HIRED: Which screen spies would MI6 recruit?

How many of these famous screen spies would make the grade in Ch4’s new espionage challenge (Spies, 9pm), inspired by the modern MI6 recruitment process?

George Smiley John le Carre’s spy, most recently portrayed by Gary Oldman in 2011’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (left), was recruited the old-fashioned way – by his tutor at an Oxford University college. Nowadays, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) has an open-door policy, and public-school boys such as Smiley don’t represent the diversity the service needs in the modern world. FAIL James Bond Described by boss M as a ‘dinosaur’, Bond, most recently played by Daniel Craig (centre), doesn’t always follow orders – and sleeping with the enemy is now frowned upon. FAIL Austin Powers If Bond is a dinosaur, Powers is a throwback. In a trio of spoof films, Powers (Mike Myers, right) tackles villains with little more than outrageous cheek and a run of good luck. There’s little evidence of the ‘sharp intellect’ and record of academic achievement SIS wants in recruits these days. FAIL Susan Cooper Modern-day intelligencegathering is often done from a desk, where Melissa McCarthy’s Cooper (below) is stationed in Spy (2015). When she gets her shot at fieldwork, Cooper demonstrates that she has the ‘exceptional interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence’ that SIS looks for today. PASS