Sir Maurice Oldfield was the head of MI6 from 1973 to 1978 and was the first Chief to be named and pictured in the press, leading to the allegations that he was the model for the screen versions of both Ian Fleming’s ‘M’ and John Le Carre’s George Smiley. When he was 80, a bunch of us got together to make him a book which we presented to him - it made him furious, he hated that kind of celebration. I wrote a piece that began: "The child in this 80-year-old man is not yet appeased." I didn't think it was very flattering of Alec. I turned quite a corrosive eye on him. And he loved it. When he came to publish the next volume of his memoirs, he asked if he could put the whole piece at the beginning of the book. I felt that I had hit a nerve there. He would agree, though he would never be so frank, that he could attribute a great deal of who he was to his childhood.

But who to fill this important position? Thatcher eventually settled on Sir Maurice Oldfield, a legendary figure within the British Intelligence community.

On June 17, Thatcher wrote thanking him for his service, to which he replied by pointing out that "there remains a lot to be achieved" in improving the intelligence picture in Northern Ireland, and adding, modestly: "I only wish I could have done more myself". Eleven months later, on May 11, 1981, Maurice Oldfield passed away in London at the age of 65. But that wasn't the end of the story of Maurice Oldfield's tenure as Ulster's intelligence fixer. A few days later, Sir Maurice succumbed to stomach cancer. For his funeral at St Anne’s Church in the Peak District village of Over Haddon the pews were filled with politicians and intelligence officers, and eulogies relayed by loudspeaker to the crowd outside. I didn’t want to talk to anybody. Someone called Caroline Coon wanted desperately to interview me. I did one interview for Melody Maker and it was horrible, intrusive, rude, wanting to know ‘why’ to everything. Go away and leave me alone! I was called in by the Prime Minister yesterday," he said, his tone suddenly changing. "He was talking about a plot. Apparently he's heard that your boys have been going around town stirring things up about him and Marcia Falkender, and Communists at No. 10." He trailed away as if it were all too distasteful for him. It's serious, Peter, " he began again. "I need to know everything. Look what's happening in Washington with Watergate. The same thing will happen here unless we're very careful. [6] I said: "Well, it so happens that I have a house in Cornwall." As he very well knew. So we lent him the house. You either like it or you don't; it sits up on a Cornish cliff looking straight at the Atlantic. He moved in with his wife, Merula.

He said: “David Cameron has said no stone will be left unturned in uncovering child abuse rings in the 1970s and 1980s.

What did he take from you in terms not only of your personal relationship, but in terms of research? Stephen Dorril and Robin Ramsay, Smear: Wilson & The Secret State, Fourth Estate Limited, 1991, p.297. The naughty step is out and the feelings wheel is in! Psychological tool developed in 1980 is having a revival among trendy millennial parents - and even Kate has praised it I don't know that Alec wanted to see himself first and foremost as a film actor. But his type of acting is no longer suited to modern film. That's the reality. Alec was useless as a screen lover. I don't know if you saw The Captain's Paradise, but it was an embarrassment. When Alec kissed somebody, you blushed. You could not produce such a beautifully trained, mannered, self-conscious actor and hope that he could front modern film-making.

Michael Evans, Harold Wilson resignation 'linked to MI6, burglary and insider trading', The Times, 22 August 2009.

Maurice Oldfield

Roberts thought highly of Oldfield, writing: “He is the best counter-intelligence officer, both from the theoretical and practical point of view, that it has been my privilege to meet. He is quite outstanding”, and, after the war, brought him over to join him at SIS, serving as his deputy.

Introduced three years before, this policy gave the RUC, rather than the Army, the leading role in the fight against terrorism.The police force with an appalling record of protecting women from stalkers: Gracie Spinks becomes the latest woman let down by Derbyshire Police in catalogue of failures - with four murdered since 2004 Authors Robin Ramsay and Stephen Dorril say of this episode: "This is perhaps the most remarkable passage in Spycatcher. The Personal Assistant of the Director General of MI5 'regularly' dining with the head of MI6?" They go on to ask: Had Oldfield not recruited him, 'turned' him? Had Wright not 'defected' to MI5's arch-enemy, MI6?" [36]