MI6 seeks budding Bonds through Radio 1

The Secret Intelligence Service, more commonly known as MI6, is mounting a recruitment drive this week to attract budding James Bonds, though without the licence to kill - reports The Guardian.

Like its sister agency, the domestic Security Service, MI5, it wants, in the words of an official, to "broaden its staff base" to "better reflect the ethnicity of the community we serve".

To get its message across, MI6 has chosen Radio 1's Newsbeat programme. This week listeners will hear young MI6 staff, including a female Muslim officer, talk about the lives of those responsible for gathering secret intelligence "relating to the actions and intentions of persons overseas".

But so concerned is MI6 about the prospect of hostile forces listening in to Radio 1 that the voices of the staff interviewed will be distorted to protect their identity.

MI6's website, launched two years ago, does not say how many staff it employs or how much money they spend. However, it was widely estimated at the time that its annual budget was around £200m and it employed about 2,000 people. The figures have risen significantly since 2005, though they are probably less than those of MI5, which is on its way to increasing the number of staff to 4,000.

The MI6 website presents a picture of a cuddlier and more family-friendly organisation than some might suspect and it insists the organisation never uses torture. It does, however, mention Bond.

"James Bond, as Ian Fleming originally conceived him, was based on reality," it explains. "But any author needs to inject a level of glamour and excitement beyond reality in order to sell."

It continues: "By the time the film-makers focused on Bond the gap between truth and fiction had already widened. Nevertheless, staff who join SIS can look forward to a career that will have moments when the gap narrows just a little and the certainty of a stimulating and rewarding career which, like Bond's, will be in the service of their country."

A year ago, MI6 seized on the publicity surrounding the latest Bond film, Casino Royale, by allowing two of its officers, an unidentified man and woman, to be interviewed by the Radio 1 DJ Colin Murray on life as a real British spy. "There is certainly action, there is a lot of adventure and it's also quite glamorous," the woman said. The male officer described it as "a job less ordinary". He added: "We also have a Q figure whose team is responsible for innovative technology and gimmicks and gadgets and things like that."

MI6 is after those who speak foreign languages, in particular Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Chinese or Spanish. It is also seeking "operational officers", those sent abroad to try to find out what Britain's enemies, or potential enemies, are up to.

You do not have to be academically brilliant to spy for Britain. The MI6 website points out that as an operational officer you "may have to use a cover story". It offers online exercises to test your espionage skills. In one, the reader is given two minutes to digest information about a covert mission in the imaginary country of Transeuratania, and 10 seconds to answer questions about it.

Radio I listeners attracted by the prospect will be asked to get in touch via a PO box number. All very different from the old tap on the shoulder.

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