Agent’s cover slips during BBC interview

In his dangerous job the MI6 spy‘s identity needs to remain a closely guarded secret.

So you can imagine his surprise when, during an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, a British M16 agent’s carefully chosen disguise of a fake moustache failed him spectacularly.

The hapless spy, known only as ‘John’, had been trying to discuss the role that MI6 played during intelligence operations.

The first operational intelligence officer to discuss the role of security services in front of a camera was being interviewed in disguise for the BBC magazine programme The One Show.

But during the interview the heat of the film crew’s arc lights made the adhesive weaken on his moustache.

The incident could almost have been a scene from a current NatWest TV advert, which shows a moustache falling off a ludicrously disguised spy.

The interviewer, BBC journalist Justin Rowlatt, said : "It wasn’t like a Paxman interview but I was trying to get under his skin a bit and understand what it was like to do his job.

"He was sitting behind a rather grand desk at the Foreign Office and everything was going fine.

"Then I noticed that he was touching his upper lip occasionally. It was clear that the edge of the moustache was peeling away slightly and that he was aware of what was happening."

He added: "I tried to ignore it but when we had a break in the filming I said to him, ‘John, the old moustache is coming off’. He said, ‘Oh God, I thought that might happen.’

"He was very good about it and just said, "I’ll take it off completely."

If he hadn’t, I think it would just have fallen to the floor. I think he put it in his pocket. He made a joke about it and handled the situation very well."

The agent said he had been spied on by foreign counter-intelligence services while serving abroad but was confident his cover had never been compromised.

The moustache incident was not screened when the interview was broadcast recently.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office, where the interview took place, would not comment on the incident but confirmed the spy was the first to appear on screen.