In many respects, Daniel Craig’s 007 has become a real, credible modern man. He has also become a much more believable spy, writes @BenMacintyre1. thetimes.co.uk/article/how-no…
The earlier 007 was not really an MI6 officer at all, although that is what he purported to be. He was an assassin, operating semi-independently, with a limitless supply of weaponry, a bottomless expense account and a drinking problem. 
The secret agent-lothario now treats women with respect, even love. Today he would never force himself on a non-consenting Pussy Galore, as he did in Goldfinger.
He doesn’t drink like he used to. He doesn’t kill with quite the same abandon or relish. The casual racism is gone.
He doesn’t drink like he used to. He doesn’t kill with quite the same abandon or relish. The casual racism is gone.
In this instalment James Bond goes abroad to steal secrets, protect Britain and her allies, and further the national interest. That is pretty close to a definition of what the British intelligence services actually do.
No one in MI6, or the Secret Intelligence Service, has ever had a licence to kill.
The official website of SIS goes out of its way to stress that officers will not be expected to kill, or be killed, by steel-rimmed bowler hat, laser or exploding briefcase.
The official website of SIS goes out of its way to stress that officers will not be expected to kill, or be killed, by steel-rimmed bowler hat, laser or exploding briefcase.
Like every good Bond film, this one is awash with gadgets, but unlike many of the earlier movie gizmos, these have a basis in reality.
Bombs stuck to the side of buildings, ships that explode on timers, windscreens able to withstand machinegun fire, a magnet dropped down a lift shaft allowing spies to descend several floors. These are technological possibilities.
Yet perhaps the clearest way in which the 25th James Bond film has inched closer to the real world of intelligence is in its gender make-up.
Ana de Armas plays a female spy who is not only a harder drinker but also a better shot than Bond after just three weeks of training.
Ana de Armas plays a female spy who is not only a harder drinker but also a better shot than Bond after just three weeks of training.
The number of women in senior positions in any of the intelligence services before the Second World War was vanishingly small. That has changed. MI5 has had two female chiefs, Stella Rimington and Eliza Manningham-Buller, and women make up a far larger proportion of the services.
Alex Younger, former chief of MI6, said: “Success for me is a deeper, broader range of technological skills in MI6 and more diversity, in particular more women...
“If any of you would like to join us . . . the real-life Q is looking forward to meeting you and I’m pleased to report that the real-life Q is a woman.”
Read the full story: thetimes.co.uk/article/how-no…
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