One chief of British Intelligence described James Bond as ‘the best recruiting sergeant in the world’.
Another former head of MI6, Richard Dearlove, agrees that the fictional spy's impact has been huge: ‘Definitely, it's had a positive effect. It's made the Service the most famous intelligence organisation.
‘There is no linking or reality at all, but that's not really the point. It's reputational, it's myth-building, it's contributed to the brand. In the most distant part of the world, everyone has heard of MI6. There are big espionage cases, not just walk-ins like Oleg Gordievsky and Vasili Mitrokhin, where people have gone to the British when it would be more logical to approach the Americans, and who particularly like the British because of the Bond culture.’
This is more than borne out by my
