I have not been expecting you, Ms...?

The image of James Bond has distorted the reality about Britain's intelligence services and led to "thrill seekers and fantasists" seeking to join MI6, says its recruitment chief. In a rare interview inside MI6's London HQ, "Mark" - head of recruitment - told of the difficulties caused by the 007 phenomenon. "I think sometimes we're hindered by it - because I think it gives people a false impression of what working for the organisation is actually like," he said. "It does tend to turn up quite a lot of thrill seekers and fantasists, and we're really not interested in them."

"This is the biggest myth about the service - we do not have a licence to kill, we do not carry Berettas; that's simply not true," he continued. Even though James Bond is handsome, debonair and knows his way around a roulette table, in today's intelligence climate the fact that he is male and white might actually hinder him. "We need people to deploy into a range of situations around the world and people who have a different ethnicity can often go to places and do things and meet people that those from a white background can't...there are some places that white males can't go," says "Mark". Surely he is not referring to Turkish baths, which of course Fleming's Bond was extremely familiar with?

But it seems that, these days, the ability to foil an enemy's plans by spotting him ordering the wrong wine with dinner is no longer top of the list when it comes to recruitment. Rather than a tap on the shoulder at Oxford, MI6 now devotes most of its energy to recruiting via its website, with the emphasis on Moslem candidates. As the terror threat from Islamic extremists continues, so the service needs to employ those more familiar with the world of their foes. Just as Bond's nemesis delighted in torturing his arch-enemy while stroking a white Persian cat, so today's enemies of the state would relish the thought of capturing one of our modern-day agents and forcing them to drink a glass of Claret.