The real-life ‘M’ from James Bond

She was the first female Director General of the UK’s Security Service MI5, and played by Judi Dench in the 007 films. Now, at 83, Dame Stella Rimington opens up about being the Real ‘M’.

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I was living in India with my husband, who was a diplomat in the British High Commission in New Delhi, when someone said to me, “Would you like a job?”

At the time, I wasn’t doing any work at all really; I was just being a diplomat’s wife, running coffee mornings and amateur dramatics, that sort of thing.

So I replied, “It depends what the job is.” I went into his office and he turned out to be the head of the small MI5 office there. He needed a part-time clerk typist and even though I couldn’t type, I managed with two-finger typing.

And that’s how I came across British Intelligence.

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It was a very interesting and exciting time to join the intelligence world, even as a clerk typist, because it was the 1960s at the height of the Cold War, and India was full of spies.

Once I was back in London, I joined the Security Service full-time.

Dame Stella Rimington. (Picture: Jamie Hughes)

It was the beginning of the 1970s and MI5 was running a two-tier career structure — the men were the “real” intelligence officers and the women were the “helpers”.

Our job was to sort desks and organise the papers. That was how it was, regardless if you had, as I had, a degree in a previous career.

Then things began to change with the women’s liberation movement and sex-discrimination legislation.

That’s when women started to say, “Hey, hang on, what’s going on here? We think we are capable of doing the same work as the men.”

I had two children by then, and family life was quite difficult because I wasn’t working a typical nine-to-five job.

Rimington has been immortalised into film, with Judi Dench playing her in the James Bond films. (Picture: Supplied)

There weren’t many workplace arrangements like we have now, and perhaps take for granted. We managed by the skin of our teeth as I gradually became more senior.

I was thrilled to become Director General in 1992. In those days, it wasn’t the type of role you applied for. It was a job where the prime minister, the home secretary and their advisors sat down and considered someone specifically.

My appointment was the first time the British government decided to publicly announce my role and name.

I approved because I thought it was time we were more open about the intelligence services. At the end of the Cold War, a lot of people said the MI5 wasn’t relevant, whereas we knew we were needed even more because terrorism was on the rise.

But the announcement also marked the first time a woman had ever held such a post, and given the expectation the head of one of the intelligence services should be like James Bond or George Smiley [a character from John le Carré’s novels], there was a huge fallout.

Stella Rimington features in this Sunday’s Stellar.

My two daughters and I were subject to enormous media attention. It was a period of great upheaval. But my children have always been so supportive of me and my career.

I do realise this all sounds like a plotline from a novel. It is one of life’s chances really. My whole life has been taking unexpected opportunities that came along, without any idea of where it might lead.

It has been said that Judi Dench’s character M, who was the head of MI6 in the James Bond films, was modelled after me. She’s a wonderful actress. Who else would anyone want to be played by?

The Moscow Sleepers by Stella Rimington (Bloomsbury Publishing, $29.99) is out now.

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Originally published as The real-life ‘M’ from James Bond