Hello Harry! How do you become a secret agent?

These days it's advertised on Facebook - the website has an online flash game/mission test to see how good you could be - it's really come on in the past few years. In my day it was the classic Le care approach. My Oxford tutor tapped me on the shoulder one afternoon in my third year and said "Harry, what are you doing when you leave university? Have you ever thought about serving your country?"

Now it's largely more democratic. Mainly because we no longer have the need for an undercover British looking spy - you can't fight the Taliban from under diplomatic cover.

 

These days the number of roles has increased. White middle class guys like me are no good because the enemy has changed - the spies change and we broadened the recruitment net to allow for that. It takes up to a year from the first interview to actually becoming a spy.

Presumably you couldn't tell anyone you got the job?

Preferably you don't tell anybody you've even applied - it says that on the website. If you tell - you're out!

The MI6 building is the one that no-one is supposed to know about isn't it?

Well both MI5 and MI6 are supposed to be secret, but are all known by every single London cabbie, so not great! Even though everyone knows what the building is, I'm not allowed to say that it is that building. Official secrets Act you see! There's more than one building though - if you're going to hide something, you have to show something!

Charlie Watts once gave a great quote about being a Rolling Stone -"It's 20 years on a bus and one year on stage" (This could be wrong, but it's something like that - Ed) - I'm guessoing the same can be said about being a spy - see much action?

There is a lot of desk work - but the jobs are split into two - you're either an agent or a field officer or a researcher or a running agent. You don't work your way up to the eciting jobs - they can happen at any time. You're gathering intelligence from some of the most powerful men in the world whether it's economics or politics or media, so sometimes you do have to go to Monaco in the Ferrari, because that's where they hang out!

You ARE Bond!

Well Sir Colin McCall once said "there are Bond moments and you have to prepare for them" but then again you can find yourself in an alleyway in harrachi talkig to some smelly guy who's pretending to know Al Quaeda - so it balances out!

Are you allowed to tell me about some specific moments?

No.. next question!

EEK!... but you must have had some Bond moments?

Not as many as I'd like!

Are you a fan of Bourne?

Well one of the reasons I agreed to talk about this film (Traitor out on DVD! - PLUG ALERT!) was because it was true to life - your chances of being shot at are very slim, because you leave it down to the poor agents on the ground to do all the dirty work for you.

 

That's what Don Cheadle did so well in the film - he got the emotional cost of the job across; what it's like when things go wrong. Agents run the risk - Officers don't. Sounds easy, but if that job goes wrong (gulp!) you can't even tell his wife what happened and it's your fault because it means you've screwed up. It's tough. People who make good spies aren't hard nosed bastards. People do jobs for you because you're a nice guy.

Do you sleep well at night?

I do now!

Back then?

No. You can't switch off - there's no outlet.

You maintained a double life from your family presumably? 

Yes.

That must have been like having an affair.

Kind of I suppose! But you might not see your family for months on end - you can't even discuss it with your colleagues. Fellow spies are the worst people you should tell - they could turn traitor at any moment!

Do you think that's what happened to David Shaylor?!

I think it payed a part, but the cracks were there already!

 

Who's Britain's biggest enemy at the moment? The world economy or the Middle East?

Often your friends are your biggest problem - what are America up to ? What are they going to drag us into next?

 

Crumbs! Is there really always an imminent threat of another 7/7?

Absolutely - if they could get away with it - they'd do it tomorrow. If you want to talk about an economic enemy look at China - they have a massive intelligence service and they're looking to increase their influence worldwide.

 

The whole point of being a spy is wondering what's over the horizon - not what's already arrived.

Wow! Thanks Harry - I really love all this Jack Bauer shit!

Pleasure!