And to further emphasize the idea that there would be no witnesses, no paper trail, no trace of a chain of command should Phelps and his team fail: this tape will self-destruct in five seconds. In other words, you’re on your own, pal, and nice knowin’ ya. To punctuate this truth, there was that ominous caveat spoken near the end of each of Mission: Impossible’s mission tapes: if you or any of your IM Force are caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions. And their “somewheres” are never pleasant Villages and gulags of all sorts, and it doesn’t matter whose side you’re on-in the end they’re all the same place. If you refuse, John Drake (of “Danger Man,” etc.) could tell us, they kill you-or worse, they send you somewhere.

The dirty secret of spies, of course, is that they aren’t allowed to refuse. Your mission, should you decide to accept it… as though Phelps ever would have refused. One of the iconic bits of Sixties spy shtick was the weekly-repeated, unforgettable speech of the unseen, unknown voice on the tape recorder: Good morning, Mr.

Bond, naturally, is the biggest and best known.

PLEASE NOTE: This list excludes Bond-this is, of course, about the OTHER spy series of the day. Only James Bond was left, last as he was first, to carry on. By 1970, the anti-establishment sentiments of the hippies had fully taken hold in pop culture, and the spy craze was suddenly no more. There was even a wedding of the spy with the western. There were suddenly spies everywhere-some surreal and campy, others sophisticated and witty, some hip and groovy. Almost immediately after his big screen debut, Bond had a whole generation of imitators following him on TV and film. Ian Fleming probably didn’t realize what a seed he was planting when he created James Bond. And so, instead of the seedy and miserable nobody of Joseph Conrad’s “Secret Agent,” spies became good-looking ladies’ men with charm and toughness to spare. Before Bond, spies were often portrayed as paunchy, unattractive, cowardly, even elderly-much of which may have been more accurate, in reality-but the Cold War-ridden 1960s was more interested in fantasy and escape than cinema verite. The suave and handsome secret agent with a license to kill, Bond became the new face of cinematic spies after the release of Dr. Everybody knows Ian Fleming’s master spy, James Bond. This list contains a competition – further details at the bottom of the list.

Spy agent names