Character Profile - Sir Richard Crowthorne
Appears in: Moor Park, Westminster, Victoria, Embankment, Earl's
Court, Lewisham, Epping, Liverpool Street, Marylebone, Haychester, Bank and
Leytonstone.
Who is he?
When we first meet him he is a Deputy Director General of MI5. He is a character I have had simmering on the back burner for a while and it was not until the clandestine goings on of Moor Park, that I found the right point at which to bring his character into the Security Novels universe where it would serve best.
From the end of Epping onwards, he moves on from MI5 (replaced by his deputy David Collins) and becomes the head of the National Counter Terrorism Committee about which we will be hearing a lot in future episodes.
He is a long time friend of the Commander and appears prominently throughout Moor Park and subsequent episodes. So successful was his witty character in Moor Park that I had no hesitation in bringing him back for a lengthy cameo in Westminster and after that, he has become part of the furniture.
Characterisations:
A family man with a couple of ex wives and one current one to his name (possibly some children as well but none mentioned so far), he his very much an everyday kind of chap who just gets on with the job. He would rather be out on the front line than spending endless days sitting in terminally boring intelligence briefings so takes the opportunity to nip out and enjoy the job whenever he can. A little cynical about politicians, he is always up for a bit of discrete back channel communication to grease the wheels of justice in favour of the good guys.
Inspired by:
He is one of those old fashioned characters that were once so common in everyday life before the world was taken over by accountants, middle managers and other useless non-entities.
Known Associates:
Seems to have links and contacts all over the place which befits a man of his position. Assumed to have the world's largest and most secretive filodex on his desk which can come in very useful when planning plot lines for the novels!