When master spy, Dirk Bannon, fell in love with his arch rival, Natalia Knockemoff, things could only get complicated. Now they've been decommissioned, and are supposed to be living a normal life with their three chidren, Spike, the wannabee secret agent - Elle, happily retired - and a rather odd Boris. But can this family ever be normal? Not when you've got parents with a license to embarrass.
A British show about the Bannon family, who all have strong spy links. The parents, Dirk and Talia, were once arch enemy spies, but fell in love and got married. They now have three children (Spike, Elle and Boris) who have all been brought up with spy techniques as a matter of course. Spike's friend Travis (played by Richard Sargent) is commonly seen on the show.
The action is based in three major locations, the Bannon home, the children's school, and the local café, which is run by Des, Dirk's former Personal Ordinance Officer (gadget-master).
My Spy Family ran for three seasons, from 2007 to 2010, according to The Other Wiki.
No relation to SPY×FAMILY, which is about a seemingly normal family formed by a spy rather than a family of spies.
This series contains examples of the following tropes:
- An Aesop: Subverted in "The Truffles are Forever Affair".Talia: I wanted to teach you a lesson on sharing.Dirk: Really?Talia: Nyet.
- Subverted again in the same episode: Elle forces her brother to impersonate a famous rapper in order to speak to her schoolmates on the importance of having respect for their school. When they're exposed, Elle tries to apologize, saying that she's learnt her lesson and she shouldn't have lied to everyone, no matter how noble her intentions were, but she's abruptly interrupted by the audience throwing things at her.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Talia worries, in one episode, that she's getting old because she's getting a grey hair; Dirk, at the end of the episode, confirms that he does still love her, despite the grey hairs, as he has many and tears them out to stuff the chair cushions...
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Boris. He's a master of booby traps, ambushes and hiding. And he's quite prone to vengeance.
- Brainless Beauty: Donna.
- Butt-Monkey: Spike.
- Gratuitous Russian: For some reason, Boris only hisses short sentences in Russian; that is, if he speaks at all. See The Quiet One below. Also, Talia often refers to herself as "Momsky" and calls her daughter "Ellechka".
- Meaningful Name: Natalia Knockemoff.
- Only Sane Woman: Elle; even though she tends to drop the Sanity Ball from time to time, she's the most normal person in the family.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Both averted and played straight. Spike and Elle are usually able to recognize their parents in disguise; Mr. Vong, Donna and Marcy usually fall for it every time.
- Put on a Bus: Des and Boris in the final series.
- Sadist Teacher: Vong.
- Spy Catsuit: Talia.
- Spy Fiction: A parody, actually. All the main characters are either retired spies, spy wannabes, or just received some sort of spy training.
- The Quiet One: Boris. He rarely speaks, and when he does it, it's in Russian only (he seems able to understand English though).
- Tuxedo and Martini: Dirk, being a parody of James Bond.
- One Teacher School: Is there any other teacher in that school but Vong? He's supposed to be a Geometry teacher, yet he's seen assigning homework related to other subjects too, and whenever there's an event at school he's the only teacher ever around, even hosting the event as if he were the principal.
