As two big exhibitions are shedding light on the art of espionage, experts reveal what it takes to be a great spook – and why Jackson Lamb might be better at the job than 007
With his badly knotted tie and grubby mackintosh, Jackson Lamb is about as far away from suave dinner-jacketed James Bond as you can get. But, according to experts, Gary Oldman’s character in the TV series Slow Horses would make the better spy because his normal appearance lets him blend in.
Two big exhibitions are shedding light on the art of espionage, drawing from stories of real spooks. Chris Costa, executive director of the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC and a former US Army intelligence officer, says: “Spying touches something fundamental in the human psyche: secrecy, danger, loyalty, betrayal.
“I think what drives the fascination is the tension between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Spies look like us yet they’re operating in a world of concealed identities and deception. And in a world that feels increasingly uncertain, espionage offers a window into how and why nations spy.”
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Espionage has been back in the headlines following the British government’s conclusion that Kremlin critic and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was murdered by Vladimir Putin’s henchmen with a toxin taken from the skin of the poison dart frog. The US museum is about to launch Camouflage: Designed to Deceive, an exhibition exploring how spies hide in plain sight – something which Chris, 62, says the world’s most famous fictional secret agent often gets wrong.
He says: “James Bond can be misleading, because a tuxedo-wearing spy is the exception. A real intelligence officer’s first priority is to fit in, but Bond walks into every room and immediately becomes the most memorable person in it.” Ian Fleming’s fast-driving Scotsman is far from the only sharp-suited spy in literature, books and TV – with their good looks, John le Carre’s Jonathan Pine, played by Tom Hiddleston in the BBC series, and Mission Impossible’s Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) catch the eye.
But Chris adds: “For the most part, that is the opposite of sound tradecraft.” Amanda Mason, lead curator of the exhibition Spies, Lies and Deception at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, agrees with Chris that standing out from the crowd is a disadvantage to a secret agent.
Some spies will go to great lengths to fade into the background, she reveals. She says: “The real stories of spies are sometimes more amazing than anything we’d see on screen or in a book. For instance, our exhibition has a permission form giving consent for plastic surgery to be carried out on a chap called Major Flemming Muus. He was leading organiser in Denmark for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in WWII and had quite a distinctive nose. He was going into work undercover and it was thought he would be too identifiable, so he had plastic surgery to change his face.”
The Manchester exhibition, which examines a century of espionage, misdirection and camouflage and runs until August, also features the story of Ben Cowburn, one of the most successful agents within the SOE. Amanda adds: “He completed four highly dangerous missions to occupied France, working under false names and blending into the civilian population. But, as he later explained in his memoirs, he ‘wore no disguise in France… an undisguised [spy] could look the same and be different’.”
Chris, who ran intelligence and special operations in Panama, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, says clothes and looks can be part of the theatre of spying. He adds: “They can communicate class, profession, nationality, intent, often before a word is spoken.” But sometimes things can go wrong. Chris continues: “I remember once wearing a disguise in an intense training session in public… a thick moustache carefully glued to my upper lip. Unfortunately, I ended up eating an ice cream cone. Not a good idea. I was horrified that my moustache would not survive the experience. It did. Lesson learned.“
And a spy’s behaviour is just as important. Chris says: “A light disguise of changed hair colour might get you past a camera, but how you move, how you make eye contact, respond to unexpected questions, what you do with your hands when you’re nervous – these are the things that expose you or protect you. The physical elements buy you seconds. Behaviour buys you the operation.”
As unlikely as tuxedo-wearing spies might be, they are not only confined to the big screen. Chris reveals: “My predecessor here at the museum was a CIA officer, the late Peter Earnest, a legendary intelligence officer. One evening, wearing a tuxedo, he went to a party overseas in some unnamed city. He ducked away from the party, got into a room at the residence to place a listening device.
“But somebody was coming to open the door; Peter hid, tuxedo and all, and eventually he was able to adjust and go back to the party like nothing happened.” And disguise can extend to more than just apparel. Amanda says: “During the First World War the army developed these things called camouflage trees. Soldiers would look across no man’s land, and where there was a tree – perhaps positioned on higher ground – they’d sketch it.
“Then they’d re-create this tree with a sort of a steel core using natural materials to disguise it, so it was a perfect replica, and then in the middle of the night they’d switch them. Next morning it would look like the tree was there but it was actually an armoured observation post. Somebody could then get inside and have a vantage point over the enemy.”
A sketch of one such tree is among items on display in Manchester, as is a box of matches with one match adapted so it can be used to write messages, and the pen nib of German WWI spy George Breeckow, which contains traces of invisible ink. Amanda is a big fan of spy novels, citing Mick Herron’s Slow Horses books, on which the Gary Oldman Apple TV series is based, as a favourite.
Chris, too, enjoys fictional spy heroes. He says: “I have a soft spot for George Smiley – specifically Alec Guinness’s portrayal in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Here is a man who is rumpled, quiet, seemingly unremarkable. He wins not through physical dominance or gadgetry but through patience, observation and an ability to understand human motivation. That rings true to me.”
For Amanda, one real-life spy stands out: London-born Catherine Townsend, a talented linguist who served with the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry in the Second World War before being recruited to British intelligence. Amanda says of Catherine: “She went to work at Trent Park, a top-secret facility designed to eavesdrop on high-ranking German prisoners of war.
“She rose through the ranks and eventually was put in charge of programming the listening equipment. We imagine the archetypal spy to be a man, but often women have played really pivotal roles.” Chris adds: “The myths are pervasive, that spies are always glamorous, that they work alone and gadgets win the day. In reality, intelligence is often unglamorous, and deeply dependent on human relationships – the ability to sit across from someone and make them trust you. The best intelligence officers I’ve known were exceptional listeners, not exceptional fighters.”
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