James Bond has a lot to answer for

Daniel Craig as James Bond in 'Casino Royale'.

LONDON - The success of the James Bond movies has given the British Secret Intelligence Service a recruitment headache -- too many cranks want to join MI6.

"I think it gives people a false impression of what working for the organisation is actually like," the head of MI6 recruitment -- named only as "Mark" - told BBC Radio One's Newsbeat programme.

"So it does tend to turn up quite a lot of thrill seekers and fantasists and we're really not interested in them".

As well as dismissing the notion that spying was a never-ending life of fast cars, fast women and shaken not stirred Martini cocktails, "Mark" was keen to demolish another myth surrounding MI6.

"We don't have a licence to kill - we don't carry Berettas - that's simply not true."

- REUTERS