{{Short description|Fictional character from spooks}} {{about||the baseball player|Harry Pearce (baseball)|the Australian rugby league footballer|Harry Pierce}} {{Multiple issues| {{all plot|date=April 2015}} {{in-universe|date=April 2015}} }}
{{Infobox character | name = Sir Harry Pearce <br />KBE |image =200px | series = Spooks | first = Series 1, Episode 1 | last = Spooks: The Greater Good | portrayer = Peter Firth | gender = Male | occupation = Head of MI5 counter-terrorism department - "Section D" (1994–2015) | family = Ben Pearce (brother) | spouse = Jane Townsend (1977–1986; divorced) | children = Catherine Townsend (daughter)<br>Graham Pearce (son) }}
'''Sir Henry James Pearce''', KBE (born 1 November 1953<ref name="diary320">{{cite book |title=Harry's Diary |year=2007 |publisher=Headline Publishing |location=London |isbn=978-0-7553-3398-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/harrysdiarytopse0000kudo/page/320 320] |url=https://archive.org/details/harrysdiarytopse0000kudo/page/320 }}</ref>) is a fictional character, head of the counter-terrorism department ("Section D") of MI5 as featured in the British television series ''Spooks''. He was played by Peter Firth during the whole run of the series from 2002 to 2011, and reprised for the 2015 film, ''Spooks: The Greater Good''.
==Career==
After attending the University of Oxford,<ref name="diary5">''Harry's Diary'', p. 5</ref> Pearce went to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst<ref name="diary3">''Harry's Diary'', p. 3</ref> before joining the Light Blue Dragoons.<ref name="diary8">''Harry's Diary'', p. 8</ref> Upon leaving the army he joined MI5 where he completed his training in June 1977.<ref name="diary1">''Harry's Diary'', p. 1</ref>
Pearce was then seconded to the Secret Intelligence Service (aka MI6), where he was stationed in Paris, under Juliet Shaw.<ref name="diary27">''Harry's Diary'', p. 27</ref> During this time he worked in Iran, where he had an affair with Shaw.
On his return to MI5, Pearce was assigned to Section D, the counter-terrorism department (then at Gower Street),<ref name="diary49">''Harry's Diary'', p. 49</ref> where he was a junior field officer, then senior field officer, and during the events of the series head of department.
In ''Series 6, Episode 3'', Harry received a letter from 10 Downing Street, informing him that The Queen wished to bestow a knighthood upon him. He was already a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the grade immediately below that of Knight Commander, which he now is.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/spooks/aps/harry.shtml Sir Henry 'Harry' Pearce's Personnel File - BBC One Spooks]</ref>
==Personal life== In Series 3, Pearce was revealed to be divorced, with two children.<ref name="3x4">''Series 3, Episode 4''</ref> It had been previously mentioned<ref name="1x1">''Series 1, Episode 1''</ref> that he had not told his wife what his profession was until their wedding day (15 June 1977<ref name="diary4">''Harry's Diary'', p. 4</ref>). He met his wife, Jane, an English teacher,<ref name="diary7">''Harry's Diary'', p. 7</ref> during their studies at Oxford.<ref name="diary5" /> They had a daughter, Catherine, on 25 April 1980,<ref name="diary54">''Harry's Diary'', p. 54</ref> followed by a son, Graham, on 18 June 1983,<ref name="diary78">''Harry's Diary'', p. 78</ref> before "Jane filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences" in October 1986.<ref name="diary116">''Harry's Diary'', p. 116</ref>
While his ex-wife and son have never appeared on screen, Pearce's daughter, portrayed by Caroline Carver, appeared in ''Series 3, Episode 4'' – at the start of the episode he regarded her as emotional and as one to "spot a bird with a broken wing",<ref name="3x4" /> but in the course of the episode's events, he shows how deeply he cares for her and has grown to respect her intelligence.
Harry had an ongoing relationship with Ruth Evershed, another one of the main characters. Over the years, it appears that they formed a strong bond. In Series 4, the two became closer, forming a good working relationship as well as an unsaid personal connection. At the very beginning of series 5, he realized that he was in love with her. Their relationship was brought to a head in series 5, when he worked up the courage to ask her to dinner. However, Ruth, upset by what her colleagues thought of the relationship, called it off at the end of the episode.
==Reception== This character was considered by many fans to be the pillar of the show, providing both a backbone to the team and was often the cause of many of the comic relief situations present in the series, most notably in his exchanges during series 1 with Jools Siviter, played by Hugh Laurie. Another comic theme includes Harry getting annoyed every time someone would enter his office without knocking. This grew so much that in the series three finale, when Ruth came to warn him that something was wrong, Harry guessed it because she had knocked.
He is well respected by his colleagues and survives four cliffhangers where it appears he is about to be killed (series 2, series 4, series 7 and series 9) and the tenth series is a plotline that revolves around Harry; his past and his relationship with Ruth.
He was the only character to have appeared in every single episode in the show.
Benji Wilson of ''The Daily Telegraph'' in describing Harry and Ruth's relationship commented that "(Ruth's) scenes with Peter Firth, another fine player, have become self-contained little bubbles of weltschmerz within every recent episode".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8842077/Spooks-the-final-episode-so-ludicrously-silly-it-might-just-be-true-review.html |title=Spooks: the final episode, so ludicrously silly it might just be true, review |first=Benji |last=Wilson |date=23 October 2011 |access-date=28 October 2011 |work=The Daily Telegraph }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|30em}} {{Spooks}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearce, Harry, Sir}} Category:Television characters introduced in 2002 Category:Spooks (TV series) characters Category:Fictional spies in television Category:Fictional knights Category:Fictional English people