Today's Article - M


This article is for quizzes on Wednesday April 13th...

M is a fictional character in Ian Fleming's James Bond book and film series. The character is the Head of the Secret Intelligence Service—also known as MI6. Fleming based the character on a number of people he knew who commanded sections of British intelligence. M has appeared in the novels by Fleming and seven continuation authors, as well as appearing in twenty-four films. In the Eon Productions series of films, M has been portrayed by four actors: Bernard Lee, Robert Brown, Judi Dench and Ralph Fiennes, the incumbent. In the two independent productions, M was played by John Huston, David Niven and Edward Fox.

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 based on Stella Rimington, the real-life head of MI5 between 1992 and 1996. For GoldenEye, Dench's M is cold, blunt and initially 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", given her reputation at that stage for relying on statistics and analysis rather than impulse and initiative.
Dench continued playing M for the 2006 film Casino Royale, which rebooted the series with Daniel Craig playing Bond. In this new continuity, M has worked for MI6 for some time, at one point muttering, "Christ, I miss the Cold War".

Unlike the M played by other actors, Dench's M was never referred to by name on-screen. However, a prop from the final scene of Skyfall, where M bequeaths some of her possessions to Bond following her death, revealed that her character was given the name "Olivia Mansfield". As the character was never directly referred to by this name, its canonicity is unresolved.

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