Or, more precisely, MI5’s Adam Carter vs CTU’s Jack Bauer.

FIGHT!

Actually, no contest - Jack Bauer would win, hands down. Unless it was a Sudoku play off in which case I’d back Adam Carter all the way. Crosswords too. Okay, so Adam is quite hard - he got infected with some biological weapon but survived but old Jacky boy has died. Twice. (Apparently - when was the second time? I don’t recall it - unless it’s in season 6 in which case I don’t recall it because I haven’t seen it.)

During Spooks last night, Adam concluded that the suspected terrorist they (or rather a security firm) were keeping tabs on was not the same man because he came back from the shop with his newspaper under the wrong arm. (HINT: If you are planning a major crime and suspect that the security services might be watching you, do not, under any circumstances, keep a regular schedule or be consistent in your habits. Take different routes to the same place, read a different newspaper each day, wake up at different times, eat things you wouldn’t normally like, dress up as a clown - introduce more chaos into your life! It’ll throw them completely off the scent.) Carter knew this from studying CCTV footage from previous days. Jack Bauer wouldn’t have needed the paper to tell him - he would have just known. He’s fucking psychic like that.

There are a lot of similarities between the two. Both fight terrorists, both lost their wife on a mission and, um, that’s about it really. Jack is probably more dedicated. He’ll quite happily torture people for the good of the country but Adam has a tough time asking a woman to spy on her husband. He says he doesn’t, but we know, don’t we. We know he’s just feeling all cut up about it. If push came to shove, he’d probably be quite reliable but I don’t think his hearts in it as much as Jack’s is.

Jack Bauer vs Harry Pearce, on the other hand, would be a totally different story. Harry Pearce is ice cold. He’s so cool about torturing friends and colleagues, he makes Hannibal Lecter look like a nervy, whining, emo dropout. Jack wouldn’t stand a chance.