For all the explosions and three-figure body count, Kingsman is heritage drama: it knows the history of the Brit spy genre back to front; plus it knows how to deploy a version of the British class system with an eye to maximising foreign sales, just like Julian Fellowes did when concocting Gosford Park and Downton Abbey.

Taron Egerton is lantern-jawed, with Men’s Health muscle definition and fetchingly symmetrical features that distinguish him from his frankly troll-like, convincingly English underclass coevals. As with all of our products, these vintage sportswear products are handmade at our factory in Gateshead to the very highest standard! Premium Digital includes access to our premier business column, Lex, as well as 15 curated newsletters covering key business themes with original, in-depth reporting. The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice.The former pair wouldn’t even know how to shoot a cuff prior to savouring a fine malt and getting a well-tailored leg over with an obliging spy-strumpet from a developing nation (the sexual and racial politics of Britain’s most successful genre export don’t bear an instant’s scrutiny). That’s why, arguably, it’s a mistake to reveal too much of Bond’s back story (such as his family’s Scottish ancestral seat, which Javier Bardem spent the last reel of Skyfall blowing up), since to detail Bond’s biography is to risk alienating his bloke demographic.

Whether Spectre, the looming new Bond flick, can continue the plucky British resistance against the clear and present American threat remains to be seen.

In Anthony Horowitz’s Foyle’s War, Michael Kitchen’s ex-copper and spy is effective precisely because he isn’t One Of Us: unclubbable and unbiddable, he’s the kind of operator who would have taken Philby down whatever the consequences.