SO M is quite likely to be Judi Dench after all. Mothers make the best spies, says one of their number working for the Secret Intelligence Service interviewed in The Times.

“We are good at multi-tasking, good at tapping into different emotional resources. We connect with a whole range of people from terrorists to political leaders. We save the world and we pick up the children.”

So eat your heart out, James Bond.

And stop showing off.