Mark Kermode explores one of the most distinctive and popular genres of all. The spy movie plays on our paranoia and feeds our fears as well as fulfilling our fantasies of secret missions and special skills. It has also given us perhaps the most famous hero in all of cinema – James Bond.

Spy movies capture a world not of black and white but shades of grey. But if the morality is often ambiguous, the genre is full of tried and tested conventions. Mark opens up the cinematic agent’s essential toolkit, from the spy boss to the mysterious McGuffin, surveillance techniques to a striking set of opening titles, and he traces the development of the genre from its earliest days.

Whether you’re a blockbuster superspy or a compromised cold warrior, Mark reveals all you need to survive in the murky yet thrilling world of big screen espionage.