| M | |
|---|---|
| James Bond character | |
| First appearance | Casino Royale (1953) |
| Created by | Ian Fleming |
| Portrayed by |
|
| In-universe information | |
| Occupation | Head ofMI6 |
| Nationality | British |
M is a codename held by a fictional character inIan Fleming'sJames Bond book andfilm series; the character is theChief of the Secret Intelligence Service for the agency known asMI6. Fleming based the character on a number of people he knew who commanded sections ofBritish intelligence. M has appeared in the novels by Fleming and seven continuation authors, as well as appearing in twenty-four films. In theEon Productionsseries of films, M has been portrayed by four actors:Bernard Lee,Robert Brown,Judi Dench andRalph Fiennes, the incumbent; in the two independent productions, M was played byJohn Huston,David Niven andEdward Fox.
Ian Fleming based much of M's character onRear AdmiralJohn Godfrey, who was Fleming's superior at theNaval Intelligence Division during theSecond World War. After Fleming's death, Godfrey complained "He turned me into that unsavoury character, M."[1]
Other possible inspirations include Lieutenant Colonel SirClaude Dansey, the deputy head ofMI6 and head of the wartime Z network, who achieved different interpretations of his character from those who knew him:Malcolm Muggeridge thought him "the only professional in MI6",[2] whileHugh Trevor-Roper considered Dansey to be "an utter shit, corrupt, incompetent, but with a certain low cunning".[2] A further inspiration for M wasMaxwell Knight, the head ofMI5, who signed his memos as "M" and whom Fleming knew well.[1] The tradition of the head of MI6 signing their name with a single letter came fromMansfield Smith-Cumming, who would sign his initial "C", with green ink.[3]
Another possibility for the model of M wasWilliam Melville, an Irishman who became the head of the Secret Service Bureau, the forerunner of both MI5 and MI6: Melville was referred to within government circles as M.[4] Melville recruitedSidney Reilly into government service and foiled an assassination plot againstQueen Victoria on her 1887Golden Jubilee.[5] Fleming's biographerJohn Pearson also hypothesised that Fleming's characterisation of M reflects memories ofhis 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.
Fleming's thirdBond novel,Moonraker, establishes M's initials as "M**** M*******"[7] and his first name is subsequently revealed to be Miles. In the final novel of the series,The Man with the Golden Gun, M's full identity is revealed asVice Admiral Sir Miles MesservyKCMG;[8] Messervy had been appointedChief of the Secret Intelligence Service after his predecessor had been assassinated at his desk.[9]
A naval theme runs throughout Fleming's description of M and his surroundings, and his character was described by journalistBen Macintyre as "every inch the navalmartinet".[8] Macintyre wrote that in his study of Fleming's work,Kingsley Amis outlined the way Fleming had described M's voice, being: angry (three times); brutal, cold (seven times); curt, dry (five times); gruff (seven times); stern, testy (five times).[10]
Over the course of twelve novels and two collections of short stories, Fleming provided a number of details relating to M's background and character. InOn Her Majesty's Secret Service it is revealed that M's pay as head of the Secret Service is £6,500 a year, (£171,921 in 2025 pounds[11]) £1,500 of which comes from retired naval pay.[12] Although his pay is good for the 1950s and 1960s, it is never explained how M received or can afford his membership at Blades, an upscale private club for gentlemen he frequents in London to gamble and dine. Blades has a restricted membership of only 200 gentlemen and all must be able to show £100,000 (£2,644,945 in 2025 pounds[11]) in cash orgilt-edged securities.[13] Kingsley Amis noted in his study,The James Bond Dossier, that on M's salary his membership of the club would have been puzzling.[12] As a personal favour to M, the staff at Blades keeps a supply of cheap red winefrom Algeria on hand but does not include it on the wine list. M refers to it as "Infuriator" and tends only to drink it in moderate quantities unless he is in a very bad mood.[14]
The academic Paul Stock argues that M's office is a metonym for England and a stable point from which Bond departs on a mission, whilst he sees M as being an iconic representative of England and Englishness.[15]
In the first post-Fleming book,Colonel Sun, M is kidnapped from Quarterdeck, his home, andJames Bond goes to great lengths to rescue him.[16] The later continuation books, written byJohn Gardner, retain Sir Miles Messervy as M, who protects Bond from the new, less aggressive climate in the Secret Service, saying that at some point Britain will need "a blunt instrument".[17] In Gardner's final novel,COLD, M is kidnapped and rescued by Bond and finishes the book by retiring from MI6.[18] Continuation Bond authorRaymond Benson's 1998 novelThe Facts of Death continued Messervy's retirement, where he still resides in Quarterdeck.[19] The book also introduces a new M, Barbara Mawdsley.[20]
