This two-part series by Gordon Corera, on the history of political subversion by the Russians, and against the Russians, is fascinating.

Well worth a listen:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08l1y2g/episodes/guide

Here’s the first review – at least I think it’s the first – of Agent M, which appeared last week in Kirkus Reviews.

I’m so pleased to be able to announce this. The brilliant Matt Charman (Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Bridge of Spies) has been lined up to write a TV adaptation of my forthcoming book, M: Maxwell Knight, MI5’s Greatest Spymaster, to be produced by Mammoth Screen (Poldark, Victoria, Witness for the Prosecution, NW etc.).

But don’t take my word for it.

Here’s the story as it was written up in the Hollywood trade mag Deadline, and in the Daily Telegraph.

But who should play M?

I’ve just finished watching Spies on Channel 4, which was intriguing. It’s essentially The Apprentice meets The Night Manager in which a series of contestants are put through their paces over four episodes to find out which one of them could cut it as an intelligence officer. Watching it was fascinating and oddly reassuring. I couldn’t help thinking that the fundamentals of espionage, or at least running agents, as they are depicted in this show, haven’t changed that much over the ninety years since Maxwell Knight began to learn his craft.

‘An intelligence officer is made, not born,’ as a former MI6 man reminds us at the start of each episode. Was the same true of Knight, or ‘M’?

Absolutely.

Just as the contestants were judged on their ability to build up a rapport with potential agents, their charisma, and how well they listened, so too was he – albeit from more of a distance, and often by himself.

Also intriguing was the emphasis placed by the show’s former spies – one ex-GCHQ, one ex-MI6, another ex-MI5 – on the need for an intelligence officer to have some kind of x factor that draws people in and makes them want to work for them. The same was certainly true of M.

Another moment that struck a chord was when one former spook, possibly the ex-MI6 officer, Julian Fisher, said as an aside that espionage is about being able to wait.

Would M have passed the course?

I think so.

If you haven’t seen Spies yet, do. It’s great.

Image (c) Channel 4

This remains easily the most interesting piece I’ve read about Maxwell Knight. It’s by Helen MacDonald, who wrote it a little bit before her H is for Hawk came out. I was re-reading it yesterday. I think the main reason I keep coming back to it is for the way it brings out a strand of Knight’s character that you don’t read about elsewhere, or at least I haven’t – the idea of his patriotism finding expression in his relationship with British wildlife.

Also, I like any article which mentions Goo the cuckoo, my favourite of all Knight’s pets.

Highly recommended.