by M.I.9 agent Frank London (Jonny Freeman) whose cover job is a school caretaker. All other spies' covers have been rumpled up, and the only spies left undercover are those still being trained, including those still enrolled in school. To reach their base 230 feet below the school, they slide a light switch across which reveals a finger print scanner lock. They enter the caretaker's store room and pull a broom which turns the floor into a high-speed lift which changes the spies' clothing and hairstyles (It was said by Kerri in Season 7, Episode 2 – Frankenstein "I know it's high tech and everything, but seriously, how can the lift do my hair better then I can?"). The identity of the overarching villains across Series 1–5, The Grand Master, and Series 6–7, The Mastermind remains a mystery within the show. The team must constantly save the world from domination by a variety of villains, whilst hiding their spy identities from their teachers and peers, and completing their school work.
Producer of the series Kerry Appleyard revealed that the concept for the show came from the creator and writer of the show Keith Brumpton who had the idea it would be fun to do a kids spy show and worked on the concept that kids find it very hard to keep secrets.MI5 and MI6 did not want the production team to use their names in the television programme but did allow them to use the name of the now defunct MI9 which back in World War II was in charge of covert operations in the UK and overseas and created various gadgets. Producer Kerry Appleyard thought that it was appropriate because the show has a lot of fantastic gadgets.
Series 1
When the auditions were held for the main characters of M.I. High, leaflets were sent out to schools and over a thousand kids were seen, from which director Toby Haynes had to choose the main characters. When auditions for the part of Daisy Miller took place there were a hundred children that day to audition.Bel Powley was in the middle of the crowd looking around and she caught Haynes's eye when she was sitting down on the floor and he thought she had confidence, which was exactly what he was looking for.
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