Bounder and a spy

'Skyfall' returns to an older Bond, forged in the crucible of early-20th-century conflict

Picture Killarney, a town in Ireland. William Melville, the baker's son is going about his deliveries. Until one day when his pony and cart are found outside the station. There is no sign of William.

Cut to fog-shrouded London in 1872, where he resurfaces as a policeman. Melville may have remained a constable all his life if not for the Fenians, a group of Irish nationalists. Taking advantage of the newly invented dynamite, they launched a bombing campaign in London. Melville, as an Irishman, was a natural pick for the new outfit to infiltrate terrorist cells. He burst into the public eye when he foiled the "Jubilee Plot", a Fenian plan to assassinate Queen Victoria and the entire British cabinet by bombing Westminster Abbey during the monarch's jubilee celebrations. In 1903 he resigned, to everyone's surprise. In reality, he had been recruited into the nascent secret service bureau. To protect his cover, Melville simply used his initial — M. And thus a legend was born, the "monogrammatic superior" of all field agents.

M is also at the heart of the new Bond film Skyfall. The tensions between an agent and his superior are a rich source of drama. Skyfall's plot hinges on exposing intelligence agents in terror organisations. But terrorists have been present from the start in Bond's genetic makeup — foreigners out to imperil the Sceptred Isle. Bond villains are usually the fears of the ruling elite made flesh.

The early 20th century is a time when "fretful dreams settle upon the empire's brow", as Alan Moore puts it. A "peer competitor" was emerging — Germany. As both sides began a massive armament programme, gathering military intelligence became vital. The British government sanctioned 19 military intelligence units — of which MI5 and MI6 are the only ones known to have survived. Melville was locked in a struggle with his opposite number, German spy-chief Gustav Steinhauer.

... contd.

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