Real secret service in Bond

Sir Gawain Moore 008

The films and in the books, I suppose, how much of the secret service was accurate?

I watched a docu on Fleming and Bond years ago, I've forgotten most of it, but I do remember that 'M' was really called 'C', after the first letter of the surname of the fist head of the Secret Intelligence Service, forgotten his name.

I was wondering if the famous double '0' section really existed.

In the films, Bond is 'the best', but in the books, he was offered a position in a higher section, so exclusive, it had only one other man in it, and if Bond had accepted, he would have been given the number 7777. What would that agent have been like? (Rhetorical question).

Number24

Has british agents asassinated anyone since WWII?

Sir Gawain Moore 008

Probably the odd IRA and al-Quiada terrorist, and maybe a KGB spy or two.

We preferred for our defectors to live, didn't we?

Moore Not Less

Welcome to AJB, Sir Gawain Moore 008.

You may find the link below useful. Two real life MI6 agents were interviewed a few months ago. 'M' is called 'C' and there is a 'Q'.

Real MI6 Agents Interviewed

http://www.ajb007.co.uk/index.php?topic=27140

double0

You were right about "C". This was the real initial used for the head of the British Intelligence during the war when Fleming was in Naval Intelligence. He probably saw him on a regular basis along with his boss, Admiral Godfrey - head of Naval Intelligence. Fleming just changed the letter for the novels.
I doubt if a real 00 section ever existed. If it had, it would have been uncovered by now, even if it had just existed during WWII. Even more secretative material than that has been published over the years.

As far as any real British Intelligence assassinations, if there were, it would also probably have made the light of day by now. You only have to look as far as what happened to the Mossad agents who went after the Munich terrorists. Even if the British could keep such things covered up, I doubt if they would be carried out by a permanently assigned assassin. Usually, governments try to use a different assassin on each new target, and usually they do this in order to make it harder for the assassination to be traced back to them in case something goes wrong. Another reason this is done is by the very nature of the job. It is very difficult to find a regular soldier or spy who could do this on a regular basis (killing in cold blood). It really does kill one's soul after a few times (again look at what happened to the Mossad agents). Of course, there are immoral, antisocial types who can do this with no problem (like the Nazi SS death squads and Mafia hit men), but again, democratic governments like England would not have such killers as official government agents. That is why the CIA made the deals with the gangsters in the US on taking out Castro. The mob was familiar with Castro's country, and did killing as a matter of business.
The would not have a CIA agent do it, but they would pay a mob killer to. Unfortunately, they found out the hard way why this is not a good idea. Eventually, the whole thing makes the light of day, and there goes your reputation for trying to make people think your an organization like the Boy Scouts.

Sorry for such a long reply, but I think a lot of people confuse what happens in action films with what goes on in the real world. The whole point of movies and novels like the Bond kind is to exaggerate and glamorize the stories. The real world is more more mundane, boring and messy than it is on the printed page or screen. That's why we read and go to films - escapism! Fleming knew that when he wrote the novels. He took real events from his life and changed them to be entertaining. For example, the bankrupting Le Chiffre plot came from a real event where Fleming tried to do the same thing to some German agents in a Portugal casino. Of course, not only did he lose, he did not get a second chance (which he gave to Bond via the CIA).

Is the British Secret Service anything like it is in the films? Only slightly. There used to be sections in the real service similar to those mentioned in the films and novels. To get a real look that this just to to the is website:
http://hometown.aol.com/IrishInnerCircle/mi6org.html

It gives a pretty good history of MI6 and its organization. It you read it, you'll see where Fleming got the idea of naming departments with capital letters. You'll also notice there is no "00" department. As I stated earlier, if there had been it would not have been placed in it's own department. It would have been within what was called the "Special Political Action Section", and would not be shown on any official organizational chart (again, to enhance deniability). Hope this lengthy response helps clear things up for you.

Asp9mm

The nearest you are going to get to a Double-O section is a unit called 'The Increment'. This is made up of SAS and SBS specialist teams and is called upon by our Security Services for specialist ops. Used to be highly classified and unknown, but the unit is mentioned often enough now outside military circles and in the press. Another unit called 'The Det' which operated in NI was made up of specialist unit personnel from varying military and government backgrounds. They are commonly reffered to now as 14 Int, and operate throughout the UK mainland as a recon and intelligence gathering department.