You're listening to Imaginary Worlds. I'm Eric Balinski.

When I began this podcast years ago, I always knew that I wanted to do episodes where I don't just cover imaginary worlds.

I want to create them as well. In previous episodes, I've interviewed Captain Hook, vampires, HP Lovecraft's Brain in a Jar, colonists on the moon, and last year I interviewed the

Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. I've decided I want to make audio drama as an

annual tradition. Keep one foot in an imaginary world. So sit back, relax, and for the rest of the episode, suspend your disbelief.

A story was recently leaked to the British media, and it seemed too incredible to be true.

MI6 apparently has a secret agent program, where a series of men over the past 60 years

have all been acting as the same secret agent.

He has a number, 007, and he is a codename, James Bond.

According to this report, MI6 likes to train orphans to be James Bond. So there's no

baggage, no connections. They can inhabit the role fully. They even created a fake coat of arms

for the Bond family. So if you met a James Bond in 1964 or 1984 or 2004, it's not the same person, but he will look

sharp in a tuxedo and he'll order a martini, shaken, not stirred. It's a weak drink, which

allows him to detect poison. He's like a character out of a movie. Except in this world, James Bond movies don't exist.

James Bond is a real man, technically a series of men.

It's an interesting choice for MI6 because presumably every government in the world knows about the James Bond program.

So when somebody introduces themselves as James Bond,

everybody knows that they work for MI6,

but nobody knows who they actually are.

Ever since the story was leaked to the media,

people have been trying to figure out if it's true or an urban legend.

I never thought that I would get cut up in this story,

...