Riz Ahmed Says UK Spies Tried to Recruit Him Three Times

I was scrolling through the news this morning when something actually made me laugh out loud. Riz Ahmed, the brilliant actor from Four Lions, The Night Of, and that devastating Oscar‑winning short The Long Goodbye, has claimed that British intelligence services tried to recruit him on three separate occasions. The Guardian has the full story, and honestly, each attempt sounds more ridiculous than the last.

But here is where it gets especially ironic. Ahmed also stars in Bait, a series about an actor whose life spirals after auditioning to become the next James Bond. Yes, the fictional superspy who works for MI6. So knowing that the real‑life British intelligence agencies actually tried to recruit him? That is a twist too perfect to ignore. And frankly, it makes the Bond fantasy harder to separate from real-life state power. No person of colour should ever play the fictional James Bond role. Not because they are not talented, clearly Riz Ahmed is brilliant, but because the real‑life intelligence services have already shown they see young Muslim actors as potential assets rather than just artists. The Bond fantasy is rotten at its core. More on that later.

Excerpt from The Guardian, by Nadeem Badshah:

Riz Ahmed, the Oscar-winning actor, has claimed that Britain’s intelligence services tried three times to recruit him, including one occasion involving a senior BBC executive.

Ahmed, 43, said: “Well, it’s happened three different times and they’re all slightly ridiculous, and this is what I mean by it, it’s just inherently comedic.

“One was when I came back from my first film, The Road to Guantánamo, we landed at Luton airport celebrating.

“They took me into a side room, put me in an arm lock, threatened to break my arm, took my phone, were pretending to bash the buttons, accidentally changed the language to Danish, and then kind of like, were like: ‘Did you become an actor to further the Muslim struggle?’

“I was like: ‘This is hilarious.’ And then when I finished that, they were like: ‘OK. Would you like to keep an eye out for us, cause it was really great the way you were answering those questions?’ No thank you.”

The London-born actor and musician made the comments during a conversation with the journalist Mehdi Hasan on his media platform Zeteo.

Ahmed added: “Second time was through a family friend, that was a bit like: ‘Oh, sugar. That’s what’s going on there.’

“And the third time was someone senior, high up at the BBC.”

Ahmed added that they were someone “who’s just left the BBC”, but did not name the individual.

Why A Man Of Colour James Bond Is More Complicated Than Representation

Now, my honest reaction is this: I respect that Riz Ahmed turned them down. And this is exactly why I remain uneasy about any person of colour playing James Bond.

Not because there are no actors talented enough. There are. Idris Elba would have been an incredible choice. Riz Ahmed is brilliant. The issue is the character. Bond is not just a glamorous spy in a suit. He is an agent of the British state. He works for “King and country”, which means serving the interests of an empire built through colonialism.

Riz’s story does not prove that every person of colour in British public life is being recruited by the state. But it does show something deeply uncomfortable: British intelligence allegedly looked at a young Muslim actor and saw a potential asset. According to his account, they approached him three times, including through a senior BBC executive who had recently left the corporation. That is his allegation, not a confirmed fact, but it is striking.

There is a sharp scene in The 355 that captures a related dynamic. Jessica Chastain’s CIA officer cannot follow a suspect into a mosque because she would stand out. Lupita Nyong’o’s former MI6 agent puts on a hijab and continues the mission. That scene says the quiet part out loud: Black and brown agents can access spaces white agents cannot.

That may be useful to the state, but politically, it is ugly. So when people say Idris Elba could never be Bond because he is Black, they miss the deeper issue. In real life, a Black or brown “Bond” is exactly the kind of person the British state might try to use.

When British Spies, The BBC And Riz Ahmed’s Career Collide

Now, back to Riz. The most alarming allegation is that one approach came through someone he described as senior and high up at the BBC who had recently left. That says depressing things about the links between British security services and the media, if true. And the irony is not lost on me that this story appears in the Guardian, given that GCHQ technicians supervised the destruction of the newspaper’s hard drives after the Snowden leaks, following government pressure. I am sure none of this is connected.

The whole thing is weird. I am reminded of that scene in the epilogue of Four Lions where Riz Ahmed’s character is accused of being MI5. Except here, it might actually be true, except he kept saying no.

Can you imagine the biopic if he had said yes? “Sick biopic if I was actually a fed,” he joked, and honestly, I would watch that. Riz Ahmed as a double agent who accidentally changes his phone language to Danish during a covert operation? That is comedy gold.

But in all seriousness, the fact that intelligence services and the BBC have that kind of revolving door relationship is not funny. A senior BBC executive allegedly trying to recruit an actor? That should concern everyone who cares about media independence. The lines between journalism, entertainment and state security are blurrier than we want to admit.