MI6: No licence to kill

2006-11-15 23:30

London - Working for Britain's real MI6 spy agency is not quite like being James Bond, but the service does have a gadget guru like the "Q" character in the movies, said two agents in a rare radio broadcast on Wednesday.

"There is certainly action, there is a lot of adventure and it's also quite glamorous - depending on what you mean by that exactly," said one agent, a woman, during the BBC radio show.

She was not identified by name.

"For me, glamour has to do with contrast - one situation you might find yourself in and then being transported into something else."

The chief of MI6 is known as "C", not "M" as the character played by Judi Dench in the Bond films is dubbed, said the other agent, a man.

"He is "C" and that's what the chief of the service has been called since it was established in 1909," said the agent.

"We also have a "Q" figure whose team is responsible for innovative technology and gimmicks and gadgets and things like that."

Complete myth

Asked if MI6 agents had "a licence to kill" as in the movies, the male agent said that was a complete myth.

"It's good to be able to say that.

"The job of the service is to obtain intelligence to inform British government policy and help prevent, for example, terrorist attacks, and, in doing that, we work under UK law," he said.

"The work of the service is overseen both politically and legally, so there's absolutely no room in that for killing people."

MI6 is not quite as undercover as it once was - the service ran a newspaper ad earlier this year looking for new recruits.

But it still does not get the chance to advertise too often, said the male agent.

Does remarkable things

"It used to be the case that people would wait for us to come to them, but it's been very different for about a year now, since we've had a website," he said.

"To be honest, I think the service has risen to the new challenges, and it does remarkable things. The pain is that it can't talk about them."

The 21st James Bond film, Casino Royale with Daniel Craig in the lead role, had its world premiere on Tuesday.

- AP