M (James Bond)

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M is the title and code letter for James Bond's boss, the fictional head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6 (or MI7). The title "M" is believed to have been derived by creator Ian Fleming from the first real-life head of Her Majesty's Secret Service, Mansfield Smith-Cumming, who used his initial "C" to indicate when he had seen a paper and so became referred to as "C", a practice that carried on with his successors. Other influences on the character include Admiral John Godfrey, Fleming's superior in British Naval Intelligence during World War II, and "R," the secret service employer of W. Somerset Maugham's Ashenden.

In the novels and almost all films, all characters holding the title of M have been aided by Miss Moneypenny (personal secretary) and Bill Tanner (Chief of Staff). Moneypenny does not appear in the latest Bond film Casino Royale.

Contents 1 Sir Miles Messervy 1.1 Messervy in real life 1.2 Featured in: 2 Robert Brown as M 2.1 Featured In: 3 Edward Fox as M 3.1 Featured in: 4 Judi Dench as M 4.1 Featured in: 5 Casino Royale 1967 spoof 6 M outside regular Bond-continuity 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Sir Miles Messervy

James Bond character
Bernard Lee as M in The Man with the Golden Gun
M
Gender	Male
Role	Ally
Affiliation	MI6
Current status	Retired
Portrayed by	Bernard Lee

In Ian Fleming's novels, M's real name is Rear Admiral Sir Miles Messervy KCMG; the name, hinted at throughout the series, was finally revealed in The Man with the Golden Gun, Fleming's final novel. In the films, only his first name Miles was revealed (in The Spy Who Loved Me), and he also has the rank of Rear Admiral. It is assumed that the first M of the films, as played by Bernard Lee, and that of Fleming's books are the same person. Most notably, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, M is portrayed at his home, Quarterdeck, with his idiosyncratic domestic arrangements transferred intact from the novel.

In the novels, M clearly has a liking for Bond, and they have obviously had a long professional relationship. M bends the rules for Bond on several occasions. For instance in the short story For Your Eyes Only, Bond agrees to carry out a private assassination for M, while in The Man with the Golden Gun, Bond attempts to assassinate M himself; this is as a result of extreme Soviet brainwashing and M insists that Bond be rehabilitated rather than punished. In the first post-Fleming book, Colonel Sun, M is kidnapped from Quarterdeck and Bond goes to great lengths to rescue him. In the later books, written by John Gardner, M/Messervy protects Bond from the new, less aggressive climate in the Secret Service, saying that "sometime this country will need a blunt instrument." In the movies, their relationship is similar.

M was played by Bernard Lee from the first Bond movie, Dr. No, until Moonraker (1979). Lee died in 1981 and, out of respect, the character was removed from that year's For Your Eyes Only (1981), with his lines given to either his Chief of Staff or Q. The film version of Dr. No suggests that Messervy is a relatively recent appointee to the position of M (he boasts about his ability to reduce the number of operative casualties since taking the job), suggesting someone else held the job before him. Gardner makes references to M's predecessors in Scorpius, again suggesting that Messervy is not the first M. Also, in the film version of Dr. No, M is heard to call himself head of MI7 (the actor originally said MI6, but for reasons unknown was overdubbed with the now-fictional MI7 prior to the film's release); this contradicts later films that state he is in charge of MI6.

[edit] Messervy in real life

The character of M is apocryphally based on Rear Admiral John H. Godfrey, Director of the British Department of Naval Intelligence during World War II. During this time, Fleming was his assistant. Godfrey and Fleming were close friends and on first name terms, unlike M and Bond in the novels. Other names that have from time to time been referenced as a possible resemblance include Maxwell Knight, former head of counter-subversion in MI5, and Maurice Buckmaster, head of Section F of the SOE.

Fleming biographer John Pearson states in his 1966 book The Life of Ian Fleming that M may in fact be based on Fleming's own mother:

"There is reason for thinking that a more telling lead to the real identity of M lies in the fact that as a boy Fleming often called his mother M. [...] While Fleming was young, his mother was certainly one of the few people he was frightened of, and her sternness toward him, her unexplained demands, and her remorseless insistence on success find a curious and constant echo in the way M handles that hard-ridden, hard-killing agent, 007."^[1]

[edit] Featured in:

• Dr. No (1962)
• From Russia with Love (1963)
• Goldfinger (1964)
• Thunderball (1965)
• You Only Live Twice (1967)
• On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
• Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
• Live and Let Die (1973)
• The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
• The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
• Moonraker (1979)

[edit] Robert Brown as M

James Bond character
Robert Brown as M in Licence to Kill
M
Gender	Male
Role	Ally
Affiliation	MI6
Current status	Retired
Portrayed by	Robert Brown

After Lee's death in 1981, the producers decided to hire actor Robert Brown to continue the role in the Bond films. Brown picks up the role in Octopussy, however it is never explicitly stated onscreen whether Robert Brown's character is intended to be the same person played by Lee, or if he was intended to be Admiral Hargreaves, the role played by Brown in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me, though the later Bond books retain Messervy and a later film, The World Is Not Enough (1999), features an oil-painting portrait of Bernard Lee as the original M, prominent on a wall behind Judi Dench, as the third M, in the Scottish MI6 headquarters. One further thing to note is that in the pre-title credits to The Living Daylights, M's insignia suggests he is a Rear Admiral, which would mean if he is Hargreaves then he has been demoted, since Hargreaves' insignia in The Spy Who Loved Me suggests he is a Vice Admiral.

As played by Brown, M lacks a sense of humor and has absolutely no tolerance whatsoever for Bond's antics, which supports the theory that this M is Hargreaves and not Messervy. Brown's M came off tougher than his predecessor, wasting no time to revoke Bond's licence to kill in the film Licence to Kill when Bond went off on a vendetta.

[edit] Featured In:

• Octopussy (1983)
• A View to a Kill (1985)
• The Living Daylights (1987)
• Licence to Kill (1989)

[edit] Edward Fox as M

James Bond character
Edward Fox as M in Never Say Never Again
M
Gender	Male
Role	Ally
Affiliation	MI6
Current status	Retired
Portrayed by	Edward Fox

In 1983's unofficial Never Say Never Again, it is clearly stated that a new M is in post, played by Edward Fox. This M is concerned primarily with making the books balance and constantly testing agents. He is quite open about his low regard for Bond.

[edit] Featured in:

• Never Say Never Again (1983)

[edit] Judi Dench as M

James Bond character
Judi Dench as M in The World Is Not Enough
M
Gender	Female
Role	Ally
Affiliation	MI6
Current status	Active
Portrayed by	Dame Judith Dench

After the long period between Licence to Kill and GoldenEye, the producers brought in Dame Judi Dench to take over as the new M. The character is said to have possibly been based on Stella Rimington, the head of the real MI5 between 1992 and 1996. M's real name has yet to be revealed in the films, but recent Bond novelist Raymond Benson gives her the name Barbara Mawdsley. In Casino Royale, Bond is able to figure out her real name and find out her home address so he can access classified data from the security clearance of her computer. Bond almost reveals her real name, which we learn begins with the letter M (or possibly the syllable 'Em'). She stops him and warns that should he say one more syllable, she would have him killed. (This suggests a possible retconning of what "M" stands for, suggesting that the initial is a direct reference to her real name — rather than a title — in the revised Bond universe. Of course, this could easily be a coincidence, as it was with Miles Messervy.)

Unlike the ambivalence of Brown's M, Dench clearly plays a new person appointed to the position of M (putting to rest a long time debate over the nature of the character). In GoldenEye, she is clearly established as different from her predecessors; she is cold, blunt, and unabashedly dislikes Bond, whom she calls a "sexist, misogynist dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War." Tanner, her Chief of Staff refers to her during the film as "the evil queen of numbers." In later films she begins to care more about 007. Whatever affection she may have for 007 never interferes with her unerring professional detachment, however; in Die Another Day, she orders her subordinates to disavow Bond after he is taken prisoner in North Korea, and abandons him to be tortured for 14 months. Although it would appear that Dench's M and Bond don't get along too well, M still has the same high professional respect for Bond that her predecessors had (from The World Is Not Enough: "He's the best we have, although I'd never tell him.").

For the film Casino Royale in 2006, Dench again plays M, but she is the only cast member to return. Dench has no history with this Bond (unlike her first appearance in GoldenEye where her relationship with Bond concentrates on the fact that she is a successor to another M). She promotes Daniel Craig's Bond to double-0 status and sending him on his first missions. Her home appears for the first time in Casino Royale, and she is shown sleeping in bed next to an unidentified man, presumably her husband. There have also been brief references to M's family: one in GoldenEye (where she responds to Tanner's "Evil Queen of Numbers" jab by telling him when she wants to hear sarcasm, she'll listen to her children) and two in The World is Not Enough (early on when Sir Robert King in he wishes M the best to her family, and later when she remembers how she had advised King not to pay the ransom for his daughter even though it went against "every instinct [she] had as a mother").

[edit] Featured in:

• GoldenEye (1995)
• Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
• The World Is Not Enough (1999)
• Die Another Day (2002)
• Casino Royale (2006)
• Bond 22 (2008)

[edit] Casino Royale 1967 spoof

The 1967 film spoof Casino Royale featured not one but two Ms. The first is played by John Huston. In this film (which is considered non-canon), M's real name is McTarry and he is accidentally killed when (for some reason) he orders the military to fire mortars at Bond's mansion when the retired spy refuses to return to duty. The first quarter of the film features Bond's subsequent visit to McTarry Castle in Scotland, on a quest to return the only piece of M's remains recovered after the attack – his toupee, referred to as a "hair-loom".

Subsequently, Bond (David Niven) becomes the new M and proceeds to order that all MI6 agents, male and female, be renamed 'James Bond 007' in order to confuse the enemy... and the audience.

[edit] M outside regular Bond-continuity

The novel Son of Holmes by John T. Lescroart establishes that the very first M was Sherlock Holmes' elder brother, Mycroft Holmes.

The graphic novels in Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series establish that the 1898-era League (led by Mina Murray) was directed by Campion Bond, who served under a master called M. This was archvillain Professor James Moriarty at first, then, after that character's death, Mycroft Holmes assumed the role of M.

[edit] See also

• List of James Bond allies
• SIS Building

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The 'Bond Informant' on M
• Archivo 007: James Bond - M