M was played byBernard Lee from the first Bond film,Dr. No (1962), untilMoonraker (1979).[21] In line with Fleming's character, he is given the name ofMiles inThe Spy Who Loved Me. InDr. No, M refers to his record of reducing the number of operative casualties since taking the job, implying someone else held the job recently before him. The film also saw M refer to himself as head ofMI7; Lee had originally said MI6, but was overdubbed with the name MI7 prior to the film's release. Earlier in the film, the department had been referred to as MI6 by a radio operator.[22]
A number of Bond scholars have noted that Lee's interpretation of the character was in line with the original literary representation;John Cork and Collin Stutz observed that Lee was "very close to Fleming's version of the character",[23] while Rubin commented on the serious, efficient, no-nonsense authority figure.[24] Jim Smith and Stephen Lavington, meanwhile, remarked that Lee was "the very incarnation of Fleming's crusty admiral."[25]
Lee died of cancer in January 1981, four months into the filming ofFor Your Eyes Only and before any of his scenes could be filmed.[26] Out of respect, no new actor was hired to assume the role and, instead, the script was re-written so that the character is said to be on leave, with his lines given to either his Chief of StaffBill Tanner (James Villiers) or the Minister of Defence,Sir Frederick Gray (Robert Brown).[27] Later films referred to Lee's tenure as head of the service, with a painting of him as M inMI6's Scottish headquarters during the 1999 instalmentThe World Is Not Enough.[23]
Appearances in:
Lee's likeness was used in the 2005 video gameJames Bond 007: From Russia with Love.[28]
After Lee's death in 1981, the producers hired actor Robert Brown to play M inOctopussy. Brown had previously played Admiral Hargreaves,Flag Officer Submarines, in the 1977 film,The Spy Who Loved Me. Bond scholars Steven Jay Rubin, John Cork, and Collin Stutz all consider Admiral Hargreaves would have been appointed to the role of M, rather than Brown playing a different character as M.[29][30]
Pfeiffer and Worrall considered that whilst Brown looks perfect, the role had been softened from that of Lee;[31] they also considered him "far too avuncular",[32] although inLicence to Kill they remarked that he came across as being very effective as he removed Bond (Timothy Dalton)'sdouble-0 licence.[33] Continuation authorRaymond Benson agrees, noting that the M role was "once again under written, and Brown is not allowed the opportunity to explore and reveal his character traits";[34] Benson also considered the character to be "too nice".[35] InNo Time to Die (2021), Brown's M is briefly seen in a portrait at the office of the incumbent M (Ralph Fiennes) opposite a portrait ofJudi Dench's M.[36]
Appearances in:
After the long period betweenLicence to Kill andGoldenEye, the producers brought inDame Judi Dench to take over as the new M replacing Robert Brown. The character is based onStella Rimington, the real-life head of MI5 between 1992 and 1996.[37][38] ForGoldenEye, Dench's M is cold, blunt and initially dislikes Bond (Pierce Brosnan), whom she calls a "sexist, misogynist dinosaur, a relic of theCold War."[39] Tanner (Michael Kitchen), herChief of Staff, refers to her during the film as "the Evil Queen of Numbers", given her reputation at that stage for relying on statistics and analysis rather than impulse and initiative.[40]
Following Pierce Brosnan's departure from the role as Bond, Dench continued playing M for the 2006 filmCasino Royale, whichrebooted the series withDaniel Craig playingBond at the beginning of his career. In this new continuity, M has worked for MI6 for some time, at one point muttering, "Christ, I miss the Cold War".[41] According toSkyfall, M was previously in charge of MI6's operations in Hong Kong during the 1990s. Her ability to run MI6 has been questioned more than once; inCasino Royale, she is the subject of a review when Bond is caught shooting unarmed prisoner Mollaka (Sébastien Foucan) and blowing up a foreign embassy on camera; inQuantum of Solace, theForeign Secretary (Tim Pigott-Smith) orders her to personally withdraw Bond from the field inBolivia and to stop any investigations into Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric)'seco-terrorist organisation; and inSkyfall, she is the subject of apublic inquiry when MI6 loses a computer hard drive containing the identities of undercover agents around the world.[42]Skyfall marked Dench's seventh appearance as M, where she is targeted by former MI6 agentRaoul Silva (Javier Bardem), whom she turned over to the Chinese in order to save six other agents. She assists Bond with making booby traps in preparation of Silva's forces coming to attack at Bond's old family estate, Skyfall in Scotland. She is shot and wounded before dying from her wounds in the film, making her the only M to die in theEon Bond films. Dench's M makes a final appearance inSpectre in a video will, giving Bond a final order to hunt down and terminate Marco Sciarra (Alessandro Cremona), which ultimately leads him to the film'stitular criminal organisation.
InNo Time to Die (2021), Dench's M is briefly seen in a portrait at M's office (Ralph Fiennes) opposite a portrait of Robert Brown's M.[36]
There have also been brief references to M's family:[43] inGoldenEye, she responds to Tanner calling her the "Evil Queen of Numbers" by telling him that when she wants to hear sarcasm she will listen to her children.[44]Quantum of Solace directorMarc Forster suggested that Dench's casting gave the character maternal overtones in her relationship with Bond,[45] overtones made overt inSkyfall, in which Silva repeatedly refers to her as "Mother" and "Mommy" [sic].[46] InSkyfall she is revealed to be a widow.[citation needed]
An inscribed box following her death inSkyfall reveals her name to beOlivia Mansfield, at least for the duration of the Craig era.[47]
Appearances in:
Dench also appeared in seven James Bond video games:
After the death of Dame Judi Dench's M at the end ofSkyfall, she is succeeded byGareth Mallory, played by Ralph Fiennes. Mallory had been the Chairman of theIntelligence and Security Committee prior to heading MI6, and is a formerlieutenant colonel in theBritish Army.[53] He served inNorthern Ireland (with theSpecial Air Service) duringthe Troubles, where he had been held hostage by theIrish Republican Army for three months.[54] InSpectre, the00 Section of MI6 is briefly dismantled in addition to Mallory being demoted. He assists Bond in the field when it is revealed that theNine Eyes initiative is part of Spectre's plan for world domination. InNo Time to Die, Mallory authorizes the development of Project Heracles, a DNA-targetingnanobotbioweapon. Project Heracles is stolen by Spectre and falls into the hands ofLyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), eventually leading to the death of Bond as he sacrifices his life in order for the weapon to be completely destroyed. Mallory eulogises Bond at the end of the film.
Mallory is the first M in the Eon series whose real name is known from the start, and he continues to be referred to both as M and as Mallory throughout the films.[citation needed]
Appearances in:
The 1967 filmCasino Royale had not one but two Ms. The first is played byJohn Huston, who also co-directed.[55] In this film, M's real name is McTarry and he is accidentally killed when, in order to get Bond (David Niven) out of retirement, 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 depicts Bond's subsequent visit to McTarry Castle inScotland, on a quest to return the only piece of M's remains recovered after the attack—his bright redtoupée.[56] Subsequently, Bond—played by David Niven—becomes the new M[57] and proceeds to order that all MI6 agents, male and female, be renamed "James Bond 007" in order to confuse the enemy.[58]
In 1983'sNever Say Never Again,Edward Fox played M as a bureaucrat, contemptuous of Bond (Sean Connery)—far removed from the relationship shared between Bernard Lee's M and Sean Connery's Bond in the original Eon films;[59] the academicJeremy Black notes that the contempt felt for the 00 section by Fox's M was reciprocated by Connery's Bond.[39] Fox's M is also younger than any of the previous portrayals,[60] and his portrayal is the only instance to date of the actor playing M being younger than the actor playing Bond. The media historianJames Chapman notes that while M considers Bond to be an out-dated relic, the Foreign Secretary Lord Ambrose (Anthony Sharp) orders the 00 section to be re-activated.[61]
Several past incarnations of M appear inAlan Moore andKevin O'Neill'sThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The first, later revealed to beJames Moriarty, created and directed the eponymous League in 1898 to win a gang war againstFu Manchu. Following Moriarty's death,Mycroft Holmes assumed the role of M.[62] In the sequel volumeThe Black Dossier,Harry Lime, the head of the British secret service, assumed the role of M amidst a moribund and dystopian 1950s post-war Britain.[63] In the final volumeCentury, the elderlyEmma Peel assumed the role of M as of 2009.[64]
The James Moriarty incarnation of M appears in the first volume's 2003film adaptation, portrayed byRichard Roxburgh.[65]