James Bond at the Intelligence and Security Committee

Intelligence chiefs at the ISC ('C' in the centre). Photo: The Guardian

When UK’s spy chiefs appeared before the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee last week, it was inevitable that James Bond would be referenced in the extensive media coverage of the event. James Bond is a standard cultural touchstone for any espionage-related story, but allusions to Bond were especially relevant on this occasion, as Judy Dench’s M faces the same committee in Skyfall (2012). In the film, the committee was chaired by Gareth Mallory, played by Ralph Fiennes. His role in reality was taken by Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP.

A trawl through the coverage in British media brought up various James Bond references. The headline for a comment piece by Julian Huppert in The Guardian read, “Spy chiefs can give evidence without the sky falling in – so let's reform oversight,” an obvious reference to Skyfall. An editorial in same paper contrasted popular perceptions of spy work with reality by alluding to Bond villains, white cats, and steel-rimmed bowler hats. In a parliamentary sketch in The Daily Mail, Quentin Letts wrote of “a petite Miss Moneypenny, taking notes” behind Sir John Sawers, chief ('C') of MI6. A piece by Alex Stevenson in the online edition of Metro had the headline, “Spy chiefs grilled: James Bond’s bosses hit back hard,” and suggested that C's performance at the committee hearing was not as exciting as the portrayal we're used to in the Bond films. In the print edition of Metro, a cartoon by Robert Thompson showed a Blofeld-like character (of Donald Pleasence type) in a chair stroking a white cat. He says to an image of Bond on a TV screen, “Ah, Mr Bond, I've been expecting you.” “Yes, sorry there's a two minute time delay,” Bond replies, referring to the small transmission delay in the broadcast of the proceedings.

On BBC Radio 4, Eddie Mair, presenter of the PM programme began his broadcast with the words, “On Her Majesty's Not So Secret Service,” and the BBC's security correspondent, Frank Gardner introduced his report by saying, “It wasn't Skyfall.” Even before the committee met, the BBC was reaching for references to Skyfall in its reporting on the upcoming event. On Radio 4's Today programme, a segment by correspondent Gordon Corera used clips of M's scenes in front of the committee.

As for the appearance of the spy chiefs themselves, fact mirrored fiction as some of what the committee heard was not too dissimilar from what M tells the committee in Skyfall. In his opening remarks, Sir John Sawers said, “It is not like it was in the Cold War. There are not states out there, trying to destroy our Government and our way of life, but there are a very wide range of diverse threats that we face.” This could have been one of M’s lines. She tells the committee, “I'm frightened because our enemies are no longer known to us. They do not exist on a map. They're not nations, they're individuals. And look around you. Who do you fear? Can you see a face, a uniform, a flag? No. Our world is not more transparent now, it's more opaque. It's in the shadows.”

I was also reminded of M’s speech when Andrew Parker, Director General of MI5, told the committee, “The task that we are all paid to do is to keep the country safe. That is challenging and difficult work to do; and where the techniques we have are compromised, that makes our work even harder.” This echoes the appeal about operational matters that M makes: “So before you declare us irrelevant, ask yourselves, how safe do you feel?”

James Bond has long been something of a recruiting sergeant for the intelligence services (at least unofficially), but it was still remarkable to hear Sir John Sawers mention him: “I think the idea of sending an agent off into the field like James Bond and then he comes back two months later and reports... That does not work that way. Our people in the field will have constant communication with us through our stations or direct to head office. And they can communicate very rapidly.”

Ironically, far from being unrealistic, MI6 as portrayed in recent James Bond films has increasingly been working in a manner that Sir John Sawers would recognise. James Bond, particularly in the Daniel Craig era, is less a lone wolf sent out by M and relying on his wits and judgement (and some gadgets) to complete the mission, and is more part of a team which provides backup and feeds information and resources to Bond while in the field. M has also played a more active role, staying in regular contact with Bond and even going out into the field.

As I suggested in an earlier post, this in part reflects the fact that communication is much easier today than it was in the early days of the Bond films. As technology has evolved, the Bond films have naturally kept pace with it; Bond without a mobile phone is now unthinkable, and there is now no reason for Bond to stay incommunicado (except perhaps when held prisoner or in a situation where to attempting to communicate would be dangerous). A more active M also reflects the reality of accountability and oversight that Government (and society) demands of our intelligence services. The Bond films have moved, again probably without too much deliberation, with this trend. Besides, given his experience on the Intelligence and Security Committee, I expect the new M, Gareth Mallory, will be no different to his predecessor and will continue to direct, or be regularly updated on, Bond's next mission.

Returning to the media references to Bond, memes that emerged in the Sean Connery era – the Blofeld of You Only Live Twice, the white cat, Oddjob's hat – continue to endure. It is no surprise, too, that given its huge success, Skyfall has also provided elements that, a year after the film's release, have retained their cultural currency. M's appearance at the Intelligence and Security Committee is one element that is likely to be as enduring in cultural space.

The evolution of M's role in the James Bond films

Any list of Bond girls from Skyfall would surely include Judy Dench's M. Central to the narrative, M appears throughout the film and (spoiler alert for those few people who haven't yet seen the film) at the end dies cradled in the arms of James Bond in a scene that recalls the death of Bond's wife, Tracy, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. For many fans, M's prominence in Skyfall marks the culmination of a gradual enhancement of M's role that began with GoldenEye (1995), but has been particularly associated with the films of Daniel Craig. Unlike the character portrayed by her predecessors, Bernard Lee and Robert Brown, Judy Dench's M doesn't simply brief Bond and send him on his mission at the start of the film and congratulate Bond at its conclusion, but remains personally engaged in operational matters for the duration of the mission and is even seen in the field. But to what extent has M's role actually changed through the film series? How far has M's screen time increased? How has the role of M evolved?

To answer these questions, or at least present some reasonably useful observations, I scanned all the Bond films and made a note of the scenes in which M appears. I began to record the length of each scene, but stopped early in the series owing to lack of time, and so for the purpose of this analysis, screen time is measured by the number of scenes in which M appears. Without re-watching the films in their entirety, it's highly likely that I've missed the odd scene here and there, but the general trends should be clear.

The first four films in the series show a gradual rise in the number of M's scenes. Starting with a single appearance in Dr No to brief Sean Connery's Bond and order him to take the Walther PPK, M, played by Bernard Lee, has two appearances in From Russia with Love – a briefing and a scene in which he listens to a recording of Bond's questioning of Tatiana Romanova – and three appearances in Goldfinger (a briefing, a meeting at the Bank of England and a mid-mission update). In Thunderball, M has four scenes, including two scenes in a situation or war room. M has fewer scenes in You Only Live Twice, but this reduction is more than made up for in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, in which he has six scenes, including a scene at his home. The number of scenes is exceptional, however, and in Diamonds Are Forever returns to a number approaching the average (4.8 scenes per film).

Apart from Live and Let Die, M's appearances during Roger Moore's tenure are remarkably consistent in structure and function. Films from The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) through to A View To A Kill (1985) have four or five scenes, which follow a reasonably standard pattern. There is a briefing in M's office, followed by a second meeting in response to new information or, in M's view, some foolhardy action by Bond. M is then seen outside secret service headquarters to meet Bond at an arranged rendezvous (such as Checkpoint Charlie in Octopussy, the first film for Robert Brown as M) or at a regional headquarters (for instance in Brazil in Moonraker), before finally appearing at the mission's conclusion to congratulate Bond or explain Bond's absence (usually to General Gogol). There are, of course, variations to this pattern, but overall the structure of M's scenes have a similarity that the scenes in the films of the 1960s lack. For Your Eyes Only (1981), in which the role of M is shared by Q and chief-of-staff Tanner, and to a lesser extent Timothy Dalton's first Bond film, The Living Daylights (1987), also fit this model.

In Licence to Kill (1989), Bond operates outside the secret service and consequently M takes a marginal role in the film, appearing in just two scenes. On the face of it, the number of scenes in which Judy Dench's M appears during her tenure hovers around the average for the series. But no doubt M's screen time is greater than it had been during, for example, Roger Moore's era. Another significant development is that Judy Dench's M takes a much more direct role in Bond's mission compared with her predecessors, appearing in the situation room, regional or temporary headquarters or in the field more often than she appears in her office. There are nods to earlier tropes, however. The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), has the sort of humorous coda that would fit comfortably in any Roger Moore film. Both The World Is Not Enough and Skyfall are clear outliers, with the former's 11 scenes, and the latter's 20-odd scenes (including the final scene introducing Mallory as the new M). In these films, M is part of the narrative and naturally has a substantially increased presence.

While it could be claimed that M's enhanced and proactive role evident during the Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig eras has been driven more by Judy Dench's status as a highly-respected actor and a 'national treasure' than the demands of plot and Bond tradition, the role doesn't necessarily seem so different from M's role in, say, Thunderball, in which M monitors events from a situation room throughout the film. We can also note that Daniel Craig wasn't the first Bond to visit M's home. The difference between the more recent films and their antecedents is the rise of technology (at least the sort of technology imagined by the film-makers) to rapidly analyse events and maintain communication with Bond and other agents. With such technology available, one would surely expect any modern M, whoever plays the character, to have an active presence for the duration of a mission. Necessary, too, given the increasing political oversight and scrutiny intelligence services now face, a reality reflected by the number of committee meetings and ministerial meetings Judy Dench's M attends (although oversight has been hinted at in earlier films, with such statements as “No. 10's making ugly noises about Operation Bedlam”).

Returning to the Connery and Moore eras, an explanation for the uniformity of M's appearances for most of the 1970s and 1980s, which contrasts with the more diverse nature of M's role in the 1960s, might lie in the fact that the stories depicted in Roger Moore's films rely more on original scenarios and less on the pages of Ian Fleming. This perhaps makes it more likely that particular elements or memes of one film, such as those which best show the amusing interplay between Bond and authority figures, would be repeated in the next film and given some variation. As certain scenes are repeated, they become more familiar and begin to define a new or revised formula until audiences and film-makers expect them as part of the Bond experience. Returning to Fleming in Connery's films, combined with fresh story elements, or introducing an original story for You Only Live Twice, the structure of M's scenes was less stable and was effectively re-set for each film.

There are two other points worth making. The first is that M isn't the only character to have had increased screen time during the course of the series. To an extent, Q has also become more prominent (compare the character's screen time in, say, Octopussy, with From Russia With Love or Thunderball). Again this is a product of familiarity, as characters gradually become so well established within the James Bond's team, that their contributions are expected and welcomed. Finally, as I scanned through the Bond series, I noticed how the clothes style of Bernard Lee's M had changed. For all films from Dr No to On Her Majesty's Secret Service, he wears a bow tie and a suit. Thereafter, until Moonraker, he wears a tie and blazer (at least most of the time). The choice of bow tie is probably not significant, but I wondered whether it was a nod to Ian Fleming, who preferred to wear the item. Perhaps it seemed fitting to the producers and director of Dr No to include something of Fleming in the character of James Bond's chief.

This brief analysis has, I hope, highlighted some trends in the evolving role of M in the Bond films and suggested that the role of M as played by Judy Dench retains elements of the M of her predecessors, and is perhaps not so radical a depiction as might first be thought. And where there is difference, the realities of a changing world are likely to influence the role of M, just as much the whims of the film-makers, if not more so. What of the future? Mallory's introduction as M suggested a return to the traditions of the early Bond films, as his office deliberately recalled the Bernard Lee era. Perhaps, then, we can expect something of a traditional portrayal too. I wouldn't be too certain of that. While I predict that Mallory won't be seen so often in the field, and we may see more briefings taking place in M's office, the depiction of smart technology will make it inevitable that M will be shown to have the same high level of contact with James Bond as his predecessor had, enabling him to follow Bond's mission as events unfold.