Spies’ evidence sketch: Greek weddings and theatrical nonsense

The nation was agog today as Britain’s spymasters were summoned to parliament. The heads of MI5 and MI6, along with the boss of GCHQ, were grilled about the ethics and practice of counter-terrorism. It was a 2 pm kick-off but the session got underway at 2.02 pm in real time. A tag on the TV feed said, ‘Two minute delay’. The idea was to prevent the masters of international espionage from blurting out vital secrets on live television. Theatrical nonsense, of course. But it added a frisson of Cold War glamour to proceedings. And it gave a lift to the ratings which were already enjoying a welcome boost thanks to the thousands of Al Q’aeda suicidalists tuning in from failed states across the middle-east. Many of these Islamists haven’t even paid their TV licences.

The top spies didn’t look like spies. They were more like politicians in their crisp suits and November poppies.