Jason Bourne

The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy

The eponymous hero (or should that be anti-hero?) of Robert Ludlum's bestsellers, and the recent movies (featuring Matt Damon) which use the books as a springboard to action. Little is known about Bourne - mainly due to the fact that he is trying to piece together the events that have shaped his life, being almost totally amnesiac. A master of martial arts, subterfuge and surveillance, he is pitted against the shady Treadstone Group and their cartel of assassins, keeping them at bay whilst trying to rebuild his own existence and escape from the shadowy recesses of his own history. But, for a man so used to spying and killing, can this be possible?

The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy

Raymond Shaw

The Manchurian Candidate

Raymond Shaw returned from Vietnam a changed man - his story, told in the movie The Manchurian Candidate (soon to be revisiting the big screen in a remake starring Denzel Washington) struck a horrifically resonant note in post-Vietnam, Cold War-gripped America in 1967. Shaw is perhaps the most effective type of spy - an agent who doesn't realise that he is working at all, having been programmed by the Government to carry out their bidding without doing so. The paranoia inherent in the fact that, in an age where it seems as if the Secret Service can monitor and control every action a person carries out, was spoofed memorably in The Naked Gun, when a shady businessman programmes a baseball player to try and kill the Queen.

The Manchurian Candidate

Derek Flint

Our Man Flint

James Coburn, in Our Man Flint, plays a kind of latter-day Austin Powers, although the focus of the parody is very firmly on James Bond - and, since all of the actors who have played Bond have taken great pleasure in sending the character up a little themselves, Coburn really goes to town in his portrayal of the tuxedo-wearing Secret Agent who has women falling at his feet and is an expert at a great number of curious and esoteric activities. Our Man Flint is worth watching for Coburn being a total playboy, alone - the plot, about a shadowy organization wiping out intelligence agents the world over, is patchy at best.

Our Man Flint

Alex Leamas

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold - first a bestselling novel by crime scribe John le Carre, and then a movie featuring Richard Burton as the agent mentioned in the title - centres on Alec Leamas, a spy who, nearing the end of his career, is kept out "in the cold" - away from the safety of a desk job - and sent on a dangerous assignment to discredit a top German spy. Burton was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of the semi-alcoholic, angry and resentful Leamas - this is as far removed from the glitzy antics of Bond et al as it's possible to be.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

Cody Banks

Agent Cody Banks

Either a welcome, youthful addition to a world dominated by middle-aged men in dark suits, or an irritating little oik who should never have been allowed out of the classroom - depending on your outlook - Agent Cody Banks is the unlikely "Junior Secret Agent" juggling high school with his undercover CIA training. Unlike the silver-tongued Bond, he's utterly dumbstruck by the ladies, and more often than not his greatest nemesis isn't a golden gun toting super criminal but his mum. Played by Frankie Muniz, better known as the titular Malcolm in US sitcom Malcolm In The Middle.

Agent Cody Banks