Too many 007 copycats apply to join MI6

Bond has distorted the reality about the secret organisation and led to "thrill seekers and fantasists" seeking to join MI6.

In an unprecedented interview inside the Vauxhall Cross headquarters of the intelligence service, "Mark" - the head of recruitment - told of the difficulties that the 007 phenomenon creates for MI6.

"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."

He firmly dismissed the notion that British spies have a "licence to kill".

"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 told BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat programme.

While Bond's training, intuition and hi-tech gadgets allow him to survive in the most dangerous of situations, he has two distinctive features which could prove life-threatening for real MI6 officers - he is white and male.

"We need people to deploy into a range of situations around the world and people who have a different ethnicity can often go 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".

MI6 now recruits on its website rather than relying so much on a "tap on the shoulder" of candidates, often at Cambridge or Oxford universities, after they have been identified as potential spies.

As the terror threat from Islamic extremists is expected to last decades, intelligence chiefs are trying to recruit more staff from ethnic minority backgrounds. "Mark" denied this was just targeting the Muslim community.

"It isn't what I mean when we talk about ethnic minorities - we mean just that - people from all the ethnic minorities in this country - we want to be truly representative and reflective," he said. "But clearly, if we are going to be reflective, we do need to have Muslims in our organisation because of the insight and understanding that they bring, so in that sense we are very interested in seeing our recruitment from the Muslim community increase."

A female Muslim MI6 officer known as "Yasmin", also interviewed by Newsbeat, rejected accusations that she was a "traitor" to Islam, as some extremists seek to portray Muslims who work for the British, American and other governments.

She said: "I feel my duty to God is totally compatible with my duty to my country ... I feel very, very strongly that if you are able to do something to make a difference you should make that difference."

"Yasmin," in her late twenties and from the Midlands, added that there was a need to "combat at all levels of society" the perception held by some British Muslims that they are being victimised.

She gave an insight into her work as a spy overseas: "My job is to identify, target and recruit people who will provide us with secret intelligence.

"They include things like counterterrorism, the international drugs trade, the wider nuclear threat, it can also include promoting British economic interests abroad, just making sure Britain isn't being ripped off."

On recruiting informants, she added: ""We absolutely never, ever threaten or blackmail or coerce people to work with us ... that is the most counterproductive tactic you can ever use.

"Their lives and their safety is my responsibility... we will do everything in our power to make sure our agents are safe